The Florida state senate has approved a change in a law that was preventing DeSantis from announcing while he was still holding elected office in the state. The election law change allows DeSantis to launch a run without having to first resign as governor of the Sunshine State.
The bill passed along strict party lines, 28 to 12, but still needs approval from the Florida House.
There are additional changes that the law undertakes to make, including, as The Hill reports, "allowing political organizations to file finance reports less often and increasing the rate at which local election officials have to remove dead and eligible voters from voter rolls."
But the most notable change is that it does not require a man who is running for president or vice president to resign from his current office. This, many have said, is what has been standing between DeSantis and an official launch of a presidential campaign.
DeSantis has been to New Hampshire, he's been to Iowa–twice!–and he's in the midst of a foreign policy tour visting allies and talking trade. When asked about why the man has not yet announced his intention to run, many supporters of the beloved governor have said that he simply can't announce, because he'd have to leave his post in Tallahassee.
If the House approves the changes, DeSantis will have to make an announcement–or not. A 2024 presidential run would see him pitted against former president and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, who is astoundingly popular despite having lost the 2020 election to the elderly and diminishing Joe Biden.
Trump announced his run in November, after the contentious congressional midterm elections, that saw the GOP take back the House of Representatives. That victory in the House was spurred by former New York representative Lee Zeldin, who ran for governor against New York's Kathy Hochul.
His name on the ballot brought out New York Republicans who gave the House 5 additional seats to complete the red wave in the House. Zeldin endorsed Trump.
DeSantis has trailed in the polls to Trump, though he is more liked than Biden. Some have rumored that Trump would pitch DeSantis to be his VP on a 2024 ticket, which would be a major boon to a Republican Party that has seemed somewhat fractured in recent months.
The DeSantis supporters have been making a great deal of noise about his qualifications, his youth, and his electability. Trump supporters have looked on with increasing anger at the mounting pressure from the GOP establishment and self-proclaimed intelligentsia for attempting to push aside the man that made America great again, and promises to do so if given the second chance at a second term.
