New Hampshire Republicans have become accustomed to having their dream presidential candidates materialize in front of them before an invitation is even extended.
Yet the decision of one potential candidate to stay away until the end of the cycle has made him all the more interesting to 2024-thirsty Granite Staters.
The more Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has demurred, the more insatiable the demand has grown from New Hampshire Republicans to kick the tires on Florida’s “Top Gov,” as he referred to himself in a recent campaign ad.
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“I think DeSantis—maybe, because it’s something we don’t have and he hasn’t been here yet—that he’s the number one person people are trying to get here,” a Republican National committee member told The Daily Beast, requesting anonymity to discuss sensitive internal conversations ahead of the primary.
Dante Scala, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire, compared the anticipation surrounding DeSantis to a former president’s early campaign. The professor was not thinking of Donald Trump.
“Someone like Ron DeSantis can pick and choose his time, because he’s going to come in with a stature that will resemble Barack Obama circa 2007,” Scala told the Beast, specifically referring to excitement among the party base.
“Name ID is not an issue for him,” Scala continued. “The enthusiasm is there. If he comes, he’ll be covered by every political outlet that can get here.”
Sources familiar with early 2024 GOP presidential primary discussions told The Daily Beast that DeSantis won’t be seen in the Granite State until his general election matchup against Democratic congressman and former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist is over.
A consensus emerged “over the last month” that DeSantis would not be accepting any invitations to speak in New Hampshire, despite some rumblings of a potential appearance from earlier in the summer, the RNC member told the Beast.
The DeSantis campaign did not return the Beast’s request for comment
“Based on my conversations with the governor and his people, at this point, now that the primary is over, he’s a thousand percent focused on his reelection campaign,” Republican National Committee member Peter Feaman of Florida told The Daily Beast. “I would be surprised to see him go anywhere outside the state of Florida between now and November.”
That's not to say the governor has been staying close to home.
DeSantis has made a number of trips to campaign for fellow Republicans over the summer. On Sunday, DeSantis was scheduled to be at a fundraiser for Rep. Lee Zeldin in Oyster Bay on Long Island, but cancelled on the event for the New York Republican gubernatorial nominee due to an “unforeseen tragedy,” accord to The New York Post.
Not that there has been any shortage of contenders coming through the state.
Former Vice President Mike Pence, Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have already headlined the storied “Politics & Eggs” breakfast at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H.—a must-stop for any politician with presidential ambitions.
Other former Trump administration officials including former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have also visited New Hampshire over the past two years. Not to be outdone, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas (R) made a swing through the state just weeks before the 2020 election.
Yet DeSantis, as Scala explained, won’t need to bank those types of early appearances to bolster a potential run.
“There are certain candidates that have to do the traditional house party circuit, and then there are candidates who, from day one, have graduated beyond that,” Scala said. “And I think that would include DeSantis right away.”
Staying out of Trump’s line of fire is another important consideration, the RNC member added, with DeSantis currently enjoying a unique cross-appeal among both the MAGA contingent and the anyone-but-Trump-crowd.
While DeSantis remains at the top of the list from many Republicans in the state, the FBI raid of Mar-a-Lago had the effect of restoring some of Trump’s support among GOP figures who had otherwise soured on him a bit, according to Republican state Sen. Ruth Ward of Stoddard, who described the current state of play as a “toss up” between The Donald and The Ronald.
“People are very angry with what happened at Mar-a-Lago,” Ward told the Beast. “I think a lot of people have thought about, well, I don’t care how I feel about him, but I’m gonna vote for him. I like what I see from Ron DeSantis. He sounds like a good guy, but I’ll have to wait and see about what other things are happening.”
Several Republicans expressed hesitancy discussing DeSantis on the record, particularly in any relation to Trump.
Republican state Rep. Doug Thomas of Rockingham—who volunteered as Haley’s driver for one of her trips to the state and met Cotton ahead of the 2020 election—said there are “factions” within the party that want someone other than Trump to take the mantle in 2024, but wouldn’t say if he feels the same.
Thomas stopped short of criticizing the former president in any way, heaping equal doses of praise across some potential candidates.
“There are people who love Ron DeSantis. I like him,” Thomas said. “There are people who like Trump. I like him. There are people who like Kristi Noem. I like her.”
Should DeSantis run, and even if he were able to avoid “the house party circuit,” as Scala put it, he’ll still have to hobnob with party elites in more intimate settings.
While Feaman praised DeSantis’ ability to work a crowd, his RNC colleague expressed skepticism about how the governor’s skillset might translate to the peculiarities of the New Hampshire primary.
With the amount of access Granite State Republicans are accustomed to, DeSantis may face tougher questions in private settings than he would at his Tallahassee press conferences.
“Those are the kind of things he’s gonna find here. He’s not gonna have the questions he necessarily wants,” the RNC member said, cautioning that the combative tone he takes with the press — central to his appeal — would have to be dialed down in those more intimate settings.
“Donald Trump was confrontational with everybody basically, right?” they continued. “Corey Lewandowski is confrontational. I don’t think people are really loving confrontational anymore… I don’t think voters want somebody who is going to be confrontational with them.”
