Republican Florida Representative Steube: DeSantis’ Potential White House Run Could Impact Florida

According to Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lost significant support in his state due to his unsuccessful attempt to challenge former President Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination. “I can tell you from people I’ve talked to in my district, they’re frustrated when [DeSantis] decided to take on Trump,” Steube told Newsweek on Thursday.

“They thought his focus should be on governor. I mean, think about this: People were asking him if he was running for [president or] governor before when he was running for reelection.”

In Nov. 2022, DeSantis was reelected to a second term as governor, with Trump’s endorsement. He had defeated his Democrat challenger Charlie Crist by nearly 19 points. But there were persistent questions before the midterm elections on whether DeSantis would launch a 2024 presidential campaign. “So obviously, [DeSantis] was putting the pieces together to launch a campaign against the very guy that put him in the post that he’s at,” Steube told Newsweek. “So, there was a lot of frustration in the Republican base about that.”

Steube said DeSantis is “wielding the veto pen to sway members” of Florida’s House and Senate. And he noted state lawmakers are trying to “toe the line” with the governor since he ended his presidential campaign. “But I certainly don’t think he has a lot of [the] support he did before he took on President Trump,” Steube said.

DeSantis suspended his Republican presidential campaign on Jan. 21, ending his 2024 White House bid just before the New Hampshire primary while endorsing Trump. “It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis said. “I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee and I will honor that pledge. He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”