Much has been made about Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign reset, and the last few weeks have started to reveal what the new strategy is going to be.

While the Florida governor is still doing interviews with friendly faces like Megyn Kelly, he’s no longer shunning the mainstream press. Instead, the Florida governor seems intent on battling them out in the open. A newsmaking interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper was one recent example. Now, DeSantis is bringing back his adversarial pressers.

JUST IN: DeSantis scathes reporter over asking if there were "beneficial aspects to slavery" being taught by new standards

"Have you read it? Have you read it? You haven't read – you haven't read it, so I'm just making that clear."

"[The standards] make it very clear about the… pic.twitter.com/VVg3CO7vC7

— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) July 27, 2023

REPORTER: Were there beneficial aspects to slavery?

GOVERNOR DESANTIS: That’s not what the curriculum says

CORPORATE MEDIA: What do you think?

GOVERNOR DESANTIS: The curriculum is very clear. You have I think it’s like 200+ pages of all kinds of stuff, and you can’t read that? Have you read it?

CORPORATE MEDIA: So what’s your opinion?

GOVERNOR DESANTIS: Have you read it?

CORPORATE MEDIA: What’s your opinion, I’m asking your opinion.

GOVERNOR DESANTIS: But you haven’t read it. So I’m just making that clear.
That makes it very clear about the injustices of slavery in vivid detail. So anyone that actually read that, and then listens to Kamala would know that she’s lying, and that particular provision about the skills, that was in spite of slavery, not because of. The AP course has made that same point, other courses have made that same point, nobody said anything about that. Dr. Allen and those people will say, ‘Look, this is what was used postbellum when these folks were doing stuff.’ So that was very, very clear, and I would just say people can read it. But they did a very good job on it, and there can be no confusion about where they would come down on that.

I continue to find this whole thing ridiculous. Florida’s black history curriculum was written by a majority-black panel. Nothing its members produced falls outside of normal bounds. That was proven on Wednesday when it was revealed that the original AP course, which Kamala Harris demanded Florida adopt originally, makes essentially the same claim that has produced so much faux outrage. Everything about this attack feels manufactured, and going on the offensive is exactly what DeSantis should be doing.

To explain further, my general opinion has long been that Republicans should shun the mainstream press. But while that’s a good way to operate while in office, I’m not so sure it’s the best way to run a presidential campaign. In peacetime, why give CNN the fodder and ratings when there’s nothing to be gained? But we aren’t in peacetime, and any candidate who wants to still be around in January will need to find a way to stay in the news.

Ask yourself, when’s the last time you saw Nikki Haley or Tim Scott make news organically? I don’t mean making news because they showed up for an event with Tucker Carlson. I mean making news because they found themselves at the center of a controversy that put them on the right side of most Republican voters. Scott and Haley are largely invisible, tip-toeing around anything that might get their face in the news, and they both have support in the three percent range to show for it.

Now, take the other extreme. Donald Trump’s indictments have pitted him against the far left and have put him in a position to be defended by primary voters. That’s one of the reasons he’s the frontrunner right now and could remain so for the duration of the race.

Returning to DeSantis, his strategy can’t be to spend all day slap-fighting with Trump because then his foil isn’t someone most Republican voters dislike. It’s a lose-lose situation, especially since prior dynamics mean there are two different sets of rules in the primary. Trump can do whatever he wants and none of it matters. DeSantis doesn’t have that luxury, and he has to accept that.

By contrast, going to war with the mainstream press keeps the governor in the news, but in a way that works to his benefit. He’s able to get his message into the public eye while also presenting himself as a fighter who won’t back down under pressure. More importantly, he’s doing all that while choosing a foil that Republicans already despise.

I understand some will have more nuanced views. They’ll say that DeSantis should avoid controversies like this because it may alienate general election voters. Politics is a cynical game, though, and as Trump showed in 2016, all press is good press. Winning the primary has to be the first goal, and if primary voters feel like a Republican candidate is being unfairly targeted, they are far more likely to be open to that candidate. In short, there is no downside to having Kamala Harris on the other side of an argument.

The Iowa caucuses are still very far away, and if DeSantis wants to make it there, his best bet is to focus on his early state-level operations while continuing to do adversarial interviews. Lastly, he needs to disengage from the online slap-fighting going on between Republicans because that game is rigged against him. There is no other path to victory, and even then, he’s the underdog.