They still do that?

What DeSantis needs to do at tonight’s debate

By KIMBERLY LEONARD

Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t hurt himself during his first Republican presidential primary debate a month ago in Milwaukee, and a plurality of voters in one poll even thought he won.

But it might not be enough to give the governor the boost he needs to clear the field with less than four months to go before the Iowa Caucuses and with former President Donald Trump’s substantial lead.

A couple of things will be unchanged tonight from the last debate. DeSantis will still be standing in the center of the stage — a place reserved for the top tier-candidates. And once again Trump won’t be there.

But DeSantis is in a weaker position than he was about a month ago, according to both national and statewide polls and signs of his diminishing stature in Florida. Few GOP voters mention the governor during the anti-Trump Republican Accountability Project’s regular focus groups, said Gunner Ramer, political director at the organization. He concluded that DeSantis had worked too hard to appeal to die-hard Trump voters instead of focusing on winning over the “Maybe Trump” or “Move on From Trump” voters.

“In doing so, he had to run to Trump’s right in a way that undermined his best pitch: Electability,” Ramer said. “Tactical error from him.”

Ahead of tonight’s debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., the DeSantis campaign alerted donors that the “fundamentals” of the race were unchanged and that DeSantis would be the only candidate who could beat Trump and President Joe Biden, in large part thanks to fundraising and his record of conservative policy victories.

Tonight’s Fox Business debate gives DeSantis an opportunity to remind voters why there was so much hype about him a year ago and why he won reelection by historic margins in Florida. The pressure is high for him to deliver a show-stopping moment that gets everyone talking, according to multiple pre-debate coverage stories.

Voters and the political class will be watching to see whether and how he calls out Trump (or entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who could be seen as a Trump proxy and was at times the focus of the first debate), how he fights back when any rivals on stage go after him, how he works to appeal to the non-Trump base and which parts of his life and policy record he chooses to highlight.

“DeSantis needs to do everything right from here on out, and at an A+ level,” said GOP strategist Liz Mair, who previously worked for the Republican National Committee. “That includes this debate.”

Point Bridge Capital CEO Hal Lambert, a DeSantis donor, put a bigger emphasis on winning the Iowa Caucuses, saying that would narrow the race down to Trump and DeSantis more than any debate could. If Trump wins Iowa and New Hampshire, he predicted, then he’ll likely win the nomination. Trump leads by double-digits in Iowa polling and even DeSantis’ campaign team has lowered expectations there.

“We didn’t have a Republican nominee named Herman Cain or Newt Gingrich,” Lambert said. “They both had breakouts after debates and then faded and they were late breakouts. Winning at the ballot is the key.”