Study. Plan. Execute. Can the DeSantis way beat Trump?
Ron DeSantis wades into a crowd of Republicans in a hotel ballroom in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and presses the flesh. He signs a book here, a baseball there. He asks folks how they’re doing. He smiles.
For most any other prominent Republican making a play for the presidency, the scene would be unremarkable. But this is the governor of Florida, a known introvert but ever the student, trying to get better at what should be the easy part of politics – engaging on a personal level with activists and donors.
This is the DeSantis way: Study the problem, make a plan, and then follow through.
It’s a modus operandi that has served the governor well as the two-term leader of the third-largest state. It made him a conservative hero early in the COVID-19 pandemic, when he defied the guidance of Washington experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci and reopened businesses and schools after just a few months of lockdown. And it helped him transform Florida from a political battleground into a laboratory for conservative policies – all the while positioning himself as the strongest challenger to former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination.
“He’s very strategic in the policies he tackles and how he plans to get them implemented,” says Susan MacManus, professor of political science emerita at the University of
