During a recent interview on Fox News ahead of the rapidly approaching presidential primary for the GOP in New Hampshire, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis — technically still in that race — predicted that he would lose.
That’s probably not the kind of message his supporters will be thrilled to hear, though it mirrors a message before the Iowa caucus amid the GOP’s presidential nominating contest that he wanted observers to lower their expectations.
New Hampshire’s primary will constitute just the second state-level nominating contest for Republicans so far. “Donald Trump posted the victory [in Iowa],” DeSantis observed, discussing New Hampshire. “So I think he’s benefiting from momentum here. So we haven’t spent very much money here. Nikki Haley is spending an inordinate amount of money here. […] The reality is, she’s not going to be able to be competitive with Donald Trump on the ground here.”
“Trump will run away with it in New Hampshire,” DeSantis bluntly predicted. “I think that that’s pretty clear at this point.”
At this point, serious contenders — at least in terms of candidates with extensive name recognition — have narrowed to DeSantis, Haley, and Trump. Haley is a former governor of South Carolina — which will also be an early state in the GOP’s unfolding primary, who also served on Trump’s own presidential team. Trump holds an average of two-thirds of the support in national-level surveys from the GOP’s ongoing primary, per calculations at the elections data and analysis site FiveThirtyEight. Trump has lashed out against Republican challengers but also keeps a lot of his focus elsewhere, often seeming not that concerned about even a possibility of him losing at the presidential primary stage.
Instead, Trump has trained what seems like a lot more focus on his legal troubles, essentially orienting his campaign around carrying out the vendettas he’s after amid four criminal cases and his continued promotion of lies about the 2020 presidential election. A world away from taking DeSantis’ presidential bid particularly seriously!
