Staff Reports
In an unusual statement, Republican Governor of Maryland Larry Hogan said that the presidential campaign of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was close to being over. DeSantis is a leading candidate for the Republican Party's nomination in 2024. This comes as a surprise since he is one of the most prominent individuals in the race. Hogan has been outspoken against Donald Trump. He has vowed to prevent the former president from becoming the party's nominee.
During a recent interview with CBS News' Major Garrett, Republican presidential candidate Pat Hogan said that there is a possibility that an independent or third party candidate could be offered to voters in the upcoming election to challenge Donald Trump or Joe Biden. He noted that he was focused on stopping Trump from becoming the party's nominee.
In response to Garrett's question about the campaign of Republican candidate for governor, Michael DeSantis, Hogan said that he has not been able to connect with voters. Although he started his campaign with a lot of attention and fundraising, he also made numerous mistakes.
Hogan noted that the voters of the Republican primary may have initially thought that DeSantis would be a better alternative to Trump. However, they eventually decided that they did not like what they saw. This led to the Florida governor's dropping in the polls. Other candidates started to rise in the polls, but they still remained in the single digits.
@GovLarryHogan on Ron Desantis' performance in his presidential bid:
"He started making all kinds of mistakes.. I think the campaign is one of the WORST I've seen so far.."pic.twitter.com/WT0uc97dJ9
— Dog Faced Pony Soldier™ 🇮🇪 (@D0gFacedPony) June 22, 2023
During the interview, Garrett asked Hogan if the campaign of DeSantis was over. He noted that it was close to being over, but he also said that there was a possibility that he could still come back. This has been the case with other candidates who initially fell behind and won their party's nomination.
According to Hogan, DeSantis' poor performance in the polls was due to his controversial statements about Ukraine and culture wars. However, he does not have evidence to support his claims that the Republican candidate's falling poll numbers were due to his own actions. Instead, it is the result of the voters' sympathy for Trump being indicted by special prosecutors.
Despite his strong opposition to Donald Trump, Hogan was not able to gain much support in the polls. He announced in March that he would not be running for president in 2024 and instead would support whoever would be the Republican nominee. DeSantis was not included in Hogan's list of possible challengers.
Source: Conservative Institute
