End of the Line? DeSantis Cancels Sunday Show Interviews Less Than 24 Hours Before He Was Set to Appear

By Mike Miller | 10:15 AM on January 21, 2024

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The much-anticipated 2024 presidential campaign of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been curious from the moment he finally entered the race on May 24, 2023. Over the last eight months, his campaign — which never really got off the ground — has only grown curiouser and curiouser.

On Saturday, DeSantis made his most curious move yet. The once-promising candidate canceled Sunday appearances with two different networks less than 24 hours before he was scheduled to appear on air.

While the Florida governor had already decided to all but "skip" Tuesday's New Hampshire primary — by relocating staff from the Granite State and focusing on South Carolina, where he hopes to pressure Nikki Haley in her home state — he has repeatedly said he's in the race for the long haul. But, is he?

Only about six percent of New Hampshire residents plan to vote for DeSantis, according to polling averages, versus about 30 percent for Nikki Haley and 43 percent for Donald Trump, although some recent polls have shown Haley and Trump in a much tighter battle.

Here's more:

Both CNN’s State of the Union and NBC’s Meet the Press announced Saturday that DeSantis would not appear on their Sunday programs as planned.
“We look forward to having the Governor join us on the show in the near future,” CNN wrote in its announcement.
“Gov. Ron DeSantis has pulled out of his Meet the Press appearance tomorrow morning due to what a person familiar says is a last-minute schedule change,” anchor Kristen Welker wrote on X.
“Per his campaign, he will now hold an event in New Hampshire tomorrow evening. He is currently campaigning in South Carolina.”

Whether or not DeSantis is indeed going to campaign in South Carolina, after being blown out by Trump in the Iowa caucuses last Monday, his campaign has canceled ad buys in not only New Hampshire but also in South Carolina and Nevada, according to ad tracking services.

So, if DeSantis does actively campaign in South Carolina, what are his chances of a strong showing, much less a win? Not very good.

According to poll results released on Wednesday, Trump was ahead of both DeSantis and Haley by a wide margin in South Carolina, with polling averages showing him with nearly 55 percent support, compared with Haley at roughly 25 percent and DeSantis at just 12 percent.

The Bottom Line

As I suggested at the top, the "DeSantis for President" movement has been an enigma from the outset. In retrospect, it appears that far more people were enthused about the popular Florida governor before he entered the race than after he pulled the trigger. Why? Dunno — politics is a tricky, multifaceted business.

But I do know this, which I've said several times, recently: Over the next 10 months, we're going to see things happen in this presidential campaign that we've never before seen. While most of those things will happen on the Democrat side, I suspect we'll see a surprise or two from the Republicans, as well.

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