Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has seen woe after woe in his campaign for the Republican nomination, forcing him to cut staff and actually engage with traditional media outlets.
But the governor seemingly donned a pair of rose-colored lenses in an interview on Fox News’ MediaBuzz on Sunday, downplaying problems and pointing to his trips to early primary states. It’s there, he told host Howard Kurtz, where he’s found his voting audience—once they meet him in person.
“We were just in Iowa on Friday at the Family Leaders Summit. That was effectively the kickoff to Iowa caucus season,” DeSantis said. “So Iowans are starting to pay more attention to it. We were able to talk to thousands of people over a two-day period, and the number one thing I hear from people is this. They’re like, ‘Yeah, you know, I knew you did good things in Florida, but I hadn’t seen you yet, and now that I’ve seen you, I’m for you.’”
DeSantis’ claim comes despite an avalanche of media reports about his personal awkwardness and questions about whether he has the charisma to succeed on the trail.
DeSantis framed the barrage of negative press stories as the workings of a “corporate press” that does not want to see him “dismantle the administrative state.” He insisted the Republican debates would be another vector for highlighting his personality to voters.
“There’s a lot of Republican voters out there, they like what we’ve done in Florida. They know I’m a good governor,” DeSantis said. “But they haven’t seen a lot about me up close and personal, so that gives us a great opportunity to be able to share our vision.”
Even with six months before a single vote is cast in the race, DeSantis’ time to make that case to voters is short.
The candidate has largely limited sit-down interviews to conservative media outlets, such as Fox News and the Christian Broadcasting Network. His finances have been strapped, and he burned through nearly $8 million in the first six weeks of his candidacy, according to an NBC News analysis. DeSantis raised $20 million in the second quarter, millions ahead of Donald Trump, but $14 million of that was from donors who maxed out their donations and $3 million must be set aside for a general election campaign.
There have been signs of a strategy shift. DeSantis fired about 10 event planning staffers on Thursday, according to Politico, though he still boasts the largest campaign staff in the Republican field. CNN also announced that Jake Tapper would interview DeSantis on Tuesday, the governor’s first extended interview on the network since 2017.
DeSantis refused to address these issues head-on during his MediaBuzz interview, instead noting just how well he does—once voters meet him.
“The more I’m out there, the more support we get in these early states, and it is a state-by-state primary,” he said. “So I think it would be political malpractice to be running for president fixated on national rather than Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina. So that’s what we’ve done. You can make up ground, and we are making up ground in all those states. That is not really going to be reflected in the national poll because they’re such small states that you’re not going to end up doing that. We have our eye on the prize.”
