DeSantis is on the ballot on Tuesday’s primary in FL, though he suspended his presidential campaign

Then a Republican presidential candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke to a supporter at the conclusion of a campaign rally at the LaBelle Winery on January 17, 2024, in Rockingham County, New Hampshire. On Jan. 21, he suspended his campaign. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

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Although he’s suspended his presidential campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis withdrew too late to scrub his name from the official ballot in Florida’s GOP presidential preference primary on Tuesday, so his fans in the Republican Party remain free to vote for him. A half dozen more candidates are on the ballot too.

Former President Donald Trump has already captured enough delegates to secure the GOP nomination. Nevertheless, counting will begin Tuesday evening, to see how many voters will pick Trump, DeSantis, or other candidates.

For all that, DeSantis hasn’t really retreated from campaign mode — he’s just redirected his sales pitch at Floridians rather than primary voters in other states. His recent press conferences have been marked by highly partisan attacks on the Biden administration, as when he signed a raft of anti-immigration bills last week and dispatched the Florida National Guard, State Guard, and state police to South Florida to block any refugees from the Haitian political violence.

“There is a theory of the case in DeSantis world that, oh, Trump could drop dead. Trump could die on the stump. Something could go wrong, Trump could have an aneurism, something could go wrong legally, we’re going to keep our powder dry,” Rick Wilson, the former Republican consultant who co-founded the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, told the Phoenix in a phone interview.

But: “I don’t necessarily think there’s any amount of powder in the world that could be kept dry enough for Ron DeSantis to become the Republican nominee. Particularly because, if Trump did die tomorrow, the money would go to Nikki [Haley] by a tidal wave, because they like her better; she’s more their kind of person. DeSantis is less culturally appealing to them than she is,” Wilson said.

“Now that all eyes are on Joe Biden and Donald Trump, Ron’s press conferences feel like a desperate cry for someone, anyone, to pay attention to him. He’s doing everything he can to cling to relevancy — from posturing over spring break to insulting the families of Florida’s Haitian community,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried told the Phoenix in a written statement.

“I can’t imagine how embarrassing it will be for him to watch the election results this week, knowing that he took his best shot at the presidency and still had to bend the knee to someone as awful as Donald Trump,” Fried said.

Suspension vs. quitting

The Phoenix reached out to the governor’s press office about DeSantis’ plans for the day but hasn’t heard back yet. We also contacted Evan Power, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, but he hasn’t gotten back to us, either.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and other GOP candidates who suspended their presidential campaigns are still on the ballot in Florida for the March 19, 2024, Republican Presidential Preference Primary Election. There’s no Democratic primary election on Tuesday because the FL Democratic Party chose to place only Joe Biden’s name on the March 19 ballot.

DeSantis suspended his campaign on Jan. 21, too late to remove his name from the primary ballot. The Florida Democratic Party certified the name of only one candidate — Joe Biden — so, under state law, there’ll be no Democratic primary.

Also appearing on the GOP ballot will be Haley, the former South Carolina governor, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, business executive Vivek Ramaswamy, and Ryan L. Binkley, a business consultant and pastor from Texas.

Like DeSantis, all but Trump have dropped out of the race — though they have all “suspended” their campaigns, vs. ending it.

What’s the difference?

Pasco County Supervisor of Elections Brian Corley notes on his office website that “candidates who suspend their campaigns usually get to keep any delegates they’ve won and can continue to raise money beyond what’s needed to retire their campaign debts.

“In contrast, candidates who actually drop out of a race, usually have to forfeit certain
delegates and are limited in how they can raise future funds. If a candidate ‘ended’ their
campaign instead of merely ‘suspending’ it, then they might lose eligibility for federal
matching funds that would help pay off their debts.”

In addition:  “The Federal Election Commission, in fact, doesn’t consider a campaign completely over until its debts are paid off, loans are settled, and its cash has been transferred into other accounts. One more reason to suspend a campaign? In theory, if the political climate changes dramatically, a suspended campaign could spring back to life. The phrase has been employed at least as far back as the 1970s and continues to serve as the most popular way for candidates to end their primary bids without closing down their campaign committees.”

The issue of delegates may be relevant if something were to happen to presumptive nominee Trump before the party’s convention, which takes place in Milwaukee in mid-July.

Under Federal Elections Commission rules, according to agency spokesman Myles Martin, “a candidate is no longer actively seeking nomination or election to a particular office once the candidate:

“Becomes ineligible for nomination or election to that office by operation of law; publicly announces that the candidate is withdrawing from one race and ceases to campaign for that election, other than fundraising to retire outstanding debts; has filed a termination report; or has notified the commission in writing that the campaign will conduct no further activities with respect to that election other than fundraising to retire outstanding debts.”

A list of reports the DeSantis campaign has filed with the FEC includes no hint that he has closed his campaign.

Delegate count

Trump has 1,273 delegates, more than the 1,215 needed to secure the nomination. Nikki Haley has 94 delegates, DeSantis has 9, and Vivek Ramaswamy 3, according to the USA Today Republican Presidential primary delegate tracker

Florida will send 125 delegates to the Republican National Convention this summer, according to Ballotpedia.

State records reflect 5,141,848 registered Republicans in Florida against 4,362,147 Democrats, 3,528,807 with no party registration, and 317,607 members of minor parties. Only registered Republicans are eligible to vote in the primary.

‘What does it matter?’

Wilson sees a possibility that Haley could outpoll DeSantis among primary voters, on the theory that Trump skeptics would prefer her to someone like DeSantis.

“He’s in a bad spot politically just because Trump is furious with him and that’s not going to end anytime soon,” Wilson said.

“A smart Donald Trump would have made nice and would have welcomed DeSantis back into the circle and all that other stuff. But he’s not a smart guy; he can’t overcome his emotional reflexes to these things.”

Meanwhile, anecdotal evidence suggests limited interest in the primary among Republicans.

“I think that the base of Republicans is kind of over the primary. They think it’s over. They’ve already declared [Trump] the nominee in all of these different organizations and states,” said Jake Hoffman, executive director of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans.

Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

“I think some people don’t even realize that they need to vote tomorrow, and I feel like people who both like and dislike Trump aren’t going to vote, because it’s like, what does it matter? So, I don’t know that you’ll be able to read anything into a protest vote or anything like that coming up. I’m sure they’ll be some people who will do that, but I don’t think it’ll be anything significant, Hoffman continued.

April Schiff, a Hillsborough County Republican state committeewoman, expects “very low turnout. There will be little vote for others.”

Deb Tamargo, former president of the Florida Federation of Republican Women, calls it a “nonprimary primary.”

“There’s been no push to vote. I told my friend yesterday, ‘I haven’t even voted.’ I’ve got to vote Tuesday, which is fine with me, it’s easier than hunting for the early voting sites,” Tamargo said.

Asked if she thinks Republicans will vote for Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley or another candidate, Tamargo said: “I think you’ll see some of that because this is Florida.”

She continued: “It’s probably people are going to say, vote for Ron DeSantis as opposed to voting for President Trump … So, I think there will be some of that vote.”

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