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It's because the people that hate Trump seem to like Desantis. So Desantis feels like the George W. Bush/Mitt Romney/Dick Cheney's Daughter party.
That's part of what I find perplexing about it. If the neocon/establishment part of the party had been paying attention to DeSantis since he won his governorship, I do not think they would be so quick to back him. I think "anyone but Trump" has clouded their judgment, and perhaps you're right that being endorsed by that part of the party is clouding the judgement of the "anyone but neocons"/populist part of the party.
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The people who hate Trump don’t like DeSantis, they’ve gone all-out against him over his policies in Florida, for example. What does occasionally happen is that New York Times columnists write trolling pieces in which they argue that red state yokels are such rubes that they vote for a grifter over a more sincere believer and more competent politician (they are correct), but the fact that conservatives actually take the bait here is embarrassing. Nothing would please the average NYT columnist more than a second Trump presidency - their readership would go up and nothing they’re worried about conservatives doing would actually happen.
The Democratic establishment’s record against Trump presidencies is 1-0, 100% victory rate. Nothing suggests a second Trump presidency would be any different. DeSantis at least presents a possibility of victory, having implemented actual conservative policies in a purple, demographically diverse state.
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Which is crazy. Some people on the right dislike Trump personally; they may largely agree on policy. So a guy like DeSantis of course would be appealing to them.
The Mitt Romneys don’t really like DeSantis but he has been unfairly tarred with that association.
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