DeSantis’s Track Record in Florida Would Boost Potential 2024 Run, But Work is Needed to Reach Non-Florida Voters: Analysts

Amid a national discussion about whether President Joe Biden is too old to pursue a reelection bid in 2024, commentators and journalists have floated a number of hypothetical general election matchups in the event that he does not run. Prominent among these potential scenarios is a contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Political observers and experts, including senior figures within Republican Party politics, have expressed a range of views to The Epoch Times about the governor’s prospects in such a race, with some praising his economic record in Florida and others arguing that DeSantis still needs to do considerable work to build appeal and name recognition outside Florida on par with the current vice president.

Harris’s supporters within the mainstream media have dismissed characterizations of her tenure as vice president as largely undistinguished and devoid of real accomplishments, and have argued that she will be a strong candidate in 2024 if Biden turns out not to run. In a July 11 MSNBC segment titled “Harris, despite wave of critical media coverage, still beats DeSantis in 2024 polling,” host Joe Scarborough acknowledged that 64 percent of Democrat voters want a candidate other than Biden to be the party’s nominee in 2024.

Scarborough contended that if Harris ends up as the nominee, then in spite of daily negative headlines about her, Harris will easily defeat either former president Donald Trump or Governor DeSantis in the general election.

Vice President Kamala Harris, speaks during the Online Harassment and Abuse Task Force announcement at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, on June 16, 2022. (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

Calling DeSantis, derisively, “the great white hope,” Scarborough suggested that, for all DeSantis’s popularity among some resentful white voters, polling results show Harris beating DeSantis in head-to-head matchups. Scarborough alluded

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases