Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday he does not view his middling poll numbers as a problem at this stage in the presidential primary race, adding that his opponents on the other side of the aisle and even outside the United States see him as the biggest threat to their power.
Former President Donald Trump continues to lead DeSantis, who himself has also separated himself from the rest of the field. The governor said that his campaign has only just started, and that by next year, his support will rise substantially as he shares Florida's success story under his leadership
"Bidenomics in a nutshell, is: 'You pay more for the necessities of life. Your standard of living goes down, the government gets bigger and more powerful. And ultimately China will benefit from a lot of stuff," he said.
"The reason why Florida's done good leading and net in-migration, and leading in new business formation is our unemployment rate's way lower than the national average is because we've rejected Bidenomics. We govern conservatively. We don't spend our state into oblivion."
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That net in-migration will be key to proving why he is the right man to take on President Biden -- presuming Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. or Marianne Williamson are unable to clinch the Democratic nomination -- DeSantis said on "Fox News Tonight."
DeSantis went on to somewhat express former President Franklin Roosevelt's axiom of judging a man by his enemies, remarking that he is getting the most blowback and criticism from the leftist establishment, suggesting it shows he is their biggest concern, and not someone like Trump.
"I think if you look at the people like the corporate media, who are they going after? Who do they not want to be the nominee? They're going after me," he said.
DeSantis also pointed out left-wing leaders outside the United States are also keying into his candidacy, referencing how Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador advised Hispanic Americans not to support DeSantis after he pledged support for the border wall and made other comments about controlling the open border.
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"All of his playing politics with migrants was because he wanted to be the Republican Party candidate – I hope the Hispanics of Florida wake up and don't give him a single vote," Lopez Obrador said in May.
DeSantis said Lopez Obrador is targeting him because he knows a DeSantis administration will hold Mexico City accountable for cartel criminality.
"I think if you look at all these people that are responsible for a lot of the ills in our society, they're targeting me as the person they don't want to see as the candidate," he said.
"So this campaign just started. But I think it's pretty clear that I'm the guy that not only can beat Biden, I'm the guy that can beat the left on all these different issues because people's freedoms are under assault."
He said he is not entirely focused on early polling, in part because the first primary contests are still months away
"[O]f any Republican in the country, I have the best record of defeating the left. On issue after issue, and we'll be making that case over the next six or seven months. I'm running to win in January and February. I'm not running to juice polling now," he said.
When asked about the perception he doesn't connect personally with enough voters, DeSantis pointed to his recent fundraising numbers and noted he remains in a strong second place while claiming Trump spent more against him than he did supporting GOP nominees in 2022.
The ‘Make America Great Again PAC', which supports Trump, did spend more in anti-DeSantis advertising than it did in the 2022 midterms, according to FEC filings cited by NewsNation.
"It is 'three yards and a cloud of dust'-type situation," DeSantis said. "At the end of the day, nobody has stood up for hardworking Americans more than I have over these last five years and delivered the level of results that I have… if we did it at Florida, we absolutely can do it as president."
