Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis tossed aside criticism from a GOP political strategist who called him a “very flawed candidate” as his campaign looks for a reset.
DeSantis told Fox News’s Bret Baier in an interview that aired Monday that comments from strategist Ed Rollins are “obviously nonsense,” noting that he was first elected as governor of Florida in 2018 by only 1 point but was reelected last year by nearly 20 points.
“You don’t win a state like Florida that big if you’re not doing things that are resonating,” he said.
Rollins told Rolling Stone in an interview that the governor’s struggles in making inroads to catch up with former President Trump for the lead in the Republican primary are not the campaign’s fault but DeSantis’s himself.
Rollins said DeSantis tends to “think out loud” and “clearly doesn’t understand the game,” adding he would be “shocked” if Trump is not the eventual Republican nominee.
Rollins also pushed back on the “culture war” issues that DeSantis has made the centerpiece of his governorship. DeSantis has repeatedly said that Florida is the place “where woke goes to die” and has taken action against initiatives like diversity, equity and inclusion.
“When you get into these culture wars the way that he has, the vast majority of people don’t understand what they are,” Rollins said.
DeSantis pushed back against Rollins’s portrayal of some of the key issues of DeSantis’s governorship as part of a culture war, saying they are important for people’s lives.
He said he rejects the idea that people do not believe these issues are important based on his experience in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
“Standing up for the rights of parents, standing up for the well-being of children, that’s not some ‘culture war,’ that is central to the lives of tens of millions of people throughout this country,” he said.
Rollins’s criticism comes as DeSantis has remained in second place in most GOP polling — but well behind Trump.
DeSantis raised $20 million for his campaign during the second quarter, but expenses have been high and the campaign has been spending quickly. The campaign laid off a third of its staff last week.
DeSantis said people know and like what he has done as governor but need to learn why he should be the choice to lead the country.
“Once we’re able to fill all that in, we gain support,” he said.