DeSantis to hold Newsmax town hall

Newsmax announced Monday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) will hold a town hall on the channel later this week.

The live event is scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m. and will include Sean Spicer and Lyndsay Keith, co-anchors of “Spicer and Co.” The town hall will be held at the retirement community known as “The Villages.”

DeSantis, a prominent conservative and a potential 2024 presidential candidate, is slated to discuss topics such as seniors, vaccines, government lockdowns, big tech and religious liberty, Newsmax said.

The Hill has reached out to Newsmax to inquire about the number of people who will be in attendance and whether the audience would be ideologically diverse.

The Florida governor has had mixed encounters with the media this year. Local journalists complained last week after being kept out of a signing event for a new state election law. Fox News, however, was able to air footage of the signing ceremony.

About a month earlier, DeSantis got into an extended fight with CBS’s news magazine show “60 Minutes” over a story that alleged favoritism in Florida’s vaccine distribution efforts.

DeSantis won the governorship in 2018 by less than half a percentage point. A survey by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy published about two months ago showed DeSantis with an approval rating of 53 percent among Florida voters.

Since then, Rep. Charlie Crist (D), who once served as governor of the Sunshine State as a Republican, has said he will be entering the race for the governor’s mansion next year. A Victory Insights poll last week found DeSantis leading Crist 53 percent to 47 percent in a hypothetical matchup.

Updated at 4:52 p.m.