“But while Trump is the driver of the party agenda and rhetoric, he has been effective at still presenting himself in opposition to the party’s traditional power centers. He’s managed to preserve the idea that he is the voice of the outsider right, in part by successfully reframing his criminal indictments and investigations into his actions as establishment efforts to hold him at bay. He is the guy who will tear it all down … despite having been in a position to do so before and not doing it (as Christie noted at another point in his interview Sunday).
That’s DeSantis’s challenge. His candidacy was originally theorized by observers as a way to consolidate the anti-Trump vote, but that’s a vote that Trump has been effective at marginalizing as pro-establishment. So instead DeSantis is trying to run to Trump’s right, as a challenger to a front-runner that DeSantis is trying to frame as insufficiently right-wing. It’s a tough argument to make, particularly when Trump is so effectively driving the issues upon which primary voters are focused.
It’s not just that we’re early in the primary cycle — which we are — that matters. It’s also the composition of that cycle, who’s in, and what they represent. In 2008 and 2016, Clinton was challenged by outsiders who framed her as insufficiently responsive to the more liberal wing of the party. In 2016, Trump convinced Republicans that he was a vehicle for the dismantling of a party they disliked.”
And there’s this:
‘“We’re totally undecided,” said Blanks, 52 years old, as she and her husband neared their car, completing a 4-mile loop. She voted for Donald Trump twice before and thinks the former president can return to Washington “with a sledgehammer,” despite thinking DeSantis could attract more independent voters in a general election.
Six weeks after launching his campaign, DeSantis has stalled.’
www.wsj.com
DeSantis therefore has two problems – failing to portray Trump as insufficiently right-wing and being perceived by Republican primary voters as part of the ‘establishment’ Trump would dismantle “with a sledgehammer.”
That’s DeSantis’s challenge. His candidacy was originally theorized by observers as a way to consolidate the anti-Trump vote, but that’s a vote that Trump has been effective at marginalizing as pro-establishment. So instead DeSantis is trying to run to Trump’s right, as a challenger to a front-runner that DeSantis is trying to frame as insufficiently right-wing. It’s a tough argument to make, particularly when Trump is so effectively driving the issues upon which primary voters are focused.
It’s not just that we’re early in the primary cycle — which we are — that matters. It’s also the composition of that cycle, who’s in, and what they represent. In 2008 and 2016, Clinton was challenged by outsiders who framed her as insufficiently responsive to the more liberal wing of the party. In 2016, Trump convinced Republicans that he was a vehicle for the dismantling of a party they disliked.”
And there’s this:
‘“We’re totally undecided,” said Blanks, 52 years old, as she and her husband neared their car, completing a 4-mile loop. She voted for Donald Trump twice before and thinks the former president can return to Washington “with a sledgehammer,” despite thinking DeSantis could attract more independent voters in a general election.
Six weeks after launching his campaign, DeSantis has stalled.’
DeSantis Campaign Stalls as He Tries to Court Trump’s GOP Fans and Foes Alike
The Florida governor’s support is flat in national and early-state polling.
www.wsj.com
DeSantis therefore has two problems – failing to portray Trump as insufficiently right-wing and being perceived by Republican primary voters as part of the ‘establishment’ Trump would dismantle “with a sledgehammer.”
