Florida Governor Ron DeSantis admitted to radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that his presidential campaign’s media strategy was riddled with missteps.
Rather than focusing on conservative media outlets, the Republican contender confessed that he should have had a more blanketed approach to his media outreach.
“I should have just been blanketing. I should have gone on all [sic] the corporate shows. I should have gone on everything. I started doing that as we got into the end of the summer, and we did it. But we had an opportunity, I think, to come out of the gate and do that and reach a much broader folk. Now, I’m everywhere. I’ll show up whenever,” DeSantis said.
At the beginning of 2023, DeSantis seemed fairly matched with Trump in the GOP 2024 primary polls: in early January of last year Trump held 45% while DeSantis held about 35%. On Thursday, Trump’s poll numbers soared to 65%, while former UN ambassador and governor Nikki Haley stood at 12% and DeSantis took 11%.
Despite what was forecasted to be a strong lead, DeSantis has struggled to cut into Trump’s popularity. On Monday, he finished second in the Iowa caucuses while Trump came in first by a wide margin. Haley finished third.
“I committed to do the debate tonight on WMUR and ABC in New Hampshire,” said DeSantis of the recently canceled debate. “I’m the only one that’s willing to debate. I’ve done these televised town halls. I go out and take questions from voters. You know, I think that’s good. I’m the only one that’s not at this point running a basement campaign. Biden’s running a basement campaign. Trump won’t debate, won’t take questions from voters. And now, Haley won’t debate and won’t take questions from voters.”
In July, DeSantis’ campaign tried to shift their media strategy in order to incorporate more mainstream networks and town halls. He was also the only candidate to accept an invitation to participate in the ABC News/WMUR debate that was scheduled for Thursday in New Hampshire.