Florida Republican on DeSantis’s flailing campaign: ‘It’s kind of what I expected to see’

Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who supports former President Trump’s White House bid in 2024, criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his approach to politics and said he expected DeSantis to struggle with his campaign, according to a report Monday.

“It’s kind of what I expected to see,” Donalds said, in a Washington Post story unpacking some of the shortcomings of DeSantis’s campaign.

“In presidential politics, you have to be able to engage and connect with people. It’s through TV, it’s through interviews, it’s charisma. You know it when you see it. … I never felt like it was something the governor would be able to do or accomplish,” Donalds added, according to the Post.

A pro-DeSantis political action committee, Never Back Down, responded to Donalds’s comments by highlighting an interview Donalds gave on Fox News last year. The interview took place as Hurricane Ian recovery efforts were underway and buzz about a DeSantis presidential campaign was very high. Donalds said in the interview that there was “no doubt” about the possibility DeSantis could be the next president.

“Governor DeSantis has been a leader and everybody sees it, even Joe Biden had to acknowledge it,” the PAC wrote Monday, quoting Donalds, in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “He’s done a phenomenal job as our governor.”

Donalds’s comments come as DeSantis’s campaign has struggled to compete with Trump’s commanding lead. The most recent Morning Consult poll of potential GOP primary voters has Trump with 59 percent support and DeSantis in second with 16 percent support. 

The majority of Florida Republicans, too, have chosen to align themselves with the former president over DeSantis, and many of them traveled with Trump this weekend to demonstrate their support at the Iowa State Fair. 

Donalds’s criticism also comes after a tense exchange of jabs over DeSantis’s revised education guidance on the history of slavery. Donalds criticized one line in the guidelines — which got widespread backlash — but maintained the majority of the updated guidelines were robust and valuable. DeSantis responded by launching digs at Donalds.