HAMPTON, N.H. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent a part of Wednesday at this seaside neighborhood alongside the New Hampshire coast, making a pitch to voters six days forward of the state’s Republican presidential main.
“I’m asking for your support on Tuesday,” DeSantis informed the gang as he seemed forward to the New Hampshire main, the primary within the GOP nominating calendar and second general contest after this week’s Iowa caucuses.
However because the Florida governor was chatting with supporters and undecided voters, Fox Information confirmed that the DeSantis marketing campaign was within the technique of shifting nearly all of its employees from Iowa to South Carolina reasonably than New Hampshire.
DeSantis got here in a distant second in Iowa to former President Trump, the commanding front-runner within the GOP nomination race who crushed his rivals as he received 51% of the vote in Monday’s caucuses. DeSantis, who had spent most of his time and sources in Iowa, narrowly edged former United Nations Ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for second place.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, speaks at an occasion in Hampton, New Hampshire, on Jan. 17, 2024. (Fox Information/Paul Steinhauser)
However with polls indicating Haley a robust second to Trump and DeSantis a distant third within the single digits in New Hampshire — the place moderates predominate and impartial voters play a vital position within the state’s storied presidential main — the Florida governor is concentrating his efforts within the rather more conservative South Carolina. The state holds the primary southern contest within the Republican schedule on Feb. 24.
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The governor’s workforce sees the transfer to South Carolina as an opportunity to take down Haley on her dwelling courtroom and knock her out of the race.
“When Nikki Haley fails to win her dwelling state, she’ll be completed and this shall be a two-person race,” DeSantis marketing campaign communications director Andrew Romeo mentioned in a press release. “We’re wasting no time in taking the fight directly to Haley on her home turf.”
Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley listens to 10-year-old Hannah Kesselering throughout a marketing campaign cease in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, on Jan. 16, 2024. (AP Picture/Charles Krupa)
A supply in DeSantis’ political orbit informed Fox Information that “it’s all about South Carolina.”
“They’re not completely giving up on New Hampshire. They are pursuing both states, but they’re really looking ahead to South Carolina,” the supply added.
With DeSantis headed dwelling to Florida for the remainder of the week and campaigning Saturday and Sunday in South Carolina, the earliest he may probably return to New Hampshire can be on Monday, on the eve of the first-in-the-nation presidential main.
“He doesn’t want to write off New Hampshire publicly because that would mean his campaign is over,” longtime Republican guide David Carney – who’s impartial within the 2024 nomination race – informed Fox Information. “They’ve got to go somewhere. They’ve still got more money to spend. So, they’ll make the case to go to South Carolina.”
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Carney, a veteran of quite a few presidential campaigns and a New Hampshire resident, mentioned that “it’s a good strategy – see what you can get out of South Carolina. And pretend you are campaigning in New Hampshire. If you’re absent for the entire week, your campaign is dead.”
Republican strategist Matthew Bartlett, who splits his time between New Hampshire and the nation’s capital, mentioned DeSantis is “going through the motions. I applaud him and his team for doing it, but I think they would have been far better served doing this in the long hot summer rather than the waning days before the New Hampshire primary when the cake is baked.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate, poses for a photograph with a supporter in Hampton, New Hampshire, on Jan. 17, 2024. (Fox Information/Paul Steinhauser)
The 2 occasions DeSantis held in New Hampshire on Wednesday had been organized by the aligned tremendous PAC By no means Again Down, which has taken over most of the conventional tasks of a presidential marketing campaign.
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However as DeSantis was on the marketing campaign path on Tuesday, By no means Again Down trimmed operations, shedding some employees, together with practically your complete ‘war room’ workforce, Fox Information confirmed. The information was first reported by the New York Occasions.
Making his case to New Hampshire voters in Hampton, DeSantis did not deal with the brand new emphasis being positioned on South Carolina. And he did not take questions from reporters after the occasion.
Neither the DeSantis marketing campaign nor aligned tremendous PACs have run TV spots in New Hampshire in two months, in line with advert monitoring agency AdImpact.
Whereas the South Carolina technique might enable DeSantis to dwell to combat one other day, it performs into Haley’s argument that the GOP nomination is turning into a two-person race.
“When you look at how we’re doing in New Hampshire, in South Carolina and beyond, I can safely say tonight Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race,” Haley mentioned in West Des Moines on Monday evening after ending third within the Hawkeye State.
