The more I learn about Ron DeSantis, the more I believe he is a much stronger candidate than Nikki Haley or Donald Trump. In fact, I believe he is the strongest candidate for President that Republicans have had in decades.
Here are ten reasons why I believe DeSantis is the strongest candidate in the race by far:
1. He is a veteran
DeSantis was an active duty officer in the United States Navy for 6 years, from 2004 him to 2010. He also served 9 more years in the US Navy Reserve, ending his career with the rank of lieutenant commander (the rank equal to a major in the US Army).
During his active service in the Navy, DeSantis was assigned to SEAL Team One as a legal advisor. Part of his time in the Navy was spent at Joint Task Force Guantanamo, and he also served as legal advisor to the SEAL commander in Fallujah, Iraq, in 2007-2008
One of the roles of President is to serve as Commander of Chief over the US armed forces. It is a great advantage to have a Commander in Chief who has a combined total of 15 years of military experience. It is especially important now that we have a Navy veteran as president, because our Navy needs massive expansion to regain superiority over the gigantic navy that has been built by communist China.
Nikki Haley has never served in the military.
Donald Trump has never served in the military.
2. He is a lawyer
DeSantis is a graduate of Harvard Law School, one of the best law schools in the nation. He is also a graduate of America’s Naval Justice School.
When a president has to work with Congress to pass legislation, or wants to propose new legislation, or needs to decide whether to go to court over some issue, or tries to think of a new legal solution to an old problem like border control, it is a great asset to have a President who is himself a lawyer.
Nikki Haley is not a lawyer.
Donald Trump is not a lawyer.
3. He is a former Congressman
DeSantis served as a member of the US House of Representatives from the 6th District of Florida from 2013-2018, for a total of nearly 6 years. Because of this time, he understands from the inside how Congress works, and he personally knows many members that are still in Congress.
DeSantis was a reliable conservative in Congress, and was even a founding member of the solidly conservative Freedom Caucus. While in Congress, he served on Foreign Affairs Committee and the Judiciary Committee, and was chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security.
In our American system of government, it is a great advantage to have a President who has served as a member of Congress and understands the workings of Congress as only an insider can.
Nikki Haley has never been a member of Congress.
Donald Trump has never been a member of Congress.
4. He beat his last Democrat opponent by a huge margin, far outperforming the polls
He was first elected governor of Florida by razor-thin margin of 0.4 % in 2018. But then, after he had been in office for four years, he ran again for governor in 2022. The polls predicted he would win by 2% - 3%, but he won the election in a landslide 19.4% victory, receiving 59.4% of the votes while his Democrat opponent (former governor Charlie Crist) received only 40%.
This is significant for three reasons:
(1) It shows that the more people get to know Ron DeSantis, the more they appreciate his leadership. That was certainly what happened in Florida from 2018 to 2022.
(2) If DeSantis wins the presidency in the 2024 election, he is likely to follow the same pattern as he did in Florida and win a second term by a huge majority in 2028. By contrast, if Donald Trump wins the presidency in 2024, he would not be allowed to run for a third term in 2028.
(3) In that same 2020 election, Trump carried Florida, but by a much smaller margin. Trump received 51.2 percent of the votes while Biden received 47.8%, a Trump win of only 3.4%, which is small compared to DeSantis’s 19.4% landslide victory.
This is a significant indicator that Ron DeSantis would be a stronger candidate than Donald Trump in the general election: on the same election day with the same voters, Trump beat his Democrat opponent (Biden) by 3.4% while DeSantis beat his Democrat opponent (Crist) by 19.4%. DeSantis received many more votes than Trump did from Hispanic and independent voters. This suggests that in the 2024 general election for president DeSantis would do much better than Trump.
5. He is exceptionally intelligent
DeSantis was accepted in 1997 as an undergraduate at Yale University, one of the oldest and most selective universities in the nation. (In 2023, they accepted only 4.4% of applicants.) Yale undergraduates are some of America’s smartest students.
DeSantis majored in history, graduating magna cum laude (“with great honor”), a distinction that is only awarded to something like 15% of the graduating class.
After Yale, DeSantis was accepted at Harvard Law School, one of the most selective law schools in the nation. He graduated from Harvard Law school cum laude (“with honor”).
Every president is surrounded by brilliant people. For that reason, it is an advantage to have a president who is just as smart or smarter than the rest of the people in the room.
Nikki Haley does not have a comparable academic record.
Donald Trump does not have a comparable academic record.
6. He was a successful collegiate athlete
DeSantis was a starting outfielder for the Yale University varsity baseball team. In his senior year he was captain of the team and his batting average of .336 was the highest on the team. (As another point of interest, when DeSantis was 12 years old he was a member of the Little League team from Dunedin, Florida that took part in the Little League World Series in 1991.)
I realize that being a star college athlete cannot be counted as a qualification for office of the President of United States but I mention it because baseball is a truly American sport, and it seems appropriate to have a President who has been an outstanding baseball player. In addition, this athletic success required many years of hard work, and most Americans respect that.
I am not aware of any comparable sports background for Nikki Haley or Donald Trump.
