A little over a year ago, Ron DeSantis had it all: The Florida governor won his state with a commanding margin in his reelection campaign, and with Donald Trump’s midterm endorsements mostly flopping, he was leading among Republican voters in some presidential polling. Plus no one was looking at the weird shoes that he wore in an apparent effort to make him look taller. But on the campaign trail in Iowa, the Florida governor just couldn’t figure out how to turn that momentum into anything real — or figure out how to talk to people at all, really.
While DeSantis’s decision to drop out of the presidential race is a letdown for the 21 percent of Iowa Republicans who backed him — and the donors who gave him $150 million to burn — the Florida governor’s exit is a wonderful opportunity for the rest of us to relish in the defeat of one of the worst retail politicians in recent memory. Below are the most embarrassing and unusual moments from his short, expensive campaign.
Failure to launch
In May 2023, DeSantis made the unusual decision to launch his campaign via a Spaces stream on X with Elon Musk. There were many problems with the concept. Why announce a campaign with someone who is orders of magnitude more famous than you? Was it a good idea to launch a presidential campaign on an audio-only feed? Perhaps if your middle name is Delano, but 21st-century voters tend to respond to the magical technology of streaming video.
The greatest problem was that Musk had fired a large percentage of the staff formerly devoted to keeping the app operating, so the stream crashed several times during the announcement. It was a sign of things to come.
Puddinggate and more weird food stuff
Even before DeSantis formally announced his candidacy, Donald Trump — a weird eater in his own right — was hammering him for his unusual ways of eating. Of particular note was a report that DeSantis ate pudding on a plane by scooping it out of the cup with three of his fingers. Trump soon ran ads on the alleged pudding incident and shortly thereafter every one of his dining habits was under scrutiny. He would complain about food and thank bartenders without looking at them and appeared rather strained trying to drink a beer:
DeSantis at the Never Back Down reception room enjoys a Coors Light after taking photos with attendees, following speech at Iowa GOP dinner, says, “We’re gonna get it done.” pic.twitter.com/W5rnOFGvKs
— Kit Maher (@KitMaherCNN) July 29, 2023
He just could not shmooze
Save for a small number of talented retail politicians and charismatic uncles, most people don’t really like to shmooze — but at least know how to fake it. DeSantis truly did not have this skill in him, which created a barrier in first-in-the-nation states like New Hampshire and Iowa, where voters expect their politicians to glad-hand a little.
He fake-laughed too hard at jokes:
oh my god why did no one tell me this is what the video looks like pic.twitter.com/pPcff2UeB7
— Tim Hogan (@timjhogan) May 16, 2023
He returned to his resting state of profound discomfort immediately after those fake laughs:
Having a proverbial beer with Ron DeSantis pic.twitter.com/UJ78AtjzsN
— Isaac Arnsdorf (@iarnsdorf) July 29, 2023
He did not look natural in the diner visits demanded of a presidential hopeful. A tip to future politicians: Do not ask for someone’s name and then respond with “Okay.” It’s more of a “Nice to meet you” scenario.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shows up at a New Hamspire diner pic.twitter.com/QF3QROyMPY
— Politics Steady (@PoliticsSteady) May 19, 2023
It got so bad that basic bodily motions seemed to collapse under the pressure:
Just normal human stuff pic.twitter.com/25q3JYih4A
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) August 8, 2023
He wasn’t exactly great with kids
DeSantis couldn’t figure out how to talk to children and teenagers on the campaign trail, either. At a coffee-shop stop in Iowa last summer, a 15-year-old asked DeSantis, a former Navy officer, about people with mental-health issues joining the military. “I can’t legally vote,” the teenager said. “But I struggle with major depressive disorder.”
“It’s never stopped the other party from not letting you vote,” DeSantis said.
Easier interactions also confounded him. In another summer visit to Iowa, DeSantis expressed his displeasure with a kid’s snack choice:
Gov. DeSantis to Iowa girl enjoying an ICEE: “That's probably a lot of sugar, huh?”
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) July 27, 2023
pic.twitter.com/imPZOnr0Dt
The debate smile that backfired
Most politicians smile to connect with voters, an exchange that pretty much all simians have locked in, no problem. DeSantis, however, could not figure this out:
DeSantis closes with an awkward tongue-exposing smile pic.twitter.com/fyVimwa2UP
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 9, 2023
The campaign staff phoning it in
Following DeSantis’s underwhelming performance in Iowa — the state he invested heavily in as a proving ground for his campaign — several reports dove into the details of the Florida governor’s collapse. NBC News even sourced a photo of the head of his PAC working on a puzzle in the lead-up to the caucuses.
NEW — In the critical week before Iowa, the head of Never Back Down was doing something puzzling: Spending hours on jigsaw puzzle at HQ. A deep look at how DeSantis’ bid was doomed from the start by @Mdixon55 @DashaBurns @akarl_smith @_abigailbrooks https://t.co/f2a4r2JUzJ pic.twitter.com/MuHA0FtSEG
— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) January 21, 2024
“In the headquarters of Never Back Down in West Des Moines, Iowa, Wagner was, according to some of his staff, spending a significant amount of time in the precious final few days constructing a peaceful 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle of a landscape,” the report states.
