2024 Posturing Begins as Newsom and DeSantis Get Antsy
As with any major election in modern American history, (at least over these last few media-fueled decades), there is plenty of speculation to be had over just who is actually going to be in the race.
Thus far, as the 2022 midterms remain a bit of a political shield, the 2024 conjecture has been a bit muted. Most of the talk seems to be about the timing of Donald Trump’s inevitable announcement and whether or not the Democrats will comes to their senses and ditch Joe Biden.
But a sliver of strangeness just entered the race, and it appears to pit the Governors of two coastal states against one another…for some reason.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom took aim at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in a new campaign ad, claiming “freedom is under attack” in states such as Florida that are run by Republican governors.
“Your Republican leaders, they’re banning books,” Newsom says in the ad as images of DeSantis play on the screen. The California Democrat goes on to say Republican governors are also “making it harder to vote, restricting speech in classrooms, even criminalizing women and doctors.”
The reference was not all that subtle for Floridians.
Newsom appeared to be referencing a DeSantis move to reject 41% of the state’s math books over concerns that the books used material that included themes of social-emotional learning, Common Core standards and critical race theory, which are all banned under Florida law.
The ad had political pundits and strategists wondering if Newsom was looking to get out ahead of a potential DeSantis run in 2024, creating a history that could act as the first rung of his own presidential campaign ladder.