Reports are emerging that Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis wants Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders to be his running mate when he announces his 2024 presidential campaign.
As Slay News reported, DeSantis is expected to jump into the Republican presidential race next week after the state’s legislative session ends.
A new report has now shed some light on who he wants as his running mate.
DeSantis “is determined to recruit Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders as his running mate before making a formal announcement on his 2024 presidential bid, sources close to his campaign” reportedly told RadarOnline.
The outlet noted further that “insiders claim” DeSantis made his decision to go after President Donald Trump’s press secretary after she became the first female governor of the red state in 2022, succeeding Asa Hutchison, who has also jumped into the 2024 GOP primaries.
“He really only has one strong choice: Sarah,” the source told the outlet.
“He is desperate to lock up his running mate before he makes his formal announcement.
“He would announce his VP candidate very soon afterward.”
“He thinks it will be a one-two punch, and Republicans will be hard-pressed to look past a united front, especially if it is him and Sarah,” the insider noted further.
DeSantis reportedly planning to announce next week he’s running for president and is considering Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders to be his VP in 2024.
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The RadarOnline report comes on the heels of a previous story on Thursday that said DeSantis has made another move that strongly supports the contention that he’s preparing to announce his presidential run.
“DeSantis severed his connection to his long-standing state political committee and the tens of millions of dollars that it now controls, a step he needs to take ahead of a presidential campaign,” the outlet noted.
“The Republican governor is expected to jump into the race for president soon and the move to rebrand his Florida political committee — called Friends of Ron DeSantis — is the most concrete sign so far that his candidacy is imminent.”
DeSantis has said for months he would not make a decision on whether to run for president until the end of Florida’s legislative session, which is nearing.
Last Friday, DeSantis filed a notice with the state indicating that he has disassociated himself from the political committee.
The notice specified that he is no longer involved in raising funds directly or indirectly for the organization.
Notably, on Tuesday morning, the committee’s website was updated to reflect its new mission of being “committed to advancing the Freedom Agenda and keeping Florida free.”
The website also clarified that the committee is now associated with State Senator Blaise Ingoglia, replacing DeSantis.
“Ingoglia is a Republican ally of DeSantis who sponsored several of the governor’s key legislative priorities during the recently concluded legislative session, including a crackdown on illegal immigration that includes $12 million for the governor’s controversial migrant relocation program,” the outlet said.
“DeSantis first set up his committee back in 2018 and he used it to raise a record amount of money for his re-election campaign last year as he pulled in donations from many major Republican donors,” Politico added.
“Current campaign finance records show that the committee has nearly $86 million in the bank.”
If he does jump in the race, DeSantis will find himself ahead of the rest of the declared GOP candidates but still well behind Trump, the party’s frontrunner, according to multiple recent polls.
What’s more, Trump has apparently pulled ahead of Democrat President Joe Biden in one recent major survey, and by a substantial amount.
The ABC/Washington Post poll, released earlier this month, shows Trump with a whopping 7-point lead over Biden, as Slay News reported.
“According to the survey, the president trails his predecessor by 7 points in a hypothetical 2024 general election matchup,” the report said.
“Respondents were asked whether they would ‘definitely’ vote for Trump or Biden, ‘probably’ vote for Trump or Biden, or vote for someone else or not vote at all.”
