ABC News has been informed by multiple sources familiar with the matter that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis will launch his 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday evening during a social media event with Elon Musk.
Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET, DeSantis will announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination during a life, audio-only Twitter Spaces event, according to sources. Musk ally David Sacks will moderate the conversation on Twitter.
DeSantis will appear on Fox News on Wednesday evening to discuss his campaign. In addition, he is anticipated to file with the Federal Election Commission this week, thereby officially entering the 2024 race.
Musk, the well-known tech billionaire who purchased Twitter last year, intends to support DeSantis in 2024.
NBC News initially reported the event.
The governor’s plans to run for the White House have changed this year.
Initial plans called for DeSantis to tout his victories following the conclusion of the current session of the Florida Legislature, throughout May and well into June while delaying a formal announcement of a 2024 campaign for as long as possible, sources told ABC News.
As speculation grew that he was preparing to run for president, and as former President Donald Trump and Trump’s political operation launched attἀcks, the governor and his team accelerated their timeline, sources say, even abandoning tentative plans to launch an exploratory committee and moving up a formal announcement date to May rather than June.
According to sources, DeSantis’ team has also planned for him to hold an official campaign kickoff in his hometown of Dunedin, outside of Tampa, on Wednesday. This event is tentatively scheduled to occur during the week of Memorial Day; however, sources have cautioned that the specifics are subject to change.
The governor will also meet with donors during a two-day event beginning Wednesday in Miami.
He will enter the Republican primary as Trump’s most formidable challenger. A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll revealed that among Republicans and GOP-leaning independents, DeSantis is Trump’s closest potential opponent.
Among the six most prominent candidates, Trump secured 51% of Republicans and independents leaning Republican, while DeSantis received 25%. Nevertheless, most of these voters said they would be satisfied with either Trump (75%) or DeSantis (64%).
Last week, DeSantis held a call with donors and supporters during which he directly attἀcked Trump.
According to two people on the call, he stated, “You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing.”
“.. ‘You have basically three people at this point that are credible in this whole thing,’ Mr. DeSantis told donors. ‘Biden, Trump and me, and I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president — Biden and me ..’”
@jonathanvswan https://t.co/Ax5nkIqWpm
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla) May 18, 2023
“[President Joe] Biden, Trump and me. And I think of those three, two have a chance to get elected president: Biden and me, based on all the data in the swing states, which is not great for the former president and probably insurmountable because people aren’t going to change their view of him,” he remarked.
Tuesday, Trump’s team responded to the upcoming announcement of DeSantis by criticizing him for avoiding scrutiny.
“Announcing on Twitter is perfect for Ron DeSantis,” an advisor to Trump told ABC News. “This way he doesn’t have to interact with people and the media can’t ask him any questions.”
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Emma is a Master of Science candidate at the California Institute of Technology. Since approximately four years ago, she has been a freelance writer, producing content for newspapers, magazines, blogs, and the internet