When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis entered the 2024 race, he looked like the strongest alternative to Donald Trump.
But events didn’t play out like anyone assumed.
And Ron DeSantis made one announcement about dropping out of the 2024 race.
DeSantis continues to face skepticism about the ability of his campaign to make it much longer.
The campaign has just $5 million in the bank, and DeSantis continues to fall further behind Donald Trump in both state and local polling.
A new Des Moines Register poll of Iowa voters was another disaster for DeSantis, as it showed Trump growing his lead over the field and that former RINO South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley surged ten points to tie the Florida Governor for a distant second place.
Never-Trumpers now worry that Haley and DeSantis running even will prevent the field from consolidating around one alternative to Trump.
Fox News host Neil Cavuto grilled DeSantis about these establishment fears and asked him if he would follow former Vice President Mike Pence’s example and drop out of the race so the GOP establishment could rally behind one candidate to take on Trump.
“You have been seen as an alternative to Donald Trump, I don’t know if that holds on now with Nikki Haley and her surge. These are all polls to your point. I want to get a sense for you what you make of former Vice President Mike Pence stepping out of the race. You talked in the past it would be a good idea to narrow this down to two or three people. If you don’t emerge as one of those two to three, would you step out of this race?” Cavuto asked.
DeSantis said he wasn’t dropping out of the race and pledged that his campaign would go the distance despite the fact that it is facing an obvious cash crunch.
“I am definitely going to be in the top so we’re ready for that. We’re going to the distance. People can make whatever decisions that they want. I respect the Vice President’s decision. I think he’s a good man. I think he’s served the conservative cause very well over a number of years. You know, I’m in it all the way so you’re going to be seeing a lot of me,” DeSantis answered.
Cavuto asked if he would get out of the race so Haley could have her one-on-one shot against Trump if the polls continued on their current trajectory.
“Even if you sink in the polls, or others, particularly Nikki Haley, emerge stronger?” Cavuto followed up.
“It’s not about the polls,” DeSantis shot back.
“You have to win Iowa, in other words?” Cavuto asked.
DeSantis then laid down his marker.
“We’re going to win Iowa,” DeSantis predicted.
