Analysis by Summer Lane | Photo: Alamy
On Wednesday night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) opted to announce his 2024 presidential candidacy on Twitter Spaces during a conversation that was co-hosted with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
The move signaled a departure from traditional campaign announcement procedures, but according to the DeSantis team, the governor’s presidential launch video garnered an impressive 30 million views in just 15 hours following the online kickoff.
“We had a huge audience,” DeSantis told Fox News’ Trey Gowdy on Wednesday night. “It was the biggest they’ve ever had. It did break the Twitter Space.”
After months of speculation and rumors, Gov. DeSantis has officially thrown his hat into the presidential ring, gearing up to go head-to-head with a tough-as-nails opponent, seasoned candidate and 45th President Donald J. Trump.
While Trump’s campaign has been well-documented and widely reported on via his Agenda47 policy platform, DeSantis’s presidential campaign is a bit enigmatic at this stage. As the newcomer to the presidential playing field, the governor will presumably continue to roll out his policy stances on issues important to everyday Americans.
Here are the policy issues the governor has been clear about so far:
American revitalization is a priority
Gov. DeSantis was reelected in the Sunshine State in a 20-point landslide in November 2022. He has made a point of touting his “Florida Blueprint” to other states in the U.S. and even abroad during recent political trips ahead of his presidential candidacy announcement this week.
During a telephone town hall that followed DeSantis’s campaign launch on Twitter Spaces, he emphasized, “We should choose a new direction, a path that will lead to American revitalization. We need to restore sanity to our nation, normalcy to our communities, and integrity to our institutions.”
“Decline is a choice,” DeSantis is also heard saying in his presidential announcement video. “Success is attainable, and freedom is worth fighting for.”
The Florida governor has vowed to lead “our Great American Comeback.”
Crushing the ‘woke mind virus’
DeSantis’s official campaign announcement online hit on a number of hot-button issues that are worrying Americans, ranging from the southern border crisis to the rapidly spiking crime waves in big cities across the country.
He emphasized the importance of restoring balance to the United States by “embracing Fiscal and economic sanity” and stomping on “inflationary borrow, print and spend policies.”
He also highlighted an urgency to crush the “woke mind virus” in the U.S., which has famously been a big part of his gubernatorial platform in the Sunshine State, especially on the heels of his political dueling with Disney.
Per his website, “This also means Replacing the woke mind virus with reality, facts, and enduring principles. Merit must trump identity politics.”
Elevating truth and integrity
The governor has also emphasized the need to restore integrity in American institutions like the U.S. military, calling for the elimination of “distractions” like global warming propaganda and damaging gender ideology.
He told talk show host Mark Levin on Wednesday, “What I’m doing comes from a matter of principle and conviction. These are things that I believe. It’s just part of who I am.”
His official campaign statement noted, “Reestablishing integrity to our institutions means we must reinvigorate our constitutional system by returning the government to its rightful owners: we the people.”
Foreign policy and economic responsibility
While Gov. DeSantis has been fairly clear about the importance of relieving inflationary pressure for Americans, his stance on foreign policy issues is less transparent at this point.
In an official statement, DeSantis noted that “restoring sanity” to America meant “embracing Fiscal and economic sanity…stop pricing hard-working Americans out of a good standard of living through inflationary borrow, print and spend policies. And embrace American energy independence.”
However, it was not clear in his 2024 announcement or in any available policy information so far how the governor would handle the increasingly volatile situation between Russia and Ukraine.
As the world teeters on the edge of World War III, this will be an integral issue that Gov. DeSantis will have to address, especially since his opponent and the Republican frontrunner, President Trump, has boldly vowed to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours if he is reelected.
The bottom line
Gov. DeSantis has clearly positioned himself to apply the successes of his gubernatorial leadership in the Sunshine State to the nation as a whole. According to The New York Times, DeSantis has a sizable war chest, with a reported $80 million pending transfer from his state account and into his super PAC, which is already sitting on $40 million.
“The past few years have given me a new appreciation for the fragility of our freedoms,” DeSantis stated in his announcement.
Right now, his campaign is shiny, new, and fresh. However, the governor’s stance on important issues like foreign policy is still largely unknown, and that poses a problem to the average GOP voter who is concerned about the direction of the U.S. on the global stage, both militarily and financially.
“The tired dogmas of the past are inadequate for a vibrant future – we must look forward, not backwards,” Gov. DeSantis stated this week.
As the 2024 election season moves forward, Americans will undoubtedly get the chance to learn more about DeSantis’s proposed policies as he makes them available.
