FLORIDA Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday filed papers to launch his 2024 presidential campaign, teeing up 18 months of acrimony as he and Donald Trump lock horns in what is expected to be an attritional contest for the Republican nomination.
DeSantis was considered a rising Republican star, but has seen his prospects dented by months of relentless attacks from the former president, who has surged into a commanding lead despite being engulfed in criminal investigations.
The 44-year-old right-winger filed his documentation with the Federal Election Commission ahead of a livestreamed Twitter chat with the platform’s billionaire owner Elon Musk, when he expected to make his formal announcement.
Pro-DeSantis political organization Never Back Down released a video featuring a 2022 speech setting out his signature issue: the encroachment of political correctness in public life.
“We fight the woke in the schools, we fight the woke in the corporations, we will never ever surrender to the woke mob. We will be courageous and we will never back down,” he vows.
DeSantis boasts deep midwestern roots, a large campaign fund, a record of ultra-conservative legislative wins and an unblemished record of election victories.
He was a baseball star at Yale, has a Harvard law degree and completed six years of active duty with the Navy, including service in Iraq, as well as five years in the US Congress and four as Florida’s governor.
While Trump has dominated headlines with his legal woes, DeSantis has presented himself as the tip of the spear in the struggle of ordinary Americans against the progressive values he sees as divisive.
