Florida governor Ron DeSantis formally enters into Republican presidential race

 DeSantis is likely to give tough time to favorite Trump during the primaries

Florida governor Ron DeSantis has formally entered into the republican presidential race 2024. DeSantis is ready to give tough time to rightwing populist Trump.  His entry into the 2024 White House race against former Republican president Donald Trump sets up a clash of the Republican Party’s two leading figures as the Florida governor attempts to topple a man who has dominated the GOP for the last seven years.

Trump regards DeSantis as his most serious contender in the primaries.  DeSantis so far has tried to remain above the fray, ignoring Trump’s escalating attacks on everything from his record to his personality.

But DeSantis took only veiled swipes at his chief rival without mentioning him by name. It is a strategy reminiscent of 2016, when Trump’s army of Republican rivals failed to go after the candidate directly for fear of alienating his supporters and assumed wrongly that he would flame out on his own.

“I am running for president of the United States to lead our great American comeback,” he said during an event with Twitter owner Elon Musk and tech investor David Sacks. “But we know our country’s going in the wrong direction. We see it with our own eyes. And we feel it in our bones.”

With those remarks, DeSantis, who won reelection in resounding fashion last fall and captured the attention of a party longing to turn the page from recent defeats, opened up a new chapter in the campaign to take on President Joe Biden in 2024. DeSantis stepped into the Republican primary bit late but begins his bid with more campaign cash and support in the polls than anyone except for Trump.

“My pledge to you is this: If you nominate me you can set your clock to January 20, 2025, at high noon because on the west side of the US Capitol, I will be taking the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States,” DeSantis said. “No excuses, I will get the job done.”

“There is no substitute for victory. We must end the culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party in recent years,” DeSantis said on a Twitter Spaces debut. “We must look forward, not backwards,” he added.

In an interview later with Fox News, he said he believed all candidates should participate in the planned GOP primary debates, which Trump has threatened to boycott. “Nobody’s entitled to anything in this world,” he said.

Now that he’s officially in the race, DeSantis’ well-funded super PAC is poised to intensify its attacks against the former president. His team plans to focus on policy differences between the two Republicans, making the case that Trump has “lurched left” on some issues — most notably, abortion.

“We’re going to amplify him and his voice, and when necessary, contrast with the former president. But right now that contrast is really one is lurching left and one is fighting,” said David Polyansky, senior adviser to the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down.

DeSantis’ team believes Trump is particularly vulnerable with Republican primary voters on abortion. Although the former president appointed the Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade, he has drawn the ire of anti-abortion activists by refusing to say whether he supports a federal ban on the procedure.

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