January 21, 2024 02:34 PM UTC

Buh Bye, Ron DeSantis

•  
• by: Colorado Pols

FOX News reporting this Sunday afternoon, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking his sputtering campaign back to the place where his presidential aspirations were born, and along with “wokeness” will now die:

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the 2024 Republican presidential race and endorsed former President Donald Trump two days before the New Hampshire primary…

“It’s clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance,” DeSantis continued. “They watched his presidency get stymied by relentless resistance, and they see Democrats using lawfare this day to attack him.”

The Florida governor also took a chance to criticize former United Nations ambassador and former two-term South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the other remaining major contender for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

“I signed a pledge to support the Republican nominee, and I will honor that pledge,” the Florida governor continued. “He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican Guard of yesteryear, a repackaged form of warmed over corporatism that Nikki Haley represents.”

So ends an almost perfectly charisma-free campaign that nobody really wanted beyond a name other than Donald Trump. There’s not much in the way of a local angle to this announcement, since all DeSantis did that we know of in terms of organizing in Colorado was pay the state party’s $40,000 “ballot access fee.” It’s safe to say DeSantis’ endorsement of 2022 Colorado GOP Senate loser Joe O’Dea didn’t swing that race either.

With DeSantis now officially out of Trump’s way, the last line of “Never Trump” defense is former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. Haley is not expected to win this week’s primary election in New Hampshire, but if she manages to not lose too badly there it could give her campaign a toehold to stay in a little longer–with the goal to stay in the race until her home state’s primary in late February.

If Trump buries Haley in New Hampshire, the presidential primary could be over that night.

Colorado Republicans will cheer their momentary vindication, and the real showdown will begin.