I doubt it will come up either, unless the Haley campaign thinks they can force DeSantis to choose between his more right-wing supporters and centrist ones.
She can try to force that choice but it will definitely end badly for her.
DeSantis's appeal to his more right wing supporters are his bona-fide conservative achievements in Florida but his appeal to centrists is that he is the only one who has a shot at winning a primary against a former President.
Centrists are going to be forced to choose between Trump or DeSantis since no-one else running has a real shot of winning the primary.
A lot of these centrists despise Trump not on policy but despise the man himself so they will be forced to accept either sitting out entirely and letting Trump rocket to the nomination again or they can get behind the only viable Trump alternative.
Centrist GOP voters are going to be essentially bullied next year by this dynamic and they will have to make a choice whether the man they hate(Trump) winning the nomination again is better than getting behind DeSantis who is much more right than they would like on policy.
That's a good point. I think the only way DeSantis could flub that would be if he looks too far ahead at the general election and tries to appeal outside the GOP.
I don't think DeSantis is at risk of doing that since he is governing more conservatively recently than I ever expected.
I think he is aiming to run both as the most conservative candidate as well as the most electable alternative to Trump.
Generally those would be two different lanes but when you run against Donald Trump, the lines are blurred since Trump has essentially 90s Democrat policies but they come with the baggage of Trump's abrasive personality.
Centrists in the GOP should theoretically prefer Trump's policy the most but it is clear that their disdain for the man himself crushes his policy's centrist appeal.
I doubt it will come up either, unless the Haley campaign thinks they can force DeSantis to choose between his more right-wing supporters and centrist ones.
She can try to force that choice but it will definitely end badly for her.
DeSantis's appeal to his more right wing supporters are his bona-fide conservative achievements in Florida but his appeal to centrists is that he is the only one who has a shot at winning a primary against a former President.
Centrists are going to be forced to choose between Trump or DeSantis since no-one else running has a real shot of winning the primary.
A lot of these centrists despise Trump not on policy but despise the man himself so they will be forced to accept either sitting out entirely and letting Trump rocket to the nomination again or they can get behind the only viable Trump alternative.
Centrist GOP voters are going to be essentially bullied next year by this dynamic and they will have to make a choice whether the man they hate(Trump) winning the nomination again is better than getting behind DeSantis who is much more right than they would like on policy.
That's a good point. I think the only way DeSantis could flub that would be if he looks too far ahead at the general election and tries to appeal outside the GOP.
I agree with this assessment.
I don't think DeSantis is at risk of doing that since he is governing more conservatively recently than I ever expected.
I think he is aiming to run both as the most conservative candidate as well as the most electable alternative to Trump.
Generally those would be two different lanes but when you run against Donald Trump, the lines are blurred since Trump has essentially 90s Democrat policies but they come with the baggage of Trump's abrasive personality.
Centrists in the GOP should theoretically prefer Trump's policy the most but it is clear that their disdain for the man himself crushes his policy's centrist appeal.