Florida Gov. filed. Ron DeSantis of Notice of Candidacy to the US Federal Election Commission for the 2024 presidential election.
Ronald DeSantis will compete for the Republican nomination with former President Donald Trump.
DeSantis is expected to position himself as a successful conservative politician with a solid track record and without the scandals inherent in Trump.
What is known about him?
hard conservative
Republican Ron DeSantis became Governor of Florida in 2019, and last year he was re-elected by a record-breaking majority. Even then, talk began that he harbored presidential ambitions and that he might nominate himself for next year’s Republican primaries.
DeSantis’ political views are conservative: he continues to take a hard line on issues of gender identity, teaches racial issues in schools, and is also adamantly opposed to abortion.
However, his voters seem to be very satisfied with this position: judging by the results of the polls, during the three years of state leadership, the governor of Florida has increased in popularity among voters from all demographic category.
DeSantis is expected to position himself as a successful conservative politician with a solid track record and without the scandals inherent in Trump.
For some time, DeSantis was ahead of Trump in the polls and was considered a more promising rival for Joe Biden. However, in recent weeks, his popularity among Republicans has declined dramatically and he has begun to fall far behind Trump.
What did he say about Ukraine?
In March, DeSantis called the war launched by Russia against Ukraine a “territorial dispute” between the countries.
“While the United States has many important national interests … further involvement in the territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” the Florida governor said.
After sharply criticizing him, the politician had to apologize for such words, but even in that explanation of DeSantis it was clear that “not everything is so simple” there. The Florida governor emphasized that Russia has no right to attack a sovereign country, but did not fail to note that “there are many ethnic Russians there.”
In April, Ron DeSantis, once skeptical of massive US military aid to Kyiv, called for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
A few hours later, DeSantis admitted that in an interview with Fox News, when he said that supporting Ukraine was “not in the vital interests of the United States” and called the war a “territorial dispute”, he used a non appropriate words and does not mean at all that Russia could take over Ukraine or threaten NATO.
DeSantis also made it clear that he did not include any justification for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in his remarks.
“There is no doubt, they (Ukraine) have the right to this territory. If it is possible to change something with a snap of my fingers, I will 100% return these territories to Ukraine,” said the Florida governor.
He also clearly expressed his position on the President of the Russian Federation: “I think he is a war criminal. And I really think he should be held accountable.”
At the same time, DeSantis did not clarify what his opinion is about the amount of additional military aid to Ukraine.
Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.