The Far-Right Group That Could Be Key to DeSantis' Success

Florida Governor and Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis this month called in to a forum featuring dozens of conservative state lawmakers from around the country to share his vision for the United States.

The call, organized and led by the State Freedom Caucus Network, was the first in a series of forums the organization had planned to offer their members—some of the most conservative Republican lawmakers in the nation—a direct conduit to the people who one day hoped to become the leaders of the modern GOP.

"Part of every Republican candidates' campaign is to reach out to as many state lawmakers as possible to earn their endorsements," Andy Roth, president of the State Freedom Caucus Network, told Newsweek. "We felt that since we have 135 state lawmakers across 11 states, it made sense for us to reach out to the candidates and urge them to do a Zoom call with them, just to make it easier on them and, frankly, to make it easier on us."

But it also helped demonstrate how influential the State Freedom Caucus Network, which the group claims will be active in nearly half of the state legislatures across the country by the end of this year, had become in conversations around whom their party would elevate to the presidency in 2024. And DeSantis, looking to outflank former President Donald Trump from the right, was the first candidate rushing to court their members' endorsement.

As candidates seek to dethrone Trump as the party's presumptive nominee, some—DeSantis most prominent among them—have sought to challenge his credibility among conservatives, criticizing his record on everything from his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic to his more moderate position on abortion.

And in their states, State Freedom Caucus Network members have sought to spark a revolution against a more moderate brand of conservative that its members claim has abandoned the party's values.

Republican Revolution

Founded by former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, the State Freedom Caucus Network oversees a coalition of nearly one-dozen conservative groups modeled on the House Freedom Caucus in Congress.

Primarily in red states, the group has a presence everywhere from conservative strongholds like Wyoming and South Dakota to swing states like Arizona and Pennsylvania, which have traditionally played key roles in deciding who wins the presidency.

But it also has a presence in the early primary state of South Carolina, which will likely prove critical for each of the Republican candidates seeking the party's nomination.

A reliably conservative state, South Carolina's Freedom Caucus has been among the nation's most vocal, threatening to primary more moderate members of the party and running successful litigation to remove materials teaching "critical race theory" from public schools.

Trump officially launched his campaign efforts with visits to New Hampshire and South Carolina earlier this year, and plans to host a July 1 rally in South Carolina in a friendly region some expect to be a show of force for his support in the state.

DeSantis, meanwhile, has made his own inroads into the state, courting former Trump donors in Charleston as early as last winter and holding a rally in Greenville this month that featured several prominent members of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus.

Several presidential hopefuls, including South Carolina Senator Tim Scott and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, have sought to corner shares of the state legislature to back them early on. But while few members of the Freedom Caucus in the state have publicly endorsed, only two candidates truly have their attention: Trump and DeSantis. And their endorsements will prove crucial as both candidates seek to make their first impressions on Southern voters.

"I personally think that it comes down to those two as it relates to the South Carolina Freedom Caucus," South Carolina Republican Representative R.J. May, a member of the South Carolina Freedom Caucus and a Republican political operative in the state, told Newsweek. "I don't know if anybody else really has a chance to land any of the members' endorsements."

Conservative Champion

While many members have kept their preferences close to chest, May said they largely share a similar vision not only for what they want out of their government but their candidate.

They want reduced restrictions on Americans' right to own and bear firearms, and stricter limits on abortion. They want limits on government spending, and an end to subsidies for large corporations in burgeoning industries like electric vehicles. And they want severe restrictions on curriculum around topics like race and gender identity, as well as other policies impacting the LGBTQ+ community they say their more moderate counterparts have shied away from.

DeSantis, who has led a conservative revolution in Florida, sought to talk that talk.

While the phone conversation was off the record, Freedom Caucus members told Newsweek that DeSantis pledged to use his power under Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution to fire anybody in his administration not acting in accordance with his agenda and his policy goals, an approach he has regularly employed as Florida's governor against the "woke" administration of Florida's New College and prosecutors who refused to comply with his policy goals.

Newsweek reached out to a DeSantis campaign representative by email for comment.

But going too far to the right, some caution, could lead those candidates to turn off the voters they likely need to win.

Willamette University professor Seth Cotlar—an expert on the American right—told Newsweek that such a formula has traditionally imperiled candidates in general election environments. By looking to galvanize their party's activists in states like California and his native Oregon, he said, Republicans there alienated independent voters and all but lost their ability to be competitive in a general election environment, a fate recent election results have indicated could be Republicans' downfall on wedge issues like abortion.

"The part that doesn't make sense to me is the way that they're focusing all their energies doubling down on incredibly unpopular policies," Cotlar said. "Like the extremity of it is making them less popular and less able to win elections.

"The point of a party is to win and to get power. But you're doing things that seem to make it harder for you to accomplish that goal."

Disunited Front

Many Freedom Caucus members found success in their own states by primarying more moderate incumbents.

In Wyoming, most rose to prominence by defeating more moderate incumbents in primaries, while South Carolina expanded their majorities in red or even competitive districts with candidates pushing conservative positions on issues like abortion.

But in other states, the Freedom Caucus' activities on the ground have already begun to open serious rifts within the party.

The activities of Arizona's Freedom Caucus—which has mirrored the stolen election rhetoric of losing far-right gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake—prompted a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus in Congress, Representative David Schweikert, to disavow the group, telling Punchbowl News he believed the group was "operating much more on their passions than protecting all the gains they made in the last couple of years."

In South Carolina, moderate Republicans, including DeSantis-supporting state lawmaker Micah Caskey, have railed against members of their Freedom Caucuses, often accusing them of pushing short-sighted legislation designed to further their own political ambitions.

And in deep-red Wyoming—which counts just two Democrats in the state Senate and five in the House—legislative leadership has regularly sparred with Freedom Caucus members, leading Republican House Speaker Albert Sommers to pen an op-ed lambasting the group for sowing division within their ranks that threaten to weaken the party.

Freedom Caucus members, however, insist their party's recent losses come not from a lack of popularity but a lack of conviction. Despite hardline conservative state Senator Doug Mastriano's disastrous gubernatorial bid that year, Pennsylvania's Freedom Caucus notably formed immediately after Republicans lost their majority in Harrisburg, while in Louisiana, the Freedom Caucus was formed this year as an offshoot of an alternative "conservative caucus" they believed was too lenient on social issues.

That degree of conviction for their priorities, Freedom Caucus members hope, will be one that the party's chosen candidate embraces in 2024.

"Republicans have traditionally had this problem with [their candidates] campaigning as a true conservative, winning election, and then running as far to the middle or even to the left as possible once they're in office," May said. "And time and time again, we've seen what that does for us, and that that causes us to lose elections. It causes us to sow the seeds of distrust among our constituents. And that's a problem."