Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday pushed back against the idea that he’s “skipping” New Hampshire, which hosts its first-in-the-nation primary next week, to focus instead on South Carolina.
The Republican presidential candidate stirred talk of a refocus when he signaled he would visit South Carolina, which holds the first GOP votes in the South, directly after scoring second place in this week’s Iowa caucuses. Days later, a DeSantis campaign official reportedly said that most of the campaign staff would also be relocating to the Palmetto State.
“I had the morning available. And yeah, we were planning to maybe sleep in and rest. So, I’m like, ‘You know what? Let’s use that time,'” DeSantis told Fox News’s Alexis McAdams.
“So we went to South Carolina, knocked out a couple events and then did what we were planning to do in New Hampshire. That was somehow caricatured as ‘skipping’ New Hampshire when it wasn’t. It was adding South Carolina in addition to that,” DeSantis said.
New Hampshire holds its GOP primary Jan. 23, while South Carolina Republicans vote on Feb. 24.
On Monday, DeSantis came in a distant second place behind former President Trump in Iowa, which kicked off the party’s presidential nominating cycle. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley came in third, just behind DeSantis.
The Hawkeye State results have raised questions about DeSantis’s campaign as the nominating contest moves to New Hampshire, where Haley and Trump are both polling well ahead of DeSantis.
The latest polling averages from Decision Desk HQ and The Hill also have DeSantis in third behind Haley in South Carolina, Haley’s home state, but by a smaller margin than in New Hampshire.