How Ron DeSantis is brand building ahead of a possible presidential run
Being governor is a great pathway to the White House, but so is being on television. DeSantis is doing both at once.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pre-campaign has begun.
In what amounts to a soft launch for a possible future presidential bid later this year, the Republican released his new book “The Courage to Be Free” Tuesday. The book rollout was preceded by a tour of blue state police groups, plus media interviews and a campaign-style video from Friends of Ron DeSantis, a political committee.
The pre-launch allows DeSantis to stoke speculation without stepping into the ring yet. He dodged questions during interviews about whether or not he’s running by saying he still has a lot of work to do with Florida’s upcoming legislative session. “You ain’t seen nothing yet,” he told Fox News.
DeSantis is poised to delight base voters with a conservative agenda supported by friendly Republican supermajorities in his state’s legislature, and he’ll be ready to show it off on Fox News and beyond. Public records obtained by the Tampa Bay Times show a behind-the-scenes look at how DeSantis’ team sells the job he’s doing through partisan media.
Emails show Fox News asking DeSantis to appear on the network 113 times between the week of the 2020 election and February 2021. An in-demand newsmaker, his office helped shape coverage, sharing “exclusives” for Fox News to cover, like bill signings or the vaccine rollout. DeSantis’ office sometimes shared talking points and graphics in advance. In one example, the network aired a graphic taken from DeSantis’ office making favorable claims about his handling of COVID-19. In a statement to the Times, Fox News likened their conversations with DeSantis’ office to “pre-interviews with guests to ensure preparedness for the segment” that occur at other networks as well, but critics would disagree.
Rather than talk about what kind of president he’d like to be, DeSantis shows. Any politician can rage against Disney for ~gOiNg WokE~, he signed a bill revoking the company’s autonomous municipal district. Any politician can criticize drag queens, he filed a complaint against a group that hosted a drag show. DeSantis’ advantage is the difference between just talking about the culture wars versus forming them into policy and staging made-for-TV events to promote them that get aired nationally.
DeSantis’ team is clearly aware of the power of earned media. In another batch of emails, a staffer sends an update about the dollar value of media attention to DeSantis suspending a state attorney. “Nationally, this story was mentioned 72 times, resulting in $1.27 million of free earned media across the country,” the staffer wrote about coverage of a Hillsborough County state attorney’s suspension last year.
[Previously: How politicians build partisan brands off their states ]
Being governor is a great pathway to the White House for the experience that being a chief executive affords. But so is being on television, as the presidencies of former “General Electric Theater” host Ronald Reagan and former “Celebrity Apprentice” host Donald Trump can attest. DeSantis is doing both at once.
The last Republican president got to the White House after playing a chief executive on NBC. DeSantis hopes to become the next by playing himself on Fox News. His decision to delay a possible presidential announcement until after what amounts to his season finale is smart politics, and his focus on building a track record for a conservative media audience shows his savvy in appealing to today’s Republican base.
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