Ron DeSantis is telling Iowans that Florida Republicans who didn't support him in the 2018 gubernatorial primary regret it, by way of making his closing case in the Hawkeye State ahead of the Jan. 15 Republican caucuses.
The 2024 presidential candidate claims those who backed Adam Putnam are saying it's the "worst vote" they ever cast.
"I can tell you in Florida, I'll have people come up to me and I have two different things. One will say 'Yes, you know, I voted for you in 2018. I had no idea you were going to do this good. That's the best vote I've ever cast.' And then I have some other people who said, 'You know, I didn't vote for you in the primary in 2018. That's the worst vote I ever took. I should (have), I wish I would have voted for you in there, and that's what it will be," DeSantis said in Marion, Iowa.
DeSantis, who was in his third term as a Congressman from Northeast Florida, launched his campaign roughly six years ago after having brokered an endorsement from President Donald Trump. At that time, Agriculture Commissioner Putnam was nearing the end of his second term, and was seen as the front-runner before Trump's endorsement gave DeSantis momentum.
Trump has talked about the endorsement on many occasions since. He noted Putnam told him the endorsement was "like a nuclear weapon went off."
"We gave up, we didn't spend our money, it was over," Trump quoted Putnam as saying.
"I don't want to brag about it, but man do I have a good record of endorsements," Trump said at a West Virginia rally in 2018. "In Florida, we have a great candidate, his name is Ron DeSantis, and he called me and asked whether or not I could endorse him."
"I said, 'Let me check it out,'" Trump said he told DeSantis. "This was a few months ago. He was at three, and I gave him a nice shot and a nice little tweet — bing bing — and he went from three to like 20-something."
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