WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Biden thinks Governor Ron DeSantis is too conservative for the American people – in fact, he’s banking on it in 2024, a new report suggests.
In a lengthy analysis published Sunday, CNN Senior Reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere argues that the president’s campaign staff believe DeSantis’ conservative agenda will actually help Biden win Florida in 2024 and secure another four years in the White House.
“WE’D ALL RATHER RUN AGAINST TRUMP”
Dovere quotes anonymous staffers from the Biden campaign and several high-profile Democrat politicians in Florida, who suggest that DeSantis’ conservative agenda represents a version of America that is even more “extreme” than Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.
One Biden advisor said that Florida “is a reflection of what will keep happening if we don’t maintain the presidency and we don’t build on our majority in the Senate and get the House back.”
Despite the confidence that DeSantis is too conservative to win a general election against Biden, the report indicates the governor poses the greatest threat to the President in 2024.
A senior Democrat close to the Biden campaign admitted: “We’d all rather run against Trump,” adding that the back and forth between DeSantis and the former president helps to “further alienate the swing voters that will decide this election.”
CAN DEMOCRATS FLIP FLORIDA?
DeSantis defeated Democratic challenger Charlie Crist by a historic margin in the 2022 gubernatorial race, but party leaders still believe the state could go blue for Biden.
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried admitted that the party “collapsed” but believes it can be turned around with “the right resources, the right investment and the right ground game.”
Republicans currently hold a formidable advantage over Democrats in Florida, with nearly half-a-million more registered voters. Both parties hope to win over the state’s four million independent voters before election day.
“Florida will always be in play because of the cultural diversity of the state,” Fried told CNN.
DONNA DEEGAN: DEMOCRATS’ BLUEPRINT IN FLORIDA
For the past week, Fried has been celebrating Donna Deegan’s upset mayoral victory over Republican Daniel Davis in Jacksonville.
A person close to the Biden campaign told CNN that Deegan’s win was encouraging because she “ran a campaign on a platform that is a lot like the one Biden ran to build his coalition – a focus on kitchen table issues, unity over division and culture wars.”
The source added that Deegan’s win “sends a strong signal to folks who count Democrats out of Florida.”
