The editorial board for one of the nation’s leading newspapers called for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to drop out of the Republican presidential primary.
The editorial board for the Wall Street Journal, owned by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corp., wrote Tuesday that DeSantis can’t win.
“Mr. DeSantis faces no clear path to the nomination. He’s well behind Ms. Haley in New Hampshire and South Carolina,” the board wrote. “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.”
Trump won the Iowa Caucuses on Monday evening. The loss was particularly acute for DeSantis. His campaign had invested significant time and money in Iowa. DeSantis garnered about 21% support, compared to Trump, who received 51% of the vote. Even so, DeSantis and Republican former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley both said they would continue their campaigns.
“Ms. Haley’s relative strength in the Granite State speaks to Mr. Trump’s weakness in the general election,” the WSJ editorial board wrote. “Independents can vote in either party primary in the swing state, and Ms. Haley is attracting these voters who will be crucial in the half dozen states that will be decisive in November. It’s also one reason most polls show she defeats Mr. Biden easily while Mr. Trump is barely ahead despite the President’s historically low approval rating of 40%.”
DeSantis criticized Haley on Tuesday.
“The reality is that she is not running for the nomination, she’s running to be Trump’s VP,” he wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., responded to the DeSantis post with a few words of his own: “It’s over man.”
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, head of the House Republican Conference, called on both Haley and DeSantis to drop out.
“I am calling on every other candidate – all of whom have no chance to win – to drop out so we can unify and immediately rally behind President Trump,” she wrote on X.
She added: “It’s time to unite behind @realDonaldTrump so that we can focus on defeating Joe Biden who is destroying our country.”
