In a preview of a potential Republican presidential primary showdown, Donald Trump and Ron DeSandis will square off in Florida on Sunday as the two men battle for the supremacy of the Sunshine State and the heart of the Republican Party.
The former president will welcome supporters in Miami, the third stop on a four-city tour that has essentially made Trump a star player in his party’s fight for control of Congress. Florida’s governor, meanwhile, will hold events in three counties on the state’s opposite coast – Hillsborough, Sarasota and Lee – well away from Trump as he tries to close his bid for a second term.
For the past two years, Trump and De Sandys have coexisted on opposite ends of Florida — Trump planning his next move from his Mar-a-Lago estate to Palm Beach, and De Sandys building on a familiar name from its capital state in Tallahassee. But as those midterms draw to a close and with a decision on their political futures, even across a 450-mile peninsula, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the two to avoid each other.
“We have two very stubborn, very Type A politicians in Florida who are at the tip of the spear for the GOP,” said one Republican official who asked not to be named. “They both get attention, but they both have their own political businesses and that’s what you see. It’s already tiring to talk about it.”
The long-simmering rivalry has spilled into public view in the final weeks leading up to Election Day. DeSantis recently endorsed Colorado Republican businessman and Senate candidate Joe O’Dea, as O’Dea promised in October to “campaign in action” against Trump.
“A BIG MISTAKE!” Trump wrote in response on his Truth Social platform.
Trump followed by sharing a video with former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly predicting that GOP voters would remain firmly in Trump’s camp if DeSandis decided to challenge the former president in the Republican primary. CNN reported Friday that Trump could launch his next presidential bid as soon as this month.
But the scheduling of rival events in Florida two days before a key election day is particularly indicative of how fraught the relationship between the former allies has become. Unlike other potential 2024 contenders, DeSantis has not ruled out running against Trump in a primary, to Trump’s chagrin. DeSantis, meanwhile, believes such a concession would undermine his efforts to keep the focus on his current re-election race instead of what may lie ahead, CNN previously reported. DeSantis and his campaign have declined to publicly discuss his post-midterm plans, but in a recent debate, he did not respond when asked if he plans to serve a four-year term if re-elected.
If they do go head-to-head in a primary, the two candidates may find themselves on similar financial footing. DeSantis has raised $200 million this campaign cycle through his two political committees and has spent a little more than half, leaving about $90 million in potential seed money for a Super PAC. As of late October, Trump was sitting on about $117 million between his three active fundraising vehicles, according to federal election data.
Trump’s campaign trip is motivated at least in part by his desire to launch a third campaign for the White House, CNN reported this week. Indeed, during a visit to Iowa on Thursday, Trump told voters in the first-in-the-nation caucus state to “get ready” for his return as a presidential candidate. Trump stopped in Pennsylvania on Saturday — home to a tight Senate race between his backer, Republican Mehmet Oz and Democrat John Fetterman — and will spend the eve of the election in Ohio, where the former president endorsed Republican JD Vance in Senate race against Democrat Tim Ryan.
But planning a rally in Florida was also widely seen as a bow shot at DeSantis. Trump first announced last week his intention to hold a rally for U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio in South Florida, leaving DeSandis noticeably out of his plans. Since then, the list of guest speakers has grown to include the state’s junior senator, Rick Scott, as well as a dozen other elected officials and candidates from around the state.
The decision to hold the rally in Miami-Dade County comes as Republicans are hopeful of carrying the once-Democratic stronghold for the first time in two decades. Republican investments to penetrate the region’s Hispanic neighborhoods have paid off in recent elections, and the party is seeing a wave of excitement turning the state a deeper shade of red. Republicans will have a voter registration advantage on Election Day for the first time in Florida’s modern political history.
Before his arrival, Trump was already taking credit for this turnaround.
“President Trump brought a historic red wave to Florida in the 2018 midterm elections with his candidates up and down the ballot and shaped the Sunshine State into the MAGA stronghold it is today,” said a statement from Trump’s Save America PAC. “Thanks to President Trump, Florida is no longer a purple state. it’s America’s First Red State.”
While DeSantis has started his own out-of-state campaign circuit for Republican candidates, including a recent rally in New York for GOP gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin, he is spending the final days of the race against Democrat Charlie Crist by storm in Florida. His campaign had 13 events scheduled between Friday and Monday. On the final day, DeSantis has scheduled a stop in Trump’s adopted home state of Palm Beach County and in Miami-Dade, not far from Trump’s Sunday event.
On the campaign trail, DeSantis is not talking about Trump, but his comments have been accompanied by frequent references to President Joe Biden in a preview of what a presidential campaign against the incumbent Democrat might look like.
At an event Thursday in Central Florida, DeSantis called Biden “King Midas in reverse.”
“Biden touches it and it turns into something much worse than (gold),” DeSantis said. “It’s disappointing and many people, the vast majority of Americans, believe that the country has seen its best days. They think we are clearly on the wrong track. But you know, I think Florida provides the blueprint that other states can follow.”
