By Steve Bousquet
It’s a saying as old as South Florida itself. You can always tell when a politician wants to run for higher office: He’s going to Israel.
The photo-ops, grip-and-grins with high-ranking officials and the obligatory stop at the Western Wall. All proof of loyalty to a critically important U.S. ally and enough B-roll footage for a year’s worth of TV ads in a place that’s home to one of the largest Jewish populations in the U.S.
Ron DeSantis has been governor for less than five months. He’s not seeking higher office anytime soon (more on that later). But his trip to Israel this week is vital to his claim to be America’s most pro-Israel governor and could play a role in Florida’s 2020 presidential election.
On a trade mission with nearly 100 business leaders, academics, lawmakers and lobbyists, DeSantis earnestly signed cooperative agreements with Israel on tourism, space, education, and water; planted a tree at a forest dedicated to the memory of President Kennedy; visited a disputed West Bank settlement; paid solemn tribute at Yad Vashem, a moving memorial to Holocaust victims; ceremonially signed a law protecting Jewish students and school employees from anti-Semitism; and held meetings on school security and economic growth.
On social and mainstream media, it was impossible to avoid seeing DeSantis as he displayed his familiarity with the region’s history and politics. If there were any doubts about the broader political implications, Republican mega-donor Sheldon Adelson was there to meet with DeSantis in Jerusalem (for a photo-op in Israeli newspapers).
Which brings us to something else that happened this week.
While DeSantis was in the Middle East, his name and picture appeared in a fund-raising appeal blasted across Florida to the Republican base about the need to deliver Florida’s 29 electoral votes to President Donald Trump again next year.
“Now our next battle is coming up. We’ve got to defend Florida for President Trump in 2020,” DeSantis said. “At a time when the President is being attacked on all fronts, you are the warrior he needs to ensure Florida re-elects him to the White House in 2020.”
Then, in bold italicized type: “If he loses Florida, he loses the election.” That’s probably true, absent some complicated arithmetic involving several Midwestern industrial states that narrowly went for Trump in 2016, which Democrats hope can’t possibly happen again.
As governor, DeSantis is the titular head of his party, the GOP email is standard rally-the-troops talk to get people to open their checkbooks, and the timing of the pitch may be coincidental. But as they say in politics, nothing is a coincidence.
You’ll recall that with a few quick clicks, Trump transformed Florida politics with a single tweet in December 2017, calling DeSantis “a brilliant young leader who would make a GREAT governor of Florida.” An historic game-changer, in 139 characters.
Trump’s full-throated endorsement followed in a second tweet in June just as voters began paying attention to the race, and despite DeSantis being an obscure congressman unknown to most Florida Republicans, he immediately became the presumptive nominee, edging past Democrat Andrew Gillum in a November race that needed a manual recount.
For DeSantis, Trump’s tweets were the political favor of a lifetime.
DeSantis can repay the debt by securing Florida for Trump. But it won’t be easy with his presidency a swamp of lies and scandals, amid mounting calls for his impeachment. Add to that an unpredictable climate, politically and otherwise, in a state pounded by four major hurricanes in three years, where questions persist about the slow federal response to the storms.
Even as DeSantis is still learning the ropes as governor, he’s one of three top Florida Republicans jockeying to be first among equals or most valuable player in helping Trump recapture the Sunshine State. His obvious rivals are U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, and many GOP insiders say all three have their sights on the White House in 2024.
Trump will be formidable in Florida in 2020. A statewide poll by Florida Atlantic University showed him neck-and-neck with Democratic front-runner Joe Biden, 50 percent to 50 percent, and narrowly ahead of other Democrats.
Florida is the critical swing state in presidential elections and Trump is in deep trouble with Jewish voters. A recent poll by the Jewish Electorate Institute, cited in The Washington Post, said 71 percent of Jewish voters disapprove of Trump’s handling of anti-Semitism. But this, after all, is the president who blamed “both sides” for extreme violence in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, when other Republicans said neo-Nazis and white nationalists were largely responsible.
Against this political backdrop, who better than DeSantis, still riding a wave of popularity that Trump can only dream about, to vouch for Trump with Jewish voters?
Last year, Trump delivered Florida for DeSantis. Next year, it’s DeSantis’ turn.
