What Was Behind Ron DeSantis's 'Baffling' 11th-Hour Kentucky Endorsement?

Questions have been raised as to why Florida Governor Ron DeSantis set himself up for failure by waiting until the last minute to publicly announce he was endorsing Kelly Craft in the Kentucky GOP gubernatorial primary.

DeSantis, who is expected to confirm he is running for president in the coming days, weighed in to Kentucky election on the day the polls opened to confirm he was backing Craft, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to win the race and set up a face off against Democratic Governor Andy Beshear in November.

"You've had a woke liberal governor who's put a radical agenda ahead of Kentuckians. The stakes couldn't be higher. I know what it takes to stand up for what's right, and Kelly Craft's got it. She's proven it. I'm strongly encouraging you to go out and vote for my friend Kelly Craft," DeSantis said in his endorsement, which Craft shared on social media just hours before the polls closed on May 16.

The endorsement essentially set up a proxy war between DeSantis and former President Donald Trump, whom the Florida governor must beat in the GOP primary in order to achieve his goal of entering the White House.

Trump had endorsed Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron in the gubernatorial primary, and it was the former president's candidate who went on to clinch the nomination on Tuesday.

Even worse for DeSantis was that Craft, who was already behind the polls when he gave his 11th hour endorsement, ended up finishing third in the primary, with Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner Ryan Quarles beating her to second place.

Experts have since questioned the decision from DeSantis to involve himself so late in the game in a out-of-his-home state election just to back a candidate who looked set to be defeated by one endorsed by Trump, who has long cited his success in backing candidates that go on to win their GOP primaries as a sign of his powerful influence on Republican voters.

"It's actually quite baffling why DeSantis would jump in at the 11th hour to endorse a candidate that then got flogged in the election just a few hours later," David B. Cohen, professor of political science at the University of Akron in Ohio, told Newsweek.

"Perhaps it was a way to get his name out—but that's offset by the beating his candidate took and the subsequent embarrassment. Maybe DeSantis and his team are not as good at this campaign stuff as the political class believes."

Stephen Voss, a political science professor at the University of Kentucky, noted it is unclear exactly when DeSantis decided to back Craft in the race, just that she opted to tweet out his message of support on May 16.

Voss suggested that there is a possibility Craft garnered DeSantis' support in April, when an Emerson College poll showed that Craft had cut into Cameron's lead to just six points (30 percent to 24 percent).

Craft publicized the DeSantis support after a final Emerson College Polling/Fox 56 Lexington survey of the Kentucky Republican primary showed Cameron with a formidable 16-point lead over Craft (33 percent to 17.6 percent).

Cameron went on to beat Quarles by 26 points (47.7 to 21.7 percent), with Craft 30 points behind in third place (17.2 percent).

"The follow-up Emerson poll that cast doubt on Craft's strong position only came out on May 14, which seems pretty late in the election season for a campaign still to be lining up endorsements," Voss told Newsweek.

"Regardless of when the DeSantis recording was made, my guess is that Craft's team rolled out the DeSantis endorsement at the last minute, risking the wrath of Trump partisans, because they knew she needed help."

Following Tuesday's election, a political operation official close to DeSantis' team told Newsweek that the Florida governor has been friends with Craft for a long time and was keen to support her in the primary.

Rather than be concerned about how craft's defeat may affect voters' views on DeSantis, his office now believes the priority in Kentucky is that a Republican defeats Beshear in November.

In his victory speech Tuesday night, Cameron thanked Trump for his endorsement while mocking DeSantis over his recent comments suggesting the GOP has developed a "culture of losing" while being led by the former president.

"The Trump culture of winning is alive and well in Kentucky," Cameron said.