On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis went on the run. On Tuesday it exploded.
A day after storming into the Republican primary for governor of Kentucky with a last-minute endorsement — a move that turned the race into a clear proxy fight between himself and former President Donald J. Trump — Mr. DeSantis saw his chosen candidate lose in a landslide to the Trump-backed rival.
To make matters worse for Mr. DeSantis, a Republican he had supported conceded to a Democratic opponent in the mayoral race in Jacksonville, the largest city in his state.
Mr. DeSantis’ preparations to run in the 2024 primary are ramping up. He has held a series of private dinners in Tallahassee with top donors, and on Tuesday shot directly at Trump for dodging whether he would sign a six-week abortion ban.
But on Monday, Mr. DeSantis received a last-minute approval and robocall for Kelly Craft, a former UN ambassador under Mr. Trump and a member of a Republican mega-donor family.
The move confused Kentucky Republicans and those who worked for her rivals: Although Ms. Craft spent a lot of money on the race, polls had suggested she was headed for defeat by the state’s attorney general, Daniel Cameron. an ally of Senator Mitch McConnell who Mr. Trump’s June 2022 endorsement. Representatives for Mr. DeSantis declined to comment.
“Kelly shares the same vision as we do in Florida,” Mr. DeSantis said in a recording sent to Republican voters on the eve of the primary.
In the end it was far from close. With nearly 90 per cent of the vote counted, she was a distant third, earning just 17 per cent of the vote to Mr Cameron’s 47 per cent.
“Let me just say,” Mr. Cameron said in his victory speech, “The Trump culture of winning is alive and well in Kentucky!”
His choice of words was telling: As Mr. DeSantis approaches the announcement of a presidential campaign, his obtuse speech has often called on the Republican Party to end its “culture of losing” during the Trump era. Monday was the expression splashed across the front page from The Des Moines Register after the governor campaigned in Iowa last weekend.
The Trump team applauded Mr. Cameron’s line. In fact, one of Trump’s top advisers, Chris LaCivita, announced it less than an hour before Mr. Cameron spoke. When the race was called, Mr. LaCivita wrote on Twitter, “so much for the #alwaysbackdown culture of winning.”
Never Back Down is the name of the main super-PAC that supports Mr. DeSantis. One of the top strategists of that super-PAC is Jeff Roe, whose consulting firm also worked for Ms. Craft.
Ms. Craft’s unsuccessful endorsement on the eve of the election was similar to the last-minute endorsement Mr. DeSantis gave Harmeet Dhillon in the race to head the Republican National Committee in January.
Mr. DeSantis called for “new blood” the day before that vote. The incumbent, Ronna McDaniel, won easily the next day.
Meanwhile, Mr. DeSantis’ night didn’t get any better in Jacksonville, where Daniel Davis, the Republican backed by the governor, lost to Donna Deegan, a Democrat, for an open seat. Mr. DeSantis had offered Mr. Davis little support other than his approval not to visit the city to campaign. Initial results showed Ms Deegan leading Mr Davis with about 52 percent of the vote.
Jacksonville has had Republican mayors for most of the past 30 years.