Speculated presidential nominee Ron DeSantis was humiliated again Wednesday after Donald Trump’s pick won the GOP primary to become Kentucky’s next governor.
DeSantis, 44, had endorsed former US ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft for the role, but she finished third and Daniel Cameron, the first major black nominee for governor in state history, picked the nominee.
Cameron, who is also Kentucky’s first-ever black attorney general, easily triumphed with 47.7 percent of the votes cast in a 12-candidate race.
And in a torrid night, Florida governor, his favored choice to become mayor of Jacksonville, lost Daniel Davis to Democrat Donna Deegan.
Daniel Cameron has been a longtime supporter of Daniel Trump, delivering fiery speeches at election rallies for the past four years.
Ron DeSantis’ election for governor of Kentucky finished a distant third in the primary. Kelly Craft served in the Trump administration as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
Cameron, who celebrated his primary victory here on Tuesday, now runs against incumbent Democratic Governor Andy Beshear
Kelly Craft, a former Trump administration official, finished a distant third in the Kentucky governor’s primary
Donna Deegan defeated DeSantis-backed Republican Daniel Davis to become the first woman elected mayor of Jacksonville
The former president took to his Truth Social platform to launch another broadside at DeSantis, who has not yet officially announced his plans to run for the White House in 2024.
“The DeSanctimonious-backed candidate (in Kentucky) came in a distant third,” the real estate magnate wrote, using his common nickname for his one-time ally. “Ron’s magic is gone!”
Cameron, 37, will face a tough battle in November against Democratic incumbent Andy Beshear, who easily won his own primary with a whopping 91 percent of the vote.
The race is seen as a benchmark for the 2024 presidential and congressional elections, where Republicans want to capitalize on the unpopularity of President Joe Biden and the Democrats.
Cameron succeeded Beshear as Attorney General in 2019 and took on a slew of legal challenges against Covid-era restrictions.
A one-time aide to GOP U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Cameron’s victory will play a part in Trump’s efforts to solidify his lead in the presidential primaries.
The so-called “superpolitical action committee” that is raising money to support Trump’s third presidential nomination said Cameron’s win was evidence of the former president’s continued grip on the GOP.
President Trump is the leader of the Republican Party. The results in Kentucky’s Republican gubernatorial primaries tonight confirm that once again. Republican voters are behind President Trump, not Ron DeSantis,” said Alex Pfeiffer, spokesperson for Make America Great Again Inc.
It’s time to unite around Donald Trump. Voters know that President Trump has their interests in mind when he endorses a candidate, not the interests of the adviser class,” he added.
The former political allies now appear poised to duke it out in a bitter campaign to seize the Republican presidential nomination
Polls show DeSantis trailing the runaway frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination by a huge margin.
Trump is ahead by a whopping 43 percentage points, a Morning Consult poll found on Tuesday, with 61 percent of voters planning to support him, compared to 18 percent for the Florida governor.
That’s despite the 76-year-old’s mounting legal woes, including paying hush money to a porn star over an alleged affair, suspected election fraud and the discovery of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago home.
But the former commander-in-chief received a boost Monday when a report by Special Counsel John Durham denounced the FBI’s so-called “Russiagate” investigation.
Durham said the investigation should never have been launched due to a lack of concrete evidence and “a lack of analytical rigor” in assessing the claims.
DeSantis has not yet formally stated that he will be participating, but he is expected to make an announcement by the end of this month.
He was also embroiled in a so-called “war on wake” with Disney after the animation and theme park giant criticized its “Don’t Say Gay” legislation.
The battle began last year after the company publicly opposed a state law banning classroom classes on sexual orientation and gender identity in the first grades.
DeSantis faces a legal challenge in court after creating a board of trustees for Disney World’s governing district made up of members he appointed.
While DeSantis has risen in the national GOP ranks due to his Florida pandemic response, the governor has recently been sliding in the 2024 presidential election.
He even got an early bump that even saw him beat Trump on occasion.
The winner of a Republican primary would almost certainly face incumbent Joe Biden, raising the prospect of a rematch with Trump in 2020.
Only no-hopers Robert F Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist, and self-help author Marianne Williamson have declared their intention to run in the Democratic primary.