From backbench congressman to debate limelight: The rise of Ron DeSantis, soundbite by soundbite

Editor's note: Viewing this story in our app? Click here for a better experience on our website.

After years of building his political brand through policies that delighted conservatives and infuriated liberals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will put his ambition on the line Wednesday night in Milwaukee at the first debate of Republican presidential hopefuls.

It could pump life into his struggling campaign – or render him a footnote, leapfrogged by the next would-be Trump alternative.

Except for Donald Trump and Mike Pence, the once-obscure DeSantis will enter the debate stage as the best known candidate seeking the Republican nomination. The Harvard Caps-Harris Poll from July showed only 6% of voters had never heard of DeSantis, followed by 12% for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, 16% for former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and 17% for South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

It has been an impressive rise to national relevance for a man who spent six years in Congress as someone Politico described as an “awkward backbench lawmaker” who rarely made headlines.

Pollsters and political analysts credit an early endorsement from Trump during his first gubernatorial run and DeSantis’ controversial COVID-19 response with boosting his reputation nationally.

To understand how and when DeSantis became a household name outside of Florida, reporters from the Miami Herald, along with its parent company, McClatchy, analyzed data detailing the number of 15-second cable news clips from Fox, CNN and MSNBC that mentioned DeSantis each week. The analysis also included news articles referencing DeSantis from 11 major publications with large national reach.

Data showed DeSantis’ name recognition was built on a foundation of Fox News appearances, splashy made-for-TV moments that were red meat for MSNBC and CNN, and a relentless drumbeat of legislative action that generated headlines and controversy.

Continue scrolling to see how DeSantis’ national media profile grew over time — and when he had his most memorable moments.

Methodology

• The Internet Archive’s TV News Archive documents daily news coverage divided into 15-second clips. Using the GDELT Project’s Television Explorer tool, we searched for the clips mentioning DeSantis across CNN, Fox News and MSNBC’s broadcasts between 2009 and August 6, 2023. We then counted the number of clips per week by each outlet and identified the weeks with the most and least coverage by year. We combined the weekly totals for CNN and MSNBC as research and polling has shown there is significant crossover in audience between these two outlets and limited crossover with Fox News.

• Using Media Cloud, a database and analysis tool of online news articles, we searched for stories mentioning DeSantis between 2010 and August 6, 2023 across a selection of 11 online news publications. We queried publications with large circulations and national reach: New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, LA Times, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, NPR, Daily Beast, Politico, Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal. We then measured the total number of stories per week across the group of outlets. No Florida publications were included, as the purpose of the analysis was to look at DeSantis' national media profile.

• The circles and squares on the timeline reflect the number of 15-second clips or online news articles mentioning DeSantis per week. The size has been normalized based on the week of May 23, 2023 – in which DeSantis received the most mentions on each platform.