JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has officially filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to enter the 2024 presidential race.
He’s expected to announce his presidential campaign after months of dodging questions about his intentions to run for the office.
It will be in a live audio conversation on Twitter Spaces with Space-X and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who owns the social media site.
This is something no presidential candidate has ever done before, but University of North Florida Political Science Professor Michael Binder said to him, it’s not about reaching people on Twitter – it’s about the attention that comes with the unique move.
Binder said the decision to announce on Twitter is a strategy – generating free media attention.
“That’s really where this is going to permeate and reach the average supporter of maybe Ron DeSantis or a Republican primary voter via the free media,” Binder said. “Also, doing it this way you’re not subject to a gaggle of press reporters asking you questions that you might not want to answer.”
His wife Casey DeSantis posted a preview video on Twitter Tuesday night.
DeSantis’s conservative policies on issues like abortion and education have made him a dominant but controversial figure in the political landscape.
Binder said those policies won’t turn off Republicans who vote in the primary election.
“That culture war stuff plays well with them,” Binder said. “They support, by-and-large reductions in abortions. They support, kind of, his ‘anti-woke’ agenda, as he calls it, and yeah. I think this plays well with this segment of the electorate.”
Binder said former President Donald Trump is polling ahead of DeSantis and other potential candidates, but primary elections can be volatile.
“Voters can move between those candidates relatively easily based on personality type or something like that, so just because you’re down in a poll at a certain point does not at all mean that you’re out of it, particularly in a primary.”
First Coast News will have the latest on DeSantis and Musk’s Twitter Spaces conversation as soon as it’s available.