The Iowa caucuses don't exactly have a stellar record of predicting the party's presidential nominee, but many on the right have been quick to write Ron DeSantis's presidential eulogy and pontificate about what went wrong. And according to Curt Anderson, a veteran of the Reagan White House and former political director of the RNC, and Republican strategist Alex Castellanos, DeSantis ran the worst campaign in history. Here's why I disagree.
"Tim Pawlenty’s and Scott Walker’s presidential campaigns can breathe a sigh of relief," the pair wrote at Politico on Friday. "The mantle of Worst Republican Presidential Campaign Ever has been lifted from their shoulders, stolen by the crew that ran Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign into the dirt."
How did they reach this conclusion? According to them, "At the beginning of 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis was in first place, ahead of former President Donald Trump. Then acknowledge that the DeSantis campaign and super PAC raised more money than any other campaign, including that of the former president."
This is not entirely accurate. Yes, DeSantis raised significant amounts of cash, but he was never actually in first place — not according to the polls. DeSantis was, without a doubt, Trump's closest competitor, but based on the RealClearPolitics average of polls, DeSantis began 2023 nearly 14 points behind Trump.
A close second, for sure, but not in first place. Yes, that margin only got bigger as time passed but not because of anything DeSantis did. Anderson and Castellanos claim that the DeSantis campaign lacked a strategy. "The DeSantis campaign should have defined their candidate as Trump-plus," they said. "something like the former president but better."
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That's hogwash because DeSantis most certainly did what they say he didn't do. He offered a more conservative version of Trumpism with a record of winning to back it up. It was that compelling message that brought me to support DeSantis. He didn't just talk the talk; he walked the walk. Trump, for all the good that he accomplished, struggled to achieve all the victories he promised.
The problem wasn't DeSantis or his campaign.
Trump was the target of multiple legal assaults from leftist district attorneys and the Biden administration. With each partisan indictment, Republican voters rallied behind Trump. The radical left is so terrified of Trump's return to the White House that it's literally abusing the justice system to stop him. You can't buy advertising more effective than that. As a DeSantis supporter, what the left is doing to Trump infuriates me, and assuming he wins the nomination, I will support him 110%.
Look, no campaign is without mistakes, and let's not confuse Trump's dominance in the GOP primaries as a reflection of a perfectly run campaign or DeSantis's inability to eclipse Trump so far as a sign that his campaign fell under the weight of its own incompetence.
Trump had another thing going for him as well. Even though he's not in the White House, he has a pseudo-incumbency that has always posed a formidable challenge for any contender. It's something we're also witnessing on the other side of the aisle. Despite polls indicating Democrats' desire for an alternative to Joe Biden, no mainstream Democrat with a chance of getting elected has dared to enter the race against him. That's the power of incumbency for you.
To say that DeSantis ran a bad campaign is to say that no Republican candidate should have had the audacity to jump in the race once Trump declared. Trump was always favored to win the primary, but that doesn't mean that Republican voters don't deserve a choice.
