WESLEY CHAPEL, Florida — Donald Trump continued his steady march toward the GOP nomination on Saturday after the Florida Republican Party formally endorsed him for president.
It marks the Florida Republican Party’s biggest embrace of the former president yet and comes just weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the 2024 contest.
The motion to support Trump came from Rep. Dean Black, who chairs the Duval County GOP. Trump, who didn’t attend Saturday’s state GOP meeting near Tampa, is widely considered the likely nominee for president though former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is still in the race.
The party’s support of the former president solidified Trump’s dominance in his adopted home state after a bruising primary against DeSantis in which the former president repeatedly mocked and politically outflanked the governor in his native state — one that handed DeSantis a historic 19-point reelection victory in 2022 but whose GOP ultimately sided with Trump.
Even before DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race, Trump garnered support from the state’s congressional delegation and GOP grassroots members in counties across Florida through straw polls and formal endorsements.
Trump over months courted Florida Republicans thanks to an organized campaign apparatus composed of experienced, Florida-based operatives, including Susie Wiles, who formerly worked for DeSantis.
Last November, the former president set aside prime seating at a campaign rally in the Cuban-majority city of Hialeah, while skipping out on the Republican presidential debate in Miami, and just days later invited 250 volunteers to Mar-a-Lago for an evening outdoor reception to show his appreciation for their work.
Trump also spoke at a Republican Party of Florida meeting in Kissimmee in November alongside a handful of lawmakers who flipped in his favor, bringing them onstage and praising them each by name in a knife-twisting showdown where the words “Florida is Trump Country” were projected over video monitors behind him onstage. DeSantis, however, received more support for his presidential bid from state lawmakers.
Under pressure from Trump backers, top officials in the Republican Party of Florida voted in September to remove a provision in its state bylaws that required any candidate seeking to be on the March 19 presidential primary ballot to pledge loyalty to the eventual GOP nominee.
DeSantis also didn’t attend Saturday’s two-day party meeting, centered on training ahead of the election and electing party officers. Trump won Florida by three points over Biden in 2020, and polling shows him ahead for 2024. Republicans out-register Democrats by more than 800,000 voters in Florida and are committed to sign up even more in the coming months.
DeSantis endorsed Trump immediately after dropping out of the presidential race but days later raised doubts that the former president could win in November due to lack of enthusiasm and continued to pummel him over his Covid record. Since returning to Tallahassee, DeSantis has been holding regular events throughout the state, often to criticize President Joe Biden.
This weekend also capped off a time of turmoil for the Republican Party of Florida, which recently ousted former chair Christian Ziegler amid a sexual assault investigation. Police ultimately chose not to recommend Ziegler be charged with rape but he could face charges of illegally recording the alleged victim in the case.
Florida Republicans formally back Trump for president
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10.02.2024
WESLEY CHAPEL, Florida — Donald Trump continued his steady march toward the GOP nomination on Saturday after the Florida Republican Party formally endorsed him for president.
It marks the Florida Republican Party’s biggest embrace of the former president yet and comes just weeks after Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the 2024 contest.
The motion to support Trump came from Rep. Dean Black, who chairs the Duval County GOP. Trump, who didn’t attend Saturday’s state GOP meeting near Tampa, is widely considered the likely nominee for president though former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is still in the race.
The party’s support of the former president solidified Trump’s dominance in his adopted home state after a bruising primary against DeSantis in which the former president repeatedly mocked and politically outflanked the governor in his native state — one that........
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