Nolte: Ron DeSantis Should Run for President … Now

If Ron DeSantis wants to become president, he should not wait his turn; he should run in 2024.

There was only one red wave Tuesday night, and it hit Florida like nothing I’ve ever seen before.

Obviously, I was expecting a red wave across America. Obviously, I was wrong. But had anyone predicted the scope of the DeSantis triumph in Florida, I would have laughed in their face.

Florida’s a swing state, you moron!

DeSantis almost lost in 2018, you moron!

Charlie Crist has already won statewide and as governor, you moron!

Sure, DeSantis won’t lose by Miami-Dade by 21 points like he did in 2018, but win it by 11 points? No way.

Sure DeSantis will win the Hispanic vote, but 65 percent? No way.

Sure, DeSantis will beat Crist by four of five points, but by more than 19 points? No way.

And yet, that’s what happened. Four years ago, DeSantis barely eked out a win in a purple state, and, at least by the numbers, through his leadership and results, he turned that purple state into a state that’s redder than California is blue.

That’s right… in California, Democrat Gavin Newsom won by 15 points. DeSantis won by 19.

Again, if Ron DeSantis wants to become president, he must run in 2024.

This isn’t an endorsement. This isn’t an attack on President Trump. This is just a piece of cold, hard analysis.

You don’t become president by “waiting your turn.” Instead, you run while you’re on fire, when the wind is at your back, when the political gods are smiling down on you. I’ll give you three recent examples…

In 2008, Barack Obama was still Barack Obama, a phenom, someone people could wrap their hopes and dreams around. But-but-but it’s Hillary Clinton’s turn. Obama disagreed and made history. Had he waited four or eight more years, he might not have been Barack Obama anymore. He might have lost the glow, the fire, the halo. Another Barack Obama might have come along.

In 2012, Chris Christie was still Chris Christie. Remember that Chris Christie? Not the narcissistic, backstabbing, shameless mercenary talking head we see on TV today. I’m talking about the guy’s guy who loved Springsteen, who beat the teachers’ unions and won the governor’s chair in deep blue New Jersey twice. But-but-but it’s Mitt Romney’s turn. Yeah, okay. Flash-forward four years, and he’s not Chris Christie anymore. Instead, he’s the petty jerk who hugged Obama during the 2012 campaign and made his keynote address at the Republican convention all about him instead of our nominee Romney… He’s the guy who illegally closed a lane of traffic out of spite.

In 2016 it was Hillary’s turn … again. Two years earlier, Andrew Cuomo had won reelection as New York’s governor. That was his time. In 2016, Andrew Cuomo was still Andrew Cuomo. And we all saw what happened to him.

Does Ron DeSantis really want to wait six years? Will he still be Ron DeSantis in six years? He might be. But he could also make a political miscalculation or flub a hurricane… He’s an astonishingly talented politician, so maybe not. His biggest threat is giving Democrats and the media six years to demolish him with a fake scandal. To tie him up with lies. The traffic scandal in New Jersey ended up being a nothingburger. Christie had nothing to do with it. Didn’t matter. Right now, Democrats are quaking in their boots at the thought of DeSantis running for president. That means they will stop at nothing to destroy him. Ask Brett Kavanaugh about that.

But-but-but it’s Donald Trump’s turn.

Well, that’s not how this works.

As much as we would all like to see Trump vindicated by winning reelection in 2024, politics is not about anything other than winning elections.

The fact that it’s Donald Trump’s turn should not stop DeSantis. This is his time. This is his chance.

Fortune favors the bold and all that.

What’s more, Trump won’t be able to wipe DeSantis out with a nickname or any silly stuff that so effectively twisted Trump’s 2016 GOP opponents up in knots. It’s pretty easy to mock a U.S. Senator. They have no real record to run on. Additionally, there were no political superstars in that 2016 primary. DeSantis has a record as a doer and a fighter. DeSantis is a political superstar. Trump has already tried to attack DeSantis and discovered his supporters didn’t like it. So what we have here is a very different dynamic.

Regardless, a knockdown, drag-out, bloody-fisted primary almost always benefits the eventual nominee.