MIAMI – Gov Ron DeSantis, who was born in Jacksonville, spent most of his childhood in Dunedin, a city on Florida’s Gulf Coast. That is where he is expected to officially launch his 2024 presidential campaign.
DeSantis will likely be filing with the Federal Election Commission before his donors meet at the Four Seasons Hotel from Wednesday to Friday in Miami’s Brickell neighborhood.
Federal campaign finance laws will not allow DeSantis to solicit donations before the FEC filing.
DeSantis has a new campaign office in Tallahassee with staffers in place in other key states. He traveled to Iowa last week and to New Hampshire this week. An Atlanta-based political action committee already funded a slick ad.
CROWDED PRIMARY
The race to become the Republican Party’s nominee has already started and there have already been signs of what’s to come.
On Thursday, when The Walt Disney Company announced a decision to cancel a $1 billion development in Florida, former President Donald Trump quickly had ammunition.
Trump announced his run on Nov. 15, 2022, Nikki Haley announced her run on Feb. 14, Vivek Ramaswamy followed on Feb. 21, and Asa Hutchinson on April 2.
Other potential candidates include former vice president Mike Pence, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, Tim Scott, Kristi Noem, Liz Cheney, and Chris Christie.
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Coverage of DeSantis-Disney feud
LAST YEAR
- March 8: Parental Rights in Education/’Don’t Say Gay’ bill passes
- March 10: Disney pledges $5 million in support of LGBTQ rights
- March 28: DeSantis signs the bill into law
- April 19: DeSantis pushes to end Disney self-government
- April 22: DeSantis signs Disney government dissolution bill
THIS YEAR
Jan. 12: “The corporate kingdom has come to an end,” DeSantis said. “You cannot have a corporation controlling its own government. That is not good governance.”
- Feb. 6: DeSantis expected to control Disney district governing board
- Feb. 8: DeSantis says Disney ‘will pay its debt’
- Feb. 9: DeSantis nears takeover of Disney government
- Feb. 27: DeSantis signs bill stripping Disney’s self-governing status
- March 29: DeSantis’ board says Disney stripped them of power
- April 3: Disney-DeSantis war of words heats up at annual meeting
- April 12: Gov. DeSantis surrogates escalate tit-for-tat versus Disney
- April 17: DeSantis seeks to control Disney with state oversight powers
- April 19: DeSantis appointees begin reshaping Disney World’s district
- April 26: Disney sues DeSantis, calling park takeover ‘retaliation
- May 12: DeSantis hands Disney Monorail inspections over to FDOT
- May 16: Disney asks judge to dismiss DeSantis-appointed board’s lawsuit
Local 10 News Digital Journalist Andrea Torres contributed to this report.