Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will launch his 2024 presidential campaign on May 24 in a Twitter Spaces interview with Elon Musk, The Epoch Times confirmed.
The news of the campaign launch follows months of speculation about the Florida governor’s formal entry into the 2024 race. DeSantis is jumping into the expanding GOP field currently dominated by former President Donald Trump.
Bryan Griffin, the press secretary for the DeSantis campaign operation, confirmed the plans in a text message to The Epoch Times. Fox News was the first to report the story. Elon Musk retweeted a message from a Fox News reporter breaking the story.
Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP field, has spent weeks attacking DeSantis in Truth Social posts and ads on national television. The ads attack DeSantis for supporting a national sales tax while in Congress, among other issues. DeSantis has largely refrained from attacking Trump.
The announcement event will take place at 6 p.m. on Wednesday on Twitter Spaces. The Spaces feature allows for a large group of people to participate in a voice conversation. The feature’s current iteration does not allow for video.
In an average of polls maintained by RealClearPolitics, Trump held the lead on May 23 with 56.3 points. DeSantis trailed in a distant second with 19.4 points. Other major candidates include entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and conservative talk show host Larry Elder.
The DeSantis announcement comes days on the heels of the official campaign launch by Scott. Trump, who has refrained from attacking candidates other than DeSantis, wished Scott “good luck” in a message on Truth Social. The message suggested that Trump views the growing field as a net negative for DeSantis.
“It is rapidly loading up with lots of people, and Tim is a big step up from Ron DeSanctimonious, who is totally unelectable. I got Opportunity Zones done with Tim, a big deal that has been highly successful,” Trump wrote.
A number of other Republicans are also entertaining bids, including former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Vice President Mike Pence.
