On Wednesday, Ron DeSantis will announce that he will seek the presidency in 2024. The Florida governor will be the strongest rival for Donald Trump in the Republican primaries, given that he was the only real competition to the former president in the polls. Perhaps the most highly anticipated prospective candidate, he will communicate his decision in a Twitter Spaces live stream alongside Elon Musk.
According to reports, the conversation will occur this Wednesday, May 24, at 6 p.m. EDT and will be moderated by David Sacks, a prominent Republican donor very close to Musk. Once the announcement is made, DeSantis' campaign will file the appropriate paperwork with the Federal Election Commission.
Following the conversation with Musk, the Florida governor will appear on Fox News for his first interview as an official presidential candidate. He will speak with Trey Gowdy at 8 p. m. EDT on Fox News Tonight.
A source close to Musk told The Daily Wire that the decision to announce the candidacy via Twitter was made on the assumption that "it will trump the manner in which other candidates have announced because the event will be seen by [a] larger audience."
BREAKING: @FoxNews confirms Florida Governor @RonDeSantis will announce his 2024 Presidential run tomorrow night, 6pm ET in a Twitter Spaces interview with @elonmusk.
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 23, 2023
DeSantis will enter the race with deep pockets, as the PACs backing him have raised more than
$110 million and more major donors are expected to jump on board. The governor enters the race as the strongest competitor to Trump. Although he does not have the momentum he enjoyed months ago, he is the only person who can compete head-to-head in the polls with the former president.
The governor has been considering his candidacy for months following his successful re-election campaign, in which he handily defeated Charlie Crist. Going from a 0.4 percentage point difference to nearly 20 points in a state presumed to be purple immediately positioned him as a strong candidate for 2024.
The launch of his autobiography in February and the subsequent press tour was seen as a prelude to what will finally come to fruition on Wednesday, his presidential campaign. "The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival" made big numbers in its first week on the market, surpassing the numbers of former candidates' books such as Hillary Clinton in 2014, Barack Obama in 2007 and even Trump in 2015.
DeSantis will join the former president, who was already looking forward to it with some degree of hostility, as well as Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Asa Hutchinson, Larry Elder and Tim Scott. Chris Sununu is expected, and
Mike Pence and Chris Christie are expected to follow suit in the coming weeks.
