(NewsNation) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election marks the end of a candidate who was once considered former President Donald Trump‘s most formidable opponent.
DeSantis suspended his campaign just before the New Hampshire primary, after losing the Iowa caucus to Trump by about 30 percentage points.
Niall Stanage, White House columnist at the Hill, says the decision was “bowing to the inevitable” by DeSantis.
“He was going to get beaten heavily in New Hampshire and was trying to bet on South Carolina as some kind of comeback performance. Even South Carolina, he was lagging quite a long way behind,” Stanage said on “NewsNation Prime.”
Despite DeSantis’ initial momentum, many experts say they were not surprised by his decision to bow out and endorse Trump. So far, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott have endorsed Trump after dropping out of the 2024 race.
“He [DeSantis], like Nikki Haley, has been afraid to sink his teeth into Trump for two reasons. One, the base, and there’s not a lot of appetite for it, and the second is preserving their own options. Haley’s young, DeSantis is young. So he’s got to think, future,” NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo said.
Since the start of his campaign, support for Trump’s 2024 bid has been solid throughout his base.
“I’m honestly not sure Trump needed much more momentum,” Stanage said. “An endorsement of Trump just builds up this sense of Trump’s inevitability. And we’re already seeing this in endorsements from other people.”
Trump took to the stage in Rochester, New Hampshire, after DeSantis’ announcement, speaking to voters ahead of the primary. During the rally, Trump spent the time talking about the failures of his former opponents, Cuomo said.
“He goes right to, ‘They’re the worst’ because the easiest way to win in a zero-sum game is for the other person to lose. That’s why nobody is pitching you on ideas to fix things. They’re just telling you how bad everything is. And that if you don’t elect them, it’ll get even worse,” Cuomo said.
“DeSantis didn’t have a lane in that because it’s already taken on that side of the bowl,” Cuomo said.
With DeSantis out of the running, the Republican contest is down to a two-person race with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley going up against Trump. While she is far behind Trump in the polls, NewsNation’s Leland Vittert says Haley has substantial support from independents.
“Nikki Haley has a lot of real enthusiastic support, and it’s perhaps being undercounted when it comes to moms, suburban women, suburban independent women, maybe who didn’t even vote for Donald Trump,” Vittert said. “The question is, is there enough of a vote of people that are independents that so disliked Donald Trump that they’re willing to come out and vote for somebody they may not be super excited about?
While potentially undercounted independents could give Haley a boost in New Hampshire, Cuomo believes Trump has a clear path to victory.
“I think Nikki Haley, by all accounts, is looking at a beatdown coming in the New Hampshire primary. And who knows how long she can last after that,” Cuomo said.
DeSantis launched his official bid in May with the support of a number of GOP campaign veterans in his campaign apparatus and super PAC.
But he was never able to gain traction against Trump, his one-time political ally. DeSantis’s campaign got off to a rocky start when its Twitter Spaces launch faced technical glitches. And the governor faced criticism over his personality on the campaign trail, with critics labeling him as awkward.