No punches pulled as Ron DeSantis, Gavin Newsom spar on Fox News

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis showcased a livelier, more aggressive version of himself than he has in three previous Republican presidential primary debates during a showdown against California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday that saw two of the country’s most ambitious governors spar viciously over their records.

The faceoff on Fox News marked DeSantis’ first one-on-one debate with a political rival since he launched his bid for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination in May. It also offered him the rare opportunity to go head to head with a Democrat rather than fellow Republicans.

Throughout the 90-minute debate, DeSantis sought to sharpen his case against Democratic governance, both in California and nationally, while reminding Republican voters of his underlying argument for seeking the White House: he lifted Covid-19 restrictions long before many other states and helped grow Florida’s population by hundreds of thousands of residents since he became governor nearly five years ago.

“In Florida we show that conservative principles work,” DeSantis said. “This country must choose freedom over failure.”

DeSantis repeatedly hit Newsom as a “slick, slippery” politician whose leadership had cost California residents, jobs and safety. At one point he recounted meeting a man who had moved to Florida from California before revealing that that man was Newsom’s father-in-law.

“This is a slick, slippery politician whose state is failing,” DeSantis said. “People are leaving his state and he’s trying to run interference for his failure.”

For DeSantis, the debate was a clear effort to revitalize his flagging bid for the GOP presidential nomination.

With fewer than seven weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses — which DeSantis has staked much of his presidential prospects on – he’s failed to make up any ground against the primary’s frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, and has begun competing more aggressively with former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley for a distant second-place position.

In some states, DeSantis’ standing is even more dire. One poll from the University of New Hampshire released this month found DeSantis running in fourth place in the Granite State behind Trump, Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a candidate whose chances have been written off by most Republicans.

Whether the debate with Newsom can change that trajectory remains an open question.

“It doesn’t hurt him — doing this kind of thing,” said Keith Naughton, a veteran Republican strategist. “But it’s hard to see this being a big game changer. He’s lost a lot of momentum and I don’t know if this debate will turn it around.”

The debate with Newsom was not sanctioned by the Republican National Committee or any political party, for that matter. It was, in some ways, a sideshow to the 2024 race, especially given that Newsom has said that he will not seek the presidency next year and remains dedicated to supporting President Joe Biden’s reelection bid.

READ MORE: DeSantis looks to frame debate with Newsom as showdown with a potential 2024 rival

In many ways, however, the matchup was one that DeSantis has been gearing up for. On the campaign trail, he has repeatedly dogged California and its Democratic-led state government, painting the state as a dystopia brought about by high taxes, insufficient policing and liberal policy experiments.

At one point in the debate, DeSantis burnished a brown-speckled sheet of paper that he claimed was a map of where human feces had been spotted in San Francisco.

Newsom, on the other hand, has cast DeSantis as a fear-mongering authoritarian, eager to use the power of his office to snuff out anything he dislikes. In one of the debate’s rawer moments, Newsom took aim at DeSantis for what he described as the Florida governor’s anti-LGBTQ policies.

“I don’t like the way you demean people,” Newsom said. “I don’t like the way you demean the LGBTQ community.”

Yet the outcome of the debate was anything but clear. While he took a more aggressive posture toward Newsom than he has in the primary debates, DeSantis still faced tough criticisms and attacks. Newsom — whom even Republicans acknowledge as an adept debater — ripped DeSantis as a “bully” who lacks any core beliefs and instead makes decisions based on political calculations.

At one point, Newsom needled a DeSantis administration program to fly migrants from Texas to the elite New England enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, describing it as nothing more than an effort to use people as pawns in a political game.

“You’re trying to find migrants and play political games to get some news attention so you can out-Trump Trump,” Newsom said. “And by the way, how’s that going for you, Ron? You’re down 41-points in your own home state.”

Throughout the debate, DeSantis accused Newsom of waiting in the wings to replace Biden on the 2024 ticket should the president decide not to seek a second term in office. DeSantis said that Biden was in “decline” and posed a “danger to the country,” and insisted that Newsom was waging a “shadow campaign” for the White House.

“Just admit that you’re running,” DeSantis said to Newsom at one point.

Newsom also landed more than one shot on DeSantis’ sputtering presidential bid. Early on, the California governor shot back at DeSantis’ claim about his White House ambitions, declaring that “neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”

Toward the end of the debate, Newsom was even more blunt in mocking DeSantis’ standing in the Republican presidential primary.

“When are you going to drop out and at least give Nikki Haley a shot to take down Donald Trump in this nomination?” Newsom asked. “She laid you out.”