Ron DeSantis ‘joke’ about Colorado GOP Primary falls flat on internet

The Ron DeSantis campaign is focused on Iowa Saturday, but they find themselves explaining away a new attempt of humor targeted toward another state.

In a surprisingly deadpan twist, the operator of the Florida Governor’s X account quoted text from the Colorado Republican Party directing candidates qualifying for the state’s presidential primary to project enthusiasm on social media.

“To qualify for the CO primary ballot, the state party requires that candidates post something on social media that announces their excitement while encouraging their followers to follow the state party’s social media accounts for updates about the state party primary and events,” the post reads, before offering enthusiasm that accords with the party’s stipulation.

“I’m excited to officially be on the ballot for the Colorado primary! Coloradans, it’s time for Republicans to start winning again. As your nominee, I will run Biden ragged across this country and help Republicans up and down the ballot WIN. Stay informed with @cologop for updates!”

Author James Surowiecki lampooned the structure of the post: “The fact DeSantis’ social-media team included by mistake the first paragraph of this tweet (which explains why it’s important for them to post about how excited they are to be on the Colorado primary ballot) is emblematic of his entire mismanaged and misbegotten campaign.”

This led to some belated snark from DeSantis’ rapid response director Christina Pushaw.

“It was on purpose. Went right over your head huh,” she wrote Saturday, hours after the joke apparently went over the heads of many commentators not affiliated with the DeSantis campaign.

Among them: Joe Biden’s rapid response director, Ammar Moussa, who alluded to the Governor’s super PAC being scapegoated for the campaign’s under-performance: “Did….did they mean to tweet this? Why would Never Back Down do this to Ron?”

Frequent DeSantis critic Shannon Watts said she “would have advised him to leave off the entire first paragraph here, which basically says, ‘Don’t really care about winning in Colorado but had to pretend like I do to get on the ballot.’ Do his advisors hate him?”

“I’m almost impressed at how the DeSantis campaign quite literally cannot do anything right,” snarked left-of-center commentator Brian Tyler Cohen.

As always, humor is a subjective thing. This is especially true when readers want to make someone the butt of their jokes.

The Governor’s sense of humor has come under scrutiny before, such as when he referred to Florida as “God’s waiting room” early on in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Perhaps as a result, he has become known for recycling jokes that are less controversial. For example, he has joked about the lack of academic value of “zombie studies” courses in college since the 2018 campaign.

To qualify for the CO primary ballot, the state party requires that candidates post something on social media that announces their excitement while encouraging their followers to follow the state party’s social media accounts
for updates about the state party primary and events.…

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) December 1, 2023