Politics

DeSantis announces candidacy for 2024 GOP presidential nomination

Miami, May 24 (EFE).- Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, on Wednesday officially announced his candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, US media outlets reported.

According to Fox News, the 44-year-old DeSantis filed the required candidacy documentation with the Federal Election Commission a few hours before holding a conversation with business mogul Elon Musk that will be broadcast Wednesday afternoon on Twitter.

DeSantis is the sixth person to enter the Republican primaries, following former President Donald Trump, the first to formally announce his candidacy, and former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley.

In addition, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and African American Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina have all announced their candidacies.

DeSantis’s announcement formalizes what has been rumored for quite some time, especially since he won reelection six months ago by a wide margin, almost 20 points over his Democratic rival, and has assiduously set about gaining national relevance among US conservatives with assorted controversial actions and statements.

His formal entry into the campaign, which comes shortly before he is scheduled to meet with donors in Miami, makes him the main rival to Trump, who is the favorite among the Republican candidates by more than 30 percentage points, according to recent voter surveys.

DeSantis is in second place among the GOP field, ahead of Haley, who released a campaign video in which she said that the Florida governor is just “an echo” of Trump, and is copying him as closely as he can, including using the ex-president’s signature gestures.

Trump, who has backed DeSantis when he ran for the Florida governorship in 2018 at a time when he was a complete unknown on the national stage, has been attacking him almost daily via his Truth Social social network.

In like manner, a pro-Trump political action committee (PAC) has devoted millions of dollars to attacking DeSantis with national television ads in what is widely viewed as the early stages of the pitched battle between the two main candidates for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.

On the Democratic side, President Joe Biden – who recently announced his own candidacy for reelection – is the overwhelming favorite in a field that also includes self-help author Marianne Williamson and environmentalist attorney and nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

EFE lce/jip/bp

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