DeSantis expected to launch 2024 bid on Wednesday

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is poised to announce his 2024 presidential run on Twitter on Wednesday.

According to multiple reports, the Florida governor will make the announcement during a discussion with Twitter CEO Elon Musk. 

The discussion will be livestreamed on Twitter Spaces and moderated by tech entrepreneur David Sacks, NBC News reported. In an email to reporters Tuesday, DeSantis’s political team announced “a special Twitter Spaces” at 6 p.m. Wednesday regarding “upcoming plans.”

DeSantis is also expected to release a campaign launch video Wednesday evening before making an initial swing through several early primary and caucus states after Memorial Day on Monday, according to NBC News. 

Fox News also reported the Florida governor will sit for an interview on the network with former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) after his announcement.

Musk on Tuesday retweeted a Fox News reporter who posted about the planned Twitter Spaces event. DeSantis’s upcoming discussion with Musk is notable, given that the billionaire Twitter CEO has said he would support the Florida governor should he run for president in 2024.

DeSantis has been expected for months to jump into the race for the GOP’s presidential nod but has repeatedly dodged questions about his plans. He’s spent the past several months traveling the country, including to key early voting states, to promote his new book and what he has dubbed the “Florida Blueprint.”

The expected campaign announcement will put him in direct contention with former President Donald Trump, the clear front-runner in the 2024 Republican primary and a one-time DeSantis ally. 

Trump and his allies have spent months attacking DeSantis, hoping to weaken him before he ever formally gets in the race. Early polling shows DeSantis as the most viable challenger to Trump, though he’s still running well behind the former president.

DeSantis’s decision to announce his intentions in a discussion with Musk is unusual for a presidential hopeful and, in some ways, a natural choice for him. 

The announcement won’t carry the trappings of a typical campaign launch. When Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) launched his 2024 bid on Monday, for example, it was before a crowd of supporters at an event in his hometown of North Charleston, S.C. Trump announced his campaign from his Palm Beach, Fla., estate, Mar-a-Lago.

Yet DeSantis’s chosen venue — Twitter Spaces — gives DeSantis access to Musk’s vast Twitter following, while allowing him to introduce himself alongside a billionaire who’s railed against alleged online censorship and media bias.

DeSantis himself has criticized efforts by social media companies to remove misinformation from their platforms — something that Musk has resisted doing since buying Twitter last year.

Updated at 3:19 p.m.