Hitting the campaign trail to kick off his campaign for the White House, Ron DeSantis spoke for little more than 20 minutes before he unleashed the big guns.
“She’s a force,” the Florida governor told the cheering crowd in Iowa when his wife, Casey, joined him on stage last week. “And she’s a great protector of children,” he added, somewhat incongruously.
Stepping aside as she took the microphone, he murmured: “Let her rip.”
DeSantis in his naval uniform, complete with medals, at his wedding to Casey in 2009
Casey, 42, a former TV presenter, has been a fixture at her husband’s side as he opened his campaign in earnest, with a string of rallies and events in the battleground states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
After his official campaign launch on Twitter was derailed by technical glitches two weeks ago, DeSantis is trying to seize back the initiative and overhaul Donald Trump, the former president and frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
The couple made a dozen stops across the three states, where the first votes will be cast in the party’s primary race next year. Early victories here will be critical to DeSantis’s hopes of beating Trump and earning the right to take on President Biden. Defeat could turn Trump’s march to the nomination into a procession.
Political spouses are a feature of every presidential race, wheeled out on cue to humanise their ambitious partner, but DeSantis, 44, is leaning unusually heavily on his. The governor has none of the charm or good humour of a Bill Clinton, George W Bush or Barack Obama, nor the charisma and cruel wit of Trump himself, who has suggested that his rival “needs a personality transplant”.
Ron and Casey DeSantis at an event hosted by Joni Ernst, a US senator
Instead DeSantis will depend on Casey to lend warmth and polish to his demeanour. A mother of three children and a breast cancer survivor, she has proved an acute political operator and masterful curator of the couple’s public image while they climb the political ladder to within sight of the White House.
Take their wedding in 2009. In his book, The Courage to be Free, published earlier this year, DeSantis noted that Casey held an on-air competition for viewers to choose her wedding dress and ordered him to ditch a tuxedo in favour of his white naval uniform, complete with medals, creating an image straight from A Few Good Men.
The couple tout Ron’s military service at every campaign stop and his status as an Iraq War veteran offers a clear contrast with Trump, who dodged the draft for Vietnam five times.
At ease on camera and in front of crowds, Casey offers a direct appeal to the suburban women who have deserted the Republican Party at recent elections, repulsed by Trump, and were crucial to Biden’s victory in 2020.
The couple with their children Mason, Madison, and Mamie as DeSantis was sworn in as the governor of Florida for the second time in January 2023
At a “fireside chat” in Rochester, New Hampshire, on Thursday, she drew laughs from the audience with mentions of “our six, five and three-year-old who are probably destroying the house”. Promoting DeSantis’s Covid policy of reopening schools and businesses in Florida before most of America, which rocketed him to national prominence during the pandemic, Casey spoke of “moms coming up with tears [of gratitude] in their eyes” during his re-election campaign last year.
“Because he still held strong in the name of liberty and in defence of their rights, they saw hope,” she said.
Casey is also her husband’s chief political adviser. A staunch conservative, she softens his image but is also reported to sharpen his political stance and her grip on his policy-making has troubled some advisers.
In a Politico profile of Casey last month, former DeSantis staff members described her as “blindly ambitious” and “more paranoid than he is”.
“He’s a vindictive motherf***er. She’s twice that,” one senior campaign worker said. “She’s the scorekeeper.”
Casey’s influence over her husband even appears to extend to the way he pronounces his own name. The governor had always pronounced it “Dee-Santis” but reporters spotted last year that his wife consistently said “Deh-Santis”. In recent weeks, Ron has largely abandoned his own pronunciation in favour of Casey’s. Asked by Axios to clarify the confusion this week, DeSantis’s campaign refused to comment.
The DeSantises’ double act still needs rehearsal. After introducing Casey in Iowa on Tuesday evening, DeSantis stood behind his wife, grimacing, and forgot to laugh at her jokes. In Rochester, he butchered a promising anecdote about water from the Sea of Galilee, saved for their second child’s baptism, being thrown away after the party to celebrate his 2018 election as governor. As his wife spoke in Manchester, he appeared unsure what to do with his arms.
While her husband flailed uncomfortably behind her, however, Casey forged ahead with a cameo that drew a standing ovation from sections of the crowd.
DeSantis and Casey make the pledge of allegiance at a campaign event in Iowa
“What I love about Ron and why I’m so proud of him is . . . he lays out a vision and he actually executes on that vision. He does what he says he’s going to do,” she said. “He isn’t afraid to take a few hits . . . I am so excited because I know that when this guy gets into the White House, when he says he’s going to do something, he’s gonna get it done.”
The Manchester crowd lapped it up. “I think it gives the campaign an extra boost, particularly because Republican candidates have had difficulty attracting suburban women, the soccer moms . . . because the candidate [Trump] rubbed them the wrong way,” said Alisha Youch, a social worker. “Casey is interesting and engaging and charismatic. That can only be a positive for the governor,” she said.
Kelly Paul, a speech pathologist, had driven down from Maine with her daughter, Reagan. “I think she’s a class act,” Paul said. “What she’s been through. She faced her humanity when she faced a life-threatening illness in front of her family,” she added. “Behind every good man there’s a good woman.”
The DeSantises’ solidarity on the campaign trail offers a stark contrast with his chief rival. Melania Trump has not appeared at any campaign events since her husband announced his run in November and issued only a tepid statement of support for him last month.
Donald Trump, who has suggested DeSantis needs a personality transplant, is extending his lead in the polls
Her absence is a reminder to voters, and women in particular, of the scandals and investigations closing in around her husband. Trump pleaded not guilty in April to criminal charges linked to a hush money payment to the porn star Stormy Daniels to conceal an alleged affair before the 2016 election. That case will go to trial in March next year, in the midst of the primary campaign. Last month a jury found Trump liable for the sexual abuse of E Jean Carroll in 1996, ordering him to pay her $5 million.
The latest polling does not look encouraging for DeSantis, however. A Yahoo News/YouGov poll last week showed Trump extending his lead to 28 points, up from 20 points in early May.
This week the former vice-president Mike Pence and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie are expected to jump into the increasingly crowded Republican race, reducing the possibility of a single strong challenger for Trump.
Mike Pence, the former vice-president, is expected to ride into an already crowded race for the Republican presidential nomination
DeSantis’s campaign staff and Republican strategists still believe that Ron and Casey’s energetic blitz will bear fruit over the summer. They expect weariness with Trump to deepen among voters as more criminal indictments loom. “We’re just getting started,” one campaign worker. Even so, the next round of polls in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina will be feverishly studied.
The events in New Hampshire, packed with former Trump voters eager for change, offered hope.
Pence out on the campaign trail at the event hosted by Ernst in Des Moines
“I think he’s honest, forthright and ready for the fight,” said Marilyn Berry, a retired nurse in Rochester.
“I voted for Trump, I loved his policies, but his mouth killed him. This guy: he’s educated, he’s eloquent, he’s got blue-collar blood. Right now he’s top of my list.”
Source: The Times
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