I saw hope in DeSantis. As Trump surges, can GOP give us better candidate to vote for?

I am begging the Republican Party for a serious candidate for the 2024 presidential election.

For months, I – and so many of my young conservative friends – were sure Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was the future of the GOP. DeSantis was supposed to be Donald Trump but without the friendly fire, ridiculous staffing decisions, focus issues and all-around drama.

In short, with DeSantis we would have at least four years of solid, conservative governance instead of four years of reality television.

Then DeSantis came out flat-footed with his own litany of staffing troubles and campaign faux pas. Now, by some polls, DeSantis is lagging behind biotech investor Vivek Ramaswamy in the GOP primary race.

What – or who – is lacking in 2024 Republican primary field

Let’s review the state of the race.

At the top of the ticket is a man facing charges in no fewer than four criminal cases across three jurisdictions. Setting aside the questions – controversial on the right – of whether Trump should have been charged at all, is guilty or innocent, etc., the man is underwater by 27 points with independents.

While Republicans seemingly have a bottomless reservoir of patience for Trump and his scandals, the Capitol riot, 2020 election denial and indictments have made the 45th president toxic among independents. That Trump is neck-and-neck with President Joe Biden in the polls is more indicative of Biden than Trump. Running a candidate anathema to the middle of the country is no way to win a national election.

Will Trump's trial be televised? Televising and livestreaming the federal trial would be 'a victory for transparency.'

Below him is DeSantis, whose campaign has gotten off to such a slow start that he just fired his campaign manager. This is the latest in a long line of staff issues that reveal a campaign with no sense of the GOP direction. Are young "online" voters the key to victory? Or Trump’s older demographic? Is the party thoroughly populist now, or reverting to Reaganite fusionism?

I don’t know, and DeSantis’ people don’t know, either!

It’s also worth pointing out DeSantis’ hemorrhaging support among the GOP primary base, down 5 percentage points since he launched his campaign nearly three months ago.

The rest of the field are campaigning for vice president, with poll numbers that make Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. look like a serious contender by comparison.

However, because they are still all running and I can already hear the criticism of “there were serious candidates, everyone just ignored them,” the list includes entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former Vice President Mike Pence, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas.

Those who do not follow politics religiously and were not of voting age in 2012 and 2016 will be forgiven for not knowing the last four names.

DeSantis' campaign is sinking. Here's how the Florida governor can recover.

Are these really the strongest candidates the Republican Party can produce?

If the best option the GOP can produce – notwithstanding the billionaire with more indictments than I can count – is Ron DeSantis, we have some soul searching to do as a party.

It’s not DeSantis’ policies that test the patience of once-eager young social conservatives, it’s his failing campaign strategy. A coalition of Republicans fed up with Trump and his drama turned to DeSantis, only for his poll numbers to crater immediately after officially announcing his bid.

The sell with DeSantis was his competence – “he’s Trump but smarter!” the media exclaimed in horror to the delight of Trump-fatigued Republicans. The staffing issues, campaign direction and horrible social media surrogates tell another story.

If this mess is DeSantis’ primary strategy, do we have any hope of winning the general election? What about running the country for four years?

GOP isn't interested in Gen Z: Republican Party has abandoned young conservatives like me

Who among the current crowd can capture the youngest voter generation – a generation trending in the wrong direction for the Republican Party? Disproportionately, Republican voters ages 18-29 support Trump.

Why? Why do so many Republicans support a man who seemingly gets indicted every other week? Ultimately, we have these candidates because voters chose them, even if only in polls.

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Tens of millions of Americans are red-hot angry about being ignored for decades while losing economic and social opportunities. The GOP establishment responded by ignoring these ever-angrier voters. Republican leaders provided no good, conservative candidates with good, conservative solutions to the problems faced by millions. So the people chose Trump, and kept choosing Trump, to send a message.

The party is rudderless, and the cacophony of candidates only displays how deep the division is. Sure, we can’t make up our collective mind on whether Trump won in 2020, but there’s far greater reasons for concern than the fate of a three-year-old election.

What do Republicans believe anymore?

The pre-Trump GOP was, more than anything, predictable. The Republican party line was predictably pro-big business, anti-union, with some unsteady mix of libertarianism and social conservatism depending on the issue. Now, the Republican platform is chaos.

For example, DeSantis earned the adulation of social conservatives by putting the screws to Disney as part of his broader anti-"woke" agenda. Yet no less a voice than Pence – and more important, DeSantis’ now presidential primary rival – has castigated the governor's campaign as “following in the footsteps of the radical left.”

Dear fellow conservatives: Please stop complaining about Hillary Clinton

It’s not just corporate policy or the 2020 election that open fissures in the GOP. On every issue from abortion restrictions to immigration, there’s no semblance of widespread agreement. Worse still, candidates are seemingly uninterested in hashing out these disagreements, engaging in hyper-online meme wars to the detriment of a serious presidential campaign.

The only candidates talking about the issues are receiving no attention or interest from primary voters. It’s probably because people like Ramaswamy are talking about the issues that they’re no-name also-rans. GOP primary voters seem generally uninterested in policy unless it’s accompanied by a captivating persona.

We’re running out of time. With less than two weeks before the first Republican primary debate, the only candidate in striking range of Trump is busy defeating himself.

What does Trump have to say about his field of challengers? “Let them debate so I can see who I MIGHT consider for Vice President!”

Rodge Reschini, a summer intern with USA TODAY Opinion, is a rising senior at Cornell University. He's the editor-in-chief of the Cornell Review. Follow him on Twitter:@r_reschini

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump surges, DeSantis polls sink. Can GOP offer a serious candidate?