Wall Street Journal Calls On DeSantis to Drop Out

AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

The Wall Street Journal had a blunt message, Tuesday, for presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) — you’re done.

In a polite but direct op-ed published by the WSJ Editorial Board on Tuesday, DeSantis was advised to drop out of the 2024 Republican presidential primary to let former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley (R) take on the frontrunner and winner of Monday’s Iowa caucus, former President Donald Trump. Trump won all but one county in Iowa, trouncing his opponents by 30 points with 51 percent of the vote. DeSantis placed a distant second at 21, with Haley coming in third at 19 percent.

But as the WSJ pointed out, DeSantis is currently polling in third place behind Trump and Haley in both New Hampshire and South Carolina. And winning 21 percent of Iowa caucus voters — compared to Trump’s 51 percent — was a “disappointing” outcome after he “invested so much time and money in the state,” visiting all 99 counties in the state and not winning any.

That, according to the op-ed, should be a sign to step aside:

He tried a version of the [Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)] strategy by running to Mr. Trump’s right on abortion and as an anti-woke warrior. But there isn’t much room in that lane. The Florida Governor earned some evangelical support in Iowa for Florida’s ban on abortion after six weeks, but Mr. Trump ran as the President whose Supreme Court appointees voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Mr. DeSantis waffled on aid to Ukraine to appeal to Trump voters, but this has made him look inconstant.

Mr. DeSantis faces no clear path to the nomination. He’s well behind Ms. Haley in New Hampshire and South Carolina. If he believes, as he says, that Mr. Trump can’t win in November, he should leave the race and give Ms. Haley a chance to take on Mr. Trump one on one.

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal.