Ron DeSantis Has One Glaring Problem

Ahead of his expected 2024 announcement, there are continuing concerns that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis may struggle with the personal side of campaigning, as well as lacking the necessary charisma to become president.

DeSantis has long been thought to be the biggest challenger to Donald Trump for the GOP nomination in 2024, with the governor's stock rising as the former president faced criminal charges and was widely blamed for the GOP's poor performance in the 2022 midterms.

However, in recent weeks DeSantis has been languishing further behind in the polls to Trump, despite the former president's legal issues and recently being found liable for sexually abusing former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll, with suggestions DeSantis' 2024 campaign is floundering before it has even officially begun.

According to The New York Times, one area of concern from DeSantis' own team is that he struggles with personal etiquette while meeting with potential voters and influential donors. The governor's own team is said to have told DeSantis that he needs to engage in the "basics of political courtship: small talk, handshaking, eye contact" during his campaigning.

Donors reportedly expressed concerns in DeSantis' previous campaigning cycles that he has failed to engage with people sufficiently while working rooms, including constantly being on his phone and looking as if he did not even want to be there.

Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa evangelical leader, told The Times that he warned DeSantis that Iowa is a "retail politics state" where politicians must directly interact with potential voters and that the Florida governor needs to "shake people's hands, look them in the eye" if he has any hope of winning them over.

Newsweek has contacted DeSantis' office for comment via email.

DeSantis is hugely popular in Florida, as seen with his crushing reelection victory over Democrat Charlie Crist in the midterms in November 2022. However, DeSantis has never had to officially campaign on a national scale, and will be tasked with trying to win voters away from the still influential Trump in the GOP primary.

Joshua Scacco, associate professor and associate chair of the Department of Communication at the University of South Florida, said it will not be enough for DeSantis to rely on his firebrand politics and battle against the "woke agenda" if he wants to take his political career to the next level.

"Personality is an important component of assessments of presidents and presidential candidates. But it is a bit more complicated than being the happy warrior or glad-hander. It is about adaptability to the context in a manner that meets expectations or violates expectations in a manner that the audience finds affirming to their worldview," Scacco told Newsweek.

"A range of emotion and reaction to events, appropriately adapted to circumstances online and offline, is a means of leveling the ground between supporters and the elected official. It also is a means of humanization.

"What the governor's staff may be reacting to is the public and press expectations for a range of emotional displays necessary to campaign, something that Donald Trump and Joe Biden illustrate in a variety of ways," Scacco added.

This is not the first time that DeSantis' personality and charisma has been questioned as he geared up to launch his 2024 campaign. In March, Washington Post columnist Paul Waldman wrote an article titled "How much does charisma matter? DeSantis is putting it to the test."

In the piece, Walden suggested that while DeSantis is currently popular with his Republican base, he is "so lacking in charisma that winning the presidency would be exceedingly difficult."

In January, Politico's Jonathan Martin also published an opinion piece with the headline "Ron DeSantis Takes On the Likability Issue (Sort Of)" which details examples of how the Florida governor has "absorbed the critique about his aloofness and is making an effort at rebutting it."

The piece also includes a quote from Republican donor Francis Rooney, who described DeSantis as "a little reserved and dry" compared to past presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

"He is what he is. So what he needs to do is organize his campaign to minimize that characteristic," Rooney said.

Arguably the best-known attack on DeSantis' apparent lack of social skills came in March, when The Daily Beast reported that the governor was seen eating a chocolate pudding snack cup with three of his fingers while on board a private plane to Washington D.C.

The alleged pudding incident, which DeSantis denies occurred, was later referenced in a pro-Trump super PAC ad attacking DeSantis over his previous calls to cut social security and Medicare.

"I don't remember ever doing that, maybe when I was a kid," DeSantis told British broadcaster Piers Morgan in March when asked about the pudding eating claims.

"But it's interesting. There's a lot of people when they go [after] you, sometimes they have really good ammunition like 'you're a crook, you've said this, you did that.' For me, they're talking about pudding? Is that really the best you got? Okay, bring it on," DeSantis added.