Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) on Thursday encouraged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “to make up his mind” about 2024 as anticipation builds that the governor could launch a presidential bid and get in the GOP primary ring with former President Trump.
“He’s got one leg, one foot in running for president and the other one not,” Kasich, who ran against Trump for the presidential primary in 2016, said of DeSantis on MSNBC. “And, I mean, one of the issues is: you got to jump in at some point.”
“How do you go to somebody in Florida who’s a member of Congress, who lives in fear of Donald Trump, and you say, ‘I’m not going to be for you, Donald Trump, I’m going to be for DeSantis,’ but DeSantis isn’t really yet running?” he asked, later adding “So I think he’s got to make up his mind as to when he’s actually going to jump in.”
Trump, who lost his 2020 reelection bid to President Biden, announced his 2024 campaign just after the November midterms. DeSantis has repeatedly polled as a top potential contender for a hypothetical GOP primary alongside Trump, but has been coy about whether he’ll get in the race.
He’s hinted that he could decide after the state’s legislative session ends in May, and has been upping his national profile with a book tour that’s been seen by some as preparation for a 2024 campaign.
Though Trump has found himself well ahead of DeSantis in some polling, Kasich said earlier this month that he thinks there’s “no chance” the former president gets another term in the White House.
Republicans might be able to look past some of Trump’s legal woes, like the criminal charges he faces in a Manhattan case that he’s decried as a “witch hunt,” but a Georgia probe into efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the state and a Justice Department investigation into Trump’s handling of classified documents could “be too much water for him to take,” Kasich said.
Trump earlier this week said a DeSantis campaign in 2024 would “only hurt and somewhat divide the Republican Party” and that the governor would “lose the cherished and massive MAGA vote, and never be able to successfully run for office again.”
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Chip Roy (R-Texas) in recent weeks both preemptively endorsed DeSantis, despite the Florida governor not having launched a campaign.