Donald Trump Given Prime Slot Over DeSantis at GOP Convention

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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As the Republican race for the 2024 presidential election gets truly underway following the addition of several new candidates in the past few days, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis and Mike Pence are all scheduled to speak at North Carolina's GOP convention this weekend.

Trump, who announced his third bid for presidency in November 2022 and appears to have an unbreakable lock on about one-third of the Republican electorate, will be speaking on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ET. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who officially entered the race last month after months of speculation over his candidacy, was assigned the slot at 6:30 p.m. ET on Friday.

Pence, the former vice president and ex-Trump ally who announced his bid for 2024 earlier this week, will be speaking between the two candidates, at 12:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.

Ron DeSantis
Presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis listens to his wife speak to a crowd on June 2, 2023, in Gilbert, South Carolina. The governor had campaign stops scheduled for Beaufort, Columbia and Greenville on... Sean Rayford/Getty Images

The convention will be held between June 8 and 11 at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, North Carolina, and includes other major guests and speakers like Ralph Reed, founder and chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, and Paul Newby, chief justice at the North Carolina Supreme Court.

"Trump's headliner status at the Republican convention in North Carolina reflects a very simple reality: in today's GOP, he's the main attraction, the de facto leader of the party, and the prohibitive favorite to take the presidential nomination all wrapped up into one," Thomas Gift, associate professor of political science in the School of Public Policy at University College London, told Newsweek.

"That doesn't mean he has the 2024 nod locked up. But more and more Republican leaders seem to be assuming that the next several months are shaping up to be a Trump coronation."

In the last few months, DeSantis has emerged as the very clear No. 2 in the Republican race, trying to pick off Republican voters who aren't already sided with Trump. The Florida governor has avoided presenting himself as anti-Trump, showing instead he would be a continuation of Trump in terms of politics and attitude—a strategic decision that experts think would make it harder for him to collect more votes than the former president.

But the kickoff of his presidential campaign, which was launched on Twitter Space among glitches and technical difficulties, has set off DeSantis to a tricky start.

Now, the fact that DeSantis was given the worst time slot at the North Carolina GOP convention could be seen as a sign that the party is still betting on Trump for 2024, with the former president being granted the prime time slot. In the convention's website's page listing of the major speakers and guests invited to the event, DeSantis is third after Trump and Pence.

As of June 7, polling website FiveThirtyEight reported that Trump is ahead in national polls, collecting an estimated 53.8 percent of the vote among Republicans. DeSantis followed suit with 21.2 percent of the vote, trailed by Pence with 5.4 percent.

Newsweek has contacted DeSantis' office for comment by email.

Other Republican candidates who have declared their candidacy for 2024—Nikki Haley, Ryan Binkley, Doug Burgum, Chris Christie, Larry Elder, Asa Hutchinson, Perry Johnson, Vivek Ramaswamy and Tim Scott—haven't been listed as speakers at the North Carolina convention.

Update 06/08/2023 at 9 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a comment from expert Thomas Gift.

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About the writer

Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property insurance market, local and national politics. She has previously extensively covered U.S. and European politics. Giulia joined Newsweek in 2022 from CGTN Europe and had previously worked at the European Central Bank. She is a graduate in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University and holds a Bachelor's degree in Politics and International Relations from Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Italy. She speaks English, Italian, and a little French and Spanish. You can get in touch with Giulia by emailing: g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

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Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on the U.S. economy, housing market, property ... Read more