DeSantis or Trump? The choice is clear if Republicans actually want the White House

The 2024 election unofficially began this week with the long-awaited entry of Gov. Ron DeSantis into the Republican primary.

There’s a baker’s dozen of other announced and expected candidates, but the race is clearly a two-man show.

The choice before Republicans is simple: DeSantis or The Donald.

“We must end the culture of losing that has infected the Republican Party in recent years,” DeSantis said in Wednesday’s announcement on Twitter.

Trump was quick to (incoherently) attack

A lot of Republicans still endorse the culture of losing, but how many is an open question. Arizona conservatives have certainly seen enough of it.

“Government is not about entertainment, not about building a brand,” DeSantis added.

He didn’t bother to mention his opponent by name.

Not so with the one-term president, who has called out DeSantis nearly every waking hour for the past half year. Wednesday was no different, though exceptionally incoherent.

On Truth Social, Trump posted the following, and I quote: “’Rob,’ My Red Button is bigger, better, stronger, and is working (TRUTH!), yours does not! (per my conversation with Kim Jung Un, of North Korea, soon to become my friend!).”

Meanwhile, DeSantis is focusing on policy

As a team at Oxford University works to decipher the meaning, DeSantis is focusing on policy.

In his Twitter announcements, he answered questions in detail, from the pandemic response, to educational policy, to the constitutional overreach of Washington’s administrative state.

Promising to lead a “Great American Comeback,” the governor outlined an agenda much like the one he accomplished in Florida.

A record that earned him reelection by nearly 20 percentage points.

DeSantis wants a secure border. Less crime. More freedom.

Despite his detractors, none of this is radical; Democrats used to run on the same message.

He's the only one taking the fight to Biden

Considering Biden’s drooping approval ratings, perhaps he should crib from the governor’s notes instead of bashing him.

Even though Trump leads in the early polls, DeSantis remains the center of attention. He seems to be the only candidate taking the fight to Biden, while everyone else attacks the governor instead.

This is understandable since DeSantis has never lost a race. For all of Trump’s bluster, he can’t change the fact that he lost to Joseph Robinette Biden, of all people.

And he’s eager to do it again.

Arizona or Florida? GOP faces a stark choice about its future

Florida’s governor provides a striking contrast with his opponents in other ways.

DeSantis retired as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy, which would make him the first president to have served in a major military branch since George H.W. Bush.

Neither Trump nor Biden ever served.

DeSantis has something Trump, Biden don't

Then there’s the age question.

Biden is 80 and shows every year of it. Trump is 76 and can’t draw the crowds he used to.

DeSantis is 44 and arguably has achieved more big policy reforms as chief executive than either one of them.

As always, the choice is up to right-leaning voters, who remain a tough crowd to read.

Does the GOP want to defeat Biden at the polls, or spend another four years pretending that they won while a Democrat lives in the White House?

Do Republicans want to keep whining about stolen elections, losing court cases and making up conspiracy theories?

Or do they want to support a president improving the economy, fixing the border and reducing governmental interference in their daily lives?

If Republicans want to win, the choice is clear

One final question. Remember how you felt on Election Night 2016? Then remember how you felt in 2018, 2020 and 2022.

Which did you like better?

If conservative voters want to win again, the obvious choice is Ron DeSantis.

If they want to keep wallowing in the culture of losing, well, that choice is obvious as well.

Jon Gabriel, a Mesa resident, is editor-in-chief of Ricochet.com and a contributor to The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. On Twitter: @exjon.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: DeSantis vs. Trump is no contest if Republicans want the White House