A.G. Gancarski
There appears to be no path in the Buckeye State’s Republican Presidential Primary for Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio.
At least, as long as Vice President JD Vance looks like a potential 2028 candidate.
A fresh poll of 490 Ohio Republicans from Emerson College shows Vance with 55% support, well ahead of Rubio’s 9% and DeSantis’ 7%.
Historically, a sitting Vice President has structural advantages should they want to run for President.
Vance is no exception to that rule, given the unlikeliness of President Donald Trump running for a third term despite occasionally teasing the move that would contravene the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.
DeSantis has actually campaigned in Ohio recently, attempting to get legislators to back his “passion project” of congressional term limits by showing support for a House joint resolution.
Reporters were skeptical that it was his only reason for being in the state, but the Governor denied the visit had anything to do with trying to set up for his second campaign for the White House.
“This has nothing to do with running for anything,” DeSantis said in Columbus. “I wouldn’t read anything into it.”
DeSantis talked during his most recent visit about his family roots and those of his wife, Casey DeSantis, before bemoaning Florida’s recent performances in college football.
“Both of her parents are Ohio State Buckeye graduates, and I do extend my congratulations for the national championship victory,” said DeSantis, who himself is termed out next year.
“There was a time when the national championship really went through the state of Florida. It’s been a while since any of our schools have been at that level. We think we may see something out of the Florida Gators this year. We had high hopes for the Seminoles a couple of years ago. So we’ll see what happens.”
To little avail, DeSantis has stressed connections to the state.
In 2023 while addressing the Butler County Republican Party at its Lincoln Day Dinner, DeSantis said he represented “Ohio values.”
“I can stand here representing Ohio values because the two most important women in my life (are from Ohio),” DeSantis said. “My mother is from Youngstown and my wife is from Troy, and so my family reflects your family.”
During the visit that coincided with historic flooding in Fort Lauderdale, the Governor also participated in a policy roundtable about election security, went to the First Lady’s elementary school, and to what Fox News called her “favorite burger joint.”
The Governor also touted his Buckeye State ties in his memoir, “The Courage to be Free.”
“I was geographically raised in Tampa Bay,” DeSantis wrote. “But culturally, my upbringing reflected the working-class communities in western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio — from weekly church attendance to the expectation that one would earn his keep. This made me God-fearing, hard-working and America-loving.”
During an appearance touting the book with the Fox News Channel’s Mark Levin, DeSantis explained how the region’s values formed him and buoyed his innate sense of conservatism.
“My father’s from western Pennsylvania, my mother’s from Northeastern Ohio. So that is, like, steel country. That is like blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth. And, as you know, Mark, Florida’s very eclectic. People kind of come from all over. We do have a culture, and so I grew up in that culture, but really it was kind of those Rust Belt values that raised me.”
Yet despite the cloying appeals to regional loyalties, DeSantis’ “steel country” ties didn’t forge a bond with Ohio Republicans in 2023 or now according to polls.
Meanwhile, indications are that Rubio may end up on an eventual Vance ticket. President Trump has urged the two to “get together” on a ticket, seemingly preemptively as a way to continue the administration’s initiatives.
