To a certain type of conservative intellectual, Ron DeSantis looked like the perfect candidate to usher the GOP into a post-Trump era. He had served in the military, held Ivy League degrees, and carried no obvious baggage. He was the popular governor of Florida, a large state with diverse demographics. He’d presciently opposed Covid restrictions early on and put himself on a populist warpath against Disney and other “woke” corporations. He was like Donald Trump – but better, more disciplined, and ideologically purer.
Why did DeSantis’s presidential bid unravel? Such that he felt he had to drop out of the Republican presidential race on Sunday 21 January. The short answer is that a campaign tailor-made for right-wing podcasters and columnists isn’t necessarily one that appeals to a wider electorate. Or put another way, precisely what made DeSantis so alluring to the right’s political and journalistic class turned off the Republican base. The DeSantis campaign was too online, too ideologically rigid, and at times just too weird.
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