Trump asserts dominance over Florida GOP with rally for DeSantis
After two embarrassing special election defeats, the president is trying to make the midterms all about him.
By MARC CAPUTO and NANCY COOK 07/31/2018 05:08 AM EDT
As a candidate, Donald Trump humiliated former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and crushed the state’s sitting Sen. Marco Rubio.
Now, as president, he’s asserting his dominance over the Republican party in the nation’s most important swing state as he lands in Tampa on Tuesday to rally for Rep. Ron DeSantis’ surging gubernatorial campaign ahead of Florida’s Aug. 28 primary.
Heading into the primary season, DeSantis was little-known to Republican voters. But then Trump tweeted support for him in December and followed with a second tweet in June, sending DeSantis zooming ahead of his primary opponent, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who has been twice elected statewide and has held various Florida offices for 21 years.
The same pattern prevailed in Georgia, where Trump’s tweets effectively crowned secretary of state Brian Kemp the GOP nominee for governor and in South Carolina, where the president is credited with helping defeat Rep. Mark Sanford by tweeting support of Sanford’s opponent Katie Arrington.
“Trump is vertically integrating the Republican party,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Panhandle Republican who along with DeSantis is one of Trump’s biggest cheerleaders.
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https://www.politico.com/story/2018/07/31/trump-floridarepublicans-desantis-scott-751244
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