7. He has already easily defeated Gavin Newsom in a 90 minute debate
On November 30, 2023, Ron DeSantis debated California Governor Gavin Newsom on the Sean Hannity show on Fox News. Newsom, a Democrat, is a skilled politician and a persuasive public speaker, and he is often mentioned as a possible alternative Democratic candidate if President Biden withdraws from the race. Many viewers (including me) believe DeSantis won the debate with an impressive mastery of factual details and arguments on a wide range of topics.
It is an advantage for Republicans to have a candidate who has already demonstrated that he can meet one of the strongest Democratic opponents head on and come out on top.
8. He does not carry all the negative baggage that comes with Donald Trump
DeSantis can run in the general election as a successful governor of Florida without any cloud of scandal hanging over his head.
But Trump, by contrast, brings much negative baggage that has accumulated over time, baggage that many voters, especially independent voters, will see as reasons to vote against him. Here is some of the baggage that makes nominating Trump a huge risk for Republicans (I have elsewhere written more extensively about this baggage):
(1) Trump refuses to admit that he lost the 2020 election, which leads many voters (rightly or wrongly) to consider him a sore loser.
(2) He recklessly refused to call off the protesters when the demonstration turned violent on January 6. (3 ) He is responsible for losing Republican control of the U.S. Senate in 2022 by making rash endorsements of weak Republican candidates in several states.
(4) He has massive ongoing legal problems. I think the charges against him are illegitimate, but they still create a hindrance to his ability to campaign and cast a cloud of doubt over his past conduct.
(5) He is 77 years old, and this carries a greater risk of unexpected health problems.
(6) Many voters, including many of my evangelical Christian friends, have ongoing concerns about Trump’s character.
(7) Judging from numerous personal conversations, I think millions of Republicans feel a great weariness at the thought of having to defend Trump’s words and actions for another four or five years.
Most of these factors are new since Trump won the presidency in 2016. All of these factors will cost Trump some votes, and together they make nominating Trump a great risk.
Here I am speaking as a lifelong Republican. I will vote for whichever Republican candidate wins the nomination, even Trump, because I am convinced that the policies supported by Republicans are much closer to the teachings of the Bible regarding the role of governments and laws than the policies supported by Democrats. Put very simply, I see Democrats as the party of ever-increasing government control of our lives and Republicans as the party that will protect personal freedoms and resist the temptation to maximize governmental control of all of life.
But If Republicans nominate Trump this time, we run a gigantic risk of losing the presidency once again, with disastrous consequences for the nation.
9. He (DeSantis) is not being promoted as much as Haley or Trump by the liberal mainstream media
I find it significant that much of the mainstream media keeps returning to stories claiming that “Trump is far in the lead!” or “Nikki Haley is surging!,” while they pay little attention to the DeSantis campaign.
That approach makes sense if they realize that DeSantis is the strongest candidate and they would much rather have Republicans nominate Haley or Trump. I interpret the lack of media excitement about DeSantis as a positive sign that he is the Republican candidate most likely to win the general election.
10. He will pardon former president Trump
DeSantis has said that if he is elected President he will pardon former president Donald Trump. I think this is clearly the right thing to do because Democrat politicians and other officials have wrongfully turned our criminal justice system into a political weapon that arrests and brings charges against many influential Republicans.
The best way to help Trump is to win the presidential election with a candidate who will bring accountability to those who have turned government agencies into political weapons. Ron DeSantis will do that.
Conclusion: DeSantis is an extremely strong candidate
As I look over these 10 points, it is hard for me to think of any other Republican candidate in my lifetime who was as well qualified to be president as Ron DeSantis. If he wins the Republican nomination, I think he will win the presidency by a wide margin.
Will the election be about Trump or about issues and policies?
One final point about Trump: If Donald Trump becomes the Republican candidate, the election will focus more on Trump than on the policies of the two parties. We will have endless media coverage of Trump’s trial, Trump’s lawyers, Trump’s friends and enemies, Trump’s health, Trump’s unprovable claim of a stolen election, Trump’s conduct on January 6 -- and endless media delight in asking speculative questions such as: Could Trump actually go to jail? How could the Secret Service protect Trump in jail? How could Trump meet foreign leaders in his jail cell? Could Trump pardon himself? and so forth. Because he is such a forceful personality, and because he is so controversial, and because any story about him attracts viewers and readers, all of the 2024 election season will be Trump, Trump, Trump stories all year long. Is this really what we want as a nation?
But if another Republican such as Ron DeSantis is nominated, the election will be much more about big issues facing the nation. The election will focus on inflation, taxes, securing the border, crime, support for police, school choice, Israel, Ukraine, our military preparedness, race relations, abortion, climate change, the role of judges, the Supreme Court, the national debt, etc.
And if the campaign is about issues, Republicans will likely win the presidency because the mood of the nation has shifted to much stronger support for Republican policies (for example, smaller government, lower taxes, a secure border, a stronger military, more availability of school choice, judges who interpret but do not create laws, etc.) than for the policies of the Democrats.
For all of these reasons, I’m hoping that once again Ron DeSantis will prove the pollsters wrong and win the Republican nomination and become our next president, perhaps even a great president. Our nation badly needs someone of his stature.
Wayne Grudem, Ph.D., is Distinguished Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary. The opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and should not be understood to reflect the opinions of Phoenix Seminary.
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