Will DeSantis Sink Like Atlantis After Glitchy Twitter Launch?

The campaign manager for the Ron DeSantis presidential bid believes he can climb the mountain of Donald Trump's poll lead.

The Florida governor announced his candidacy in the Republican primaries on Wednesday via a Twitter webcast.

He has already emerged as a distant second rival to former President Donald Trump, eclipsing Mike Pence — Trump's vice president — and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. But the entry of South Carolina Senator Tim Scott into the race could change that.

The winner of the Republican primary race will likely face President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.

Gabriel Llanes told Sputnik that the widely-ridiculed technical problems with the Florida governor's campaign announcement were actually a sign of his popular support.

"You had 500,000 people trying to cram on to the server, and it was an additional 50,000 attempting every 30 seconds to log on," he said.

Trump has led recent polls of Republican voters by an overwhelming margin, with over 50 percent support, while DeSantis languishes in the mid-20s at best. But the campaign organizer dismissed that as an early surge for the big-name candidate.

"I don't put much stake in the polls. The methodology of polls nowadays is not incredibly sound," Llanes insisted. "I'll remind people that there's 75 weeks left to the election and Ron DeSantis is already polling in the 20 percentile, meaning one fourth of the primary voters have already decided that they like Ron DeSantis when he hasn't even announced yet."

He pointed out that then-Senator Barack Obama trailed Hillary Clinton by a wide margin before the first Democratic primaries in 2008. "So there's a lot of time here, a lot of runway to go," Llanes said. "I guarantee you that the polls are going to start closing in the next... two or three months."

The PAC director said that, like in 2008 and 2016, voters want a real change of leadership — as evidenced by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leftfield challenge to Biden in the Democratic primaries

"The same reason why you have somebody like RFK starting to poll so well on the Democratic side, people just want a change, they want something new," Llanes said, pointing out that Trump was still complaining of ballot fraud in the 2020 election. "He won't stop talking about it ad nauseum. I do believe that is his biggest downfall. He doesn't give us a future."

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Professor David Woodard told Sputnik that he was not surprised that tech tycoon Elon Musk hosted the DeSantis campaign launch on his recently-acquired social media site.

"Twitter was used because it is the next communication medium, replacing television and other outlets of the mainstream media," he said. "It was not a very good launch for DeSantis, but he is trying to push the edge and that will help him in the future."

But the academic said ownership of Twitter would not make Musk a political "kingmaker."

"The facts are that American voters are not swayed by any one thing, not looks, not money and not position," Woodard said. "Voters treasure their independence and are fickle when it comes to being used by popular figures. DeSantis is a strong candidate for a number of reasons, and I'm sure Musk can help, however, no candidate should get close to any one thing in defining himself."

The professor doubted that the Twitter boss and Tesla Motors founder had political ambitions like fellow billionaires George Soros or Charles Koch.

"Musk has much to lose by associating himself with any one party or one political personality," Woodard argued. "I think he will not be in the forefront of trying to elect a president or dominate a political party. At some time in the future, DeSantis must defeat Trump in a head-to-head election — that will be a turning point."

He said there are many other factors than Musk's backing at play in the Florida governor's challenge to Trump for the Republican candidacy.

"He will need lots of endorsements, Trump will have to be defeated in places where he has been powerful and other candidates will have to drop out," Woodard said. "If things go his way, DeSantis can thank Musk."

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US Presidential Race: Will DeSantis Sink Like Atlantis After Glitchy Twitter Launch?