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Ron DeSantis Continues to Earn Key Endorsements

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  May 16, 2023 5:00 PM

Although he has yet to formally announce his candidacy, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is enjoying an increasing amount of endorsements before he even makes his run official. This includes in his home state of Florida, in Iowa where he had just appeared, and in New Hampshire, which has the distinction of holding the first primary following the Iowa Caucus. 

While many in the Florida delegation have endorsed former and potentially future President Donald Trump, the new narrative out of Florida endorsements on Tuesday is that state Senate president Kathleen Passidomo and state House speaker Paul Renner have endorsed DeSantis.

Never Back Down shared the news of such endorsements in a Tuesday afternoon press release which includes statements from the lawmakers. 

In her statement, Passidomo in part spoke to how "There is no greater vision for the future of our country than the 'Florida Blueprint' Governor DeSantis spearheaded over the last several years," and also shared "Governor DeSantis is exactly the kind of leader we need for our country, and I look forward to supporting him for President."

Renner's statement not only touched upon DeSantis' successes, but also painted the scene for him facing President Joe Biden in 2024. 

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"Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continues to lead the state with his bold vision, dedicated focus, and commonsense solutions to keep Florida free from a radical agenda that, unfortunately, has turned us into a country without border control, law enforcement without funding, an education system without accountability, and an economy without hope for working families trying to earn a living," he said. "Gov. DeSantis has a proven record of delivering on the pro-family, pro-economic ideals that not only will keep Florida free but will be of critical importance in a 2024 presidential election. As Gov. DeSantis makes his final decision to run for higher office, it would be my honor to endorse his candidacy for President of the United States."

Renner also recently wrote a column for Townhall that touched upon the successes of the state legislature session that just ended earlier this month. It was published before his endorsement was announced.

Endorsements out of Iowa were also announced, where DeSantis had just spent the weekend attending events. A POLITICO report from last Friday mentioned 37 endorsements from Iowa state legislators, making for the largest announcement of Iowa legislative endorsements in the caucus' modern history. 

"The total haul represents more than one-third of the Iowa Republican legislative caucus, and far outpaces the amount of support received by any of the Republican candidates who ran in the 2016 GOP primary. The most received that year was by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who had the backing of a dozen Iowa state lawmakers, according to tracking figures compiled at the time," the POLITICO report mentioned. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) came in first in the 2016 Iowa Caucus, with 27.7 percent of the vote. Trump came in second with 24.3 percent of the vote. 

Even more telling about Iowa is that Trump does not appear to have all of the endorsements that he claims to have. As a Monday Axios report read:

The intrigue: Trump on Saturday rolled out his own slate of 150 endorsements from "elected and grassroots leaders" in Iowa — but at least three people on the list tell Axios they were not consulted and remain undecided.

  • Former GOP congressional candidate Gary Leffler told Axios that a reporter alerted him that his name was on Trump's list on Saturday — while he was attending DeSantis' event.
  • "I lean Trump, but I 100% believe that DeSantis is the future of the party for 2028," Leffler said, adding that he met with officials on both the Trump and DeSantis teams on Monday to discuss his support.
  • Laura Carlson, vice president of the Iowa Federation of Republican Women and founder of the club Republican Women of Central Iowa, was also surprised to see her name on the list — and told Axios she now wonders about the veracity of the other endorsements.
  • Another longtime GOP activist, who did not wish to be publicly named, told Axios that she was added to the list without a request from the Trump campaign, or any agreement from her.

The Trump campaign called a number of the people on the Iowa endorsement list after Axios reached out for comment.

Never Back Down also announced endorsements from 51 New Hampshire state legislators. Making the number even more significant is that among them are New Hampshire Republicans who, as mentioned by NBC News, had previously endorsed Trump mere weeks ago, but now support DeSantis. 

State Rep. Juliet Harvey-Bolia said in a telephone interview she's "endorsing both," explaining "DeSantis has a lot of promise for the future, and Trump is great now." State Rep. Lisa Smart, who is also included in the Never Back Down list also clarified in a statement for NBC News that her "support for [Trump] has not changed."