Apparently, the virus that makes crowd size into a big issue isn’t limited inside the Republican presidential primary field to Donald Trump, who remains generally ahead in polls.
Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, who is benefiting from a legal change in his home state that has allowed him to run for the nomination while maintaining his executive state role, recently joined a July 4 parade in Merrimack, New Hampshire… and the crowd there to support him was tiny. It was around a couple to a few dozen people, and photographic documentation of the event that was made available online doesn’t make it seem like there were particularly large crowds waiting for Ron along the parade route, either.
“Man Trump people relentless, so here is my disclaimer: some photos of the Desantis crowd at the Merrimack parade,” Melissa Blasek, an ex-New Hampshire legislator, said online. “Impossible to get a picture of the entire crowd because there were too many people.” Blasek was joking, she made clear elsewhere.
In recent polling of New Hampshire cited by the publication The Messenger, Trump was at almost an outright majority of the state’s support, with Ron substantially behind and the rest split among the many candidates who for some reason joined. DeSantis also joined a parade in Wolfeboro, where demonstrators who opposed DeSantis and shared messages supporting, for instance, trans rights appeared along the parade route. Though the context of what went down obviously means it’s not like DeSantis would have naturally gotten a huge crowd, it still was just a very low-energy gathering. If the few dozen supporters of the governor who walked for his cause were supposed to rally onlookers to his side, it didn’t seem very electorally inspiring!
Trump went to a July 4 celebration in South Carolina and got what seemed like at least 15,000. And in Merrimack, it rained. Other candidates who seem even less likely to get anywhere, including North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum (do you even know who he is?) and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, also appeared in New Hampshire. It probably won’t help them.
Man Trump people relentless, so here is my disclaimer: some photos of the Desantis crowd at the Merrimack parade. Impossible to get a picture of the entire crowd because there were too many people. pic.twitter.com/WDbxa9gZSi
— Melissa Blasek (@MelissablasekNH) July 4, 2023
