Walking into the room at Adelson’s Venetian hotel, DeSantis had an in with a man that every Republican presidential aspirant courts in what is known inside GOP circles as the “Sheldon Adelson primary.” The winner, who was nearly Rubio in 2016, gets access to tens of millions of dollars and, equally as important, immediate national viability. He has to be malleable and do things to reinvent himself for whatever the political moment is. Beyond a handful of fundraisers, DeSantis does not have a staff and consultant orbit anywhere near the size of either Scott or Rubio. Scott was invited to the CNN town hall last week, but declined to attend. “They would not give that access,” the DeSantis campaign staffer said of Scott’s staffers. DeSantis, however, has so far been more right than his critics. Delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday.

Newsmax, Moneynews, Newsmax Health, and Independent. [Jeb] Bush before him. But there’s little doubt that the lead will change numerous times as new competitors emerge and seemingly formidable ones drop away. Sheldon [Adelson] knew exactly what [DeSantis] was saying, but everyone else in the room was lost.”, Scott’s stiffness is compensated for by his attention to detail, and a well-honed political machine led by On Message. US cyclist suspended after social media posts in support of Trump, California to require more diversity in corporate boards of directors, Trump and Biden expected to join annual Catholic dinner known for 'non-partisan unity', Republican attorneys general urge Senate Democrats to confirm Amy Coney Barrett, Trump drops 2021 refugee cap to record low 15,000, California moves one step closer to paying reparations: New law calls for task force on addressing 'the issues of justice and fairness', American Airlines and United issue furlough notices to 32,000 workers as relief talks go into overtime, Voting machine memory sticks and laptop stolen in Philly, officials scramble to investigate if machines were compromised, Herschel Walker: I've seen Trump denounce white supremacy 'many times,' and he's 'not a racist', Michigan Senate votes to upgrade punishment for voter fraud crimes, Michelle Obama urges followers to turn 'feelings into action' after debate, 'I'm not afraid! We have tried to tell him he’s the governor, it’s a governor’s job to be greedy for their state.”. TALLAHASSEE, Florida—In August 2018, then-Governor Rick Scott threw what appeared to be a lifeline to the man who desperately wanted to be his successor. DeSantis dons a mask in advance of a coronavirus-related press conference on May 6. At a March 10, 2016 Republican presidential primary debate in Coral Gables, Florida, home state Sen. Marco Rubio criticizes Donald Trump's comment earlier in the week that "Islam hates us." | AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, AP Photo/Charles Dharapak. A survey by Florida Atlantic University, also released Tuesday, similarly showed the Governor with an even approval rating.

Increasingly, Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is helping lead DeSantis’ political messaging and strategy, a nod to the continued merging of DeSantis’ political orbit with that of the president’s team. He was plucked out of obscurity to run for Congress by a group of Republican consultants who met DeSantis at a West Orange County tea party meeting where he was selling his book Dreams From Our Founding Fathers, his jab at Barack Obama’s memoir. Rubio earns similar marks, with a 70%-6% split among Republicans, 30%-41% among independents and 11%-66% among Democrats. “I think it impacts things moving forward because it raises questions about how Ron is running things and whether it makes it harder for him to deliver on his promises.”, “Only thing I’ve heard the president say is that he is greedy.

Rubio responded, “Waiting until after the election to fill Justice Scalia’s seat will allow the American people a voice in determining the direction the Court will take in the coming years.”. Florida Sens. In that poll, 58% of registered voters had a favorable view of the Governor while 30% disapproved. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott, Rep. Matt Gaetz and Sen. Marco Rubio. However, Monmouth shows 48% of voters supporting the Governor’s pandemic response to 47% who oppose it. See the latest estimates and poll results at HuffPost Pollster.

Conversely, those aligned with Scott say DeSantis handled the situation with the sort of deft touch you’d expect from someone who they say lacked the polish and executive experience for the job. “He just kind of came in without asking and trying to contact administration officials. It was a Republican-to-Republican process that should have been a seamlessly non-political event, but instead was waged as though both participants were sworn enemies from opposing parties. The question is whether the results in 2020 will be closer to her net approval rating … Republican attorneys general across the United States endorsed a letter to the Senate urging members to support the nomination of federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. In April, DeSantis appeared side-by-side with Trump in the Oval Office for a coronavirus briefing, an event whose optics cemented a perception that DeSantis is the likely leader among national Republicans for future Trumpworld support. And I don’t think that helps him at all.”, —Curt Anderson, consultant to Sen. Rick Scott, “What was his name? The pandemic has increasingly shown DeSantis relying on political muscle memory. | AFP/Getty Images. Florida Primary Election Results – August 30, 2016, Judges qualify for merit-retention election, Trio of Florida's top elected Republicans suffer negative approval ratings, Three years after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Ricans still struggle with insurance claims, Gov. “Sitting in that room they were talking about, like, Bedouin tribes of Israel pre-biblical era,” said one aide who was at the meeting. They said: ‘Don’t call our people.’”. Neither DeSantis, Rubio or Scott face reelection in November. (Michael Laughlin/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP) Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a Democrat, said that the referral is “politically motivated." Ron DeSantis discusses Florida's response to the coronavirus pandemic. Shortly after taking office in January 2019, DeSantis took a break from the Fox News circuit that was a staple of his campaign. “I don’t know what the world is going to look like in four, five, six years or what my life is going to look like.”. Until these elected officials admit that we are suffering from climate change and take action to prevent it, no matter how much resiliency we undertake, it will never be enough. DeSantis, whose staff did not respond to a request for comment, has just a three-person political team: himself, his wife, Casey, and chief of staff Shane Strum, who was an adviser from a bygone era whose last stint in Tallahassee was as chief of staff for former Republican Gov. | AP.

It wasn’t so much ‘Let’s get ready for 2024,’ but more about getting the political team together to figure out where we needed to steer Marco in the next few years,” said a longtime Rubio adviser who attended the meeting. Scott and Rubio, President Trump tours the Edgar Hoover Dike on Florida's Lake Okeechobee in March 2019.

By Tauren Dyson    |   Piepenbrink, who was Scott’s chief of staff during the transition, said he was caught off guard by the perception the two were fighting, which quickly morphed into a narrative that has defined the relationship. Roughly, 35% in the same age group said they "strongly disapprove" of the president's performance, with another 33% saying they "strongly approve," and 21% reporting they "somewhat approve.". What do extreme sports enthusiasts and gamblers have in common? DeSantis’ team says access to administration officials and infrastructure was blocked by Brad Piepenbrink, a longtime Scott World foot soldier who served as his last gubernatorial chief of staff. The split was 30%-49% among independents and 8%-69% among Democrats. ... “President Donald Trump is seeing some of his highest approval ratings ever. That poll pegged Rubio's approval rating at just 38 percent — down 8 points from the last time Quinnipiac surveyed Florida voters' approval of the junior senator in July 2016. And it is captivating political insiders who see the contours of a still distant contest emerging in dramatic ways. | AP; Getty Images. Scott to this day publicly denies there were underlying motivations, but there is one person who saw them clearly: DeSantis. Oaths of office are not contingent upon personal taste. DeSantis, Sen. Rubio and Sen. Scott speak with reporters outside the White House.

He was delivering a brush back to Putnam’s opponent Rep. Ron DeSantis, a man 26 years his junior whom Scott’s political team already suspected had national ambitions equal to his own. That's also down sharply from his all-time high of 57 percent approval in August 2015, according to Quinnipiac. Better use of renewable energy and electric cars would help.

That role gave Rubio a national “next act.” He used it to make a splash. (Michael Laughlin/South Florida Sun-Sentinel via AP)