The following is a transcript from the Pro America Report.
Welcome. Welcome, welcome. It’s Ed. Martin here on the Pro America Report. Great to be together and had a wonderful event. Couple nights ago in Washington, DC, highlighting Phyllis Schlafly’s commitment to patents. She was very committed to the patent system in America, and so we have this annual event that gathers some of the key people, policymakers and those who want to protect patents, cuts across cuts across party lines, actually, because the real danger to patents is the government bureaucrats and the government bureaucrats who are influenced by generally big business and some of the big tech companies. So anyway great event. Thomas Massey, the congressman from Kentucky was there. Congressman Posey Bill Posey from Florida was received an honor and a retired judge, Kathleen O’Malley, gave a speech fantastic. So if you go to PhyllisSchlafly.com you can see more of that there. We’ll post that in the next couple of days. Welcome to the Pro America Report. I’m Ed Martin. Great to be with you. Follow me on Twitter,@EagleEdMartin again, PhyllisSchlafly.com, and visit Pro America Report, proamericareport.com. There, if you sign you use that. If you use that address, you can sign up for the daily e-mail, the Daily WYNK. What you need to know goes out every morning at 8:00 AM., the WYNK, what you need to know, and that’s what this segment is. What you need to know.
Well, today is the launch of, I almost said Elon Musk, the launch of Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida, his race for president. And here’s what you need to know.
The reason why governors are good candidates for president is because they are proven. Not just vote getters, although that matters. They’re proven fundraisers and sitting governors are particularly effective as candidates for president because, as a sitting governor, when you call donors, you have a particular amount of sway, meaning, you’re a governor, and if you’re a business and you’re operating in that state, a big state like Florida, a big state like Texas, a big state like California, you get the point. You have people that care about what your opinion is. They want to keep you happy and sometimes quite frequently, they’re happy to give you some money to run for president, even if they may. You may not be their top choice. So you have George W Bush, governor of Texas at the time, Jeb Bush, governor of Florida, when he ran for president. You have Ronald Reagan, of course, was governor when he ran the first couple of times. The last time when he won, he was not governor. Pretty common, Governor Bill Clinton was a governor. It’s a common thing. Plus, it’s an executive branch position. So Ron DeSantis well positioned in that sense.
But the real reason that you run as governor is because you have a perch from which to run almost always. And as I said, as I mentioned, you can raise the money so.
Who’s in this race now? Who are competitive in the Republican side? And let’s look backwards to 2016. In 2016, two of the more competitive candidates in the race, were governor Scott Walker and Governor Jeb Bush. And why competitive, I mean that they went long into the race. Others were popular. Ted Cruz got a lot of attention, got a lot of votes. But Scott Walker. He raised over $100 million, I think $150 million if you include the Super PAC that was supporting him. Jeb Bush, similar numbers, $150 million. Right now, Ron DeSantis has over $100 million in his campaign funds and related stuff. So you’re in the game. In order to run for President, especially on the American, excuse me, Republican side, which is the one I know best, you really need about $50 million to get out of the gate, you need between 25 and 30 for the run up to the Iowa caucuses, and then another 15 or so in New Hampshire and and South Carolina, right behind it. So you need about $50 million to be serious to have a real chance to compete. That’s a. Lot of money. That’s a lot of money to put together. Now Trump has it. He raised money, has has raised money all along the way, raised money right after getting out of office. De Santis has it. You know, Tim Scott has probably close to that. He’s a popular candidate with some of the big money guys. So and Nikki Haley doesn’t have it. Governor Abbott could have it if he ran, but you can’t really be. It’s one of the things Pompeo knew you you can’t if you’re raising $10 million, you can’t compete long. You gotta have 50. I mean, you really have to have 30 to start and then 50 pretty quick. So it’s a big barrier to getting in the race.
So back to DeSantis. Here’s the problem. Governors are so popular in their space and in their job that they’re not often clearly seen for the national stage. So Jeb Bush, when he went on the national stage, it was just the wrong time. And he was a well regarded governor. I mean, he was always too moderate for me, especially on things like education. But he just did not flow. He did not. He did not appeal broadly in the country when he went from being very popular in Florida.
But Scott Walker is the one I wanna mention. Scott Walker was a tested governor. He had been elected twice and recalled once he beat them all and and he was targeted by the teachers unions and the unions in general, and he beat them all. He was a proven vote getter. He raised a boatload of money. He was very good friends with Paul Ryan, very good friends with Reince Priebus. He was a young guy, he fit a lot of the bill of what you see with DeSantis. Scott Walker, I don’t remember right now his kids, he’s got a couple of kids, though. For sure I can picture them on stage, his wife. They’re, you know, attractive people. Scott Walker is a good speaker, not particularly a firebrand, but very, you know, very successful and very serious. And and not and not even serious. He was also had a big smile. I mean, he was a real candidate that had had ever, all the markings in a wide open primary of being the guy. And that’s what DeSantis is telling himself, too. 44 years old, a nice family. He’s got this successes and he’s got a conservative successes in Florida, just like Scott Walker had conservative successes in Wisconsin.
And yet. It went nowhere. It went nowhere. Scott Walker burned through his money and was really a non factor completely. In fact, he was eclipsed by Ted Cruz. He was eclipsed by Trump, of course, but but he was he was eclipsed, eclipsed by the secondary candidates ultimately, he was not. He was not someone that caught fire at all nationally. That’s what you have to wonder about DeSantis. He he, you know, I’ve had him speak at one of our events, one of our Eagle events and he’s bright. He is clearly understands all the issues or that we’re talking about. He’s not someone who is, is as clearly as you’re going to surprise him by, you know, remember when there was gotcha moments where they asked like some candidates, you know, who’s the head of Syria? Who would you talk to? He’s not gonna he you know, De Santis is a driven career politician who has real brains. He’s not dumb and but. He’s not effusive. He’s not as back slabber slapper. And you know, and. So he he may. Be positioning himself as the the mild Trump. You know, the not dramatic Trump.
But the problem is people vote. It’s a popularity contest. My wife always tells me that it’s just a popularity contest. Is some issues matter, right? If you’re a Republican, you want to be Republican. If you’re a Democrat, you wanna be Democrat. And some key issues will sometimes pull you in different ways. You have to wonder, in this upcoming election, if there’s going to be some younger Democrats who want less war, who worry about the imposition of of a loss of privacy, and some of the things. And will they take a look at a Republican? I’m not sure they will. I mean, everybody says that that’s going to happen, but in general. In general, people vote for people that they. How to say relate to or at least? Are entertained by. They pay attention to. Again, you gotta get the threshold. You can’t be a moron. You can’t be just a a kidder. But if it’s somebody that they like and they understand and they see, and then they react to. And here’s the thing.
In this upcoming election, it feels like most Americans, normal Americans are watching a certain set of people, the media and and and. Power that are sort Of hyena-like, they attack and they screech and they yell. They make you feel bad if you’re a guy, they make you feel bad if you’re white, they make you feel bad. If you do this or that, or the other thing. They make you feel bad. If you’re not completely sensitized to exactly what everybody else thinks should be the the the thing of the moment. You know the the the whether it’s transgender issues or you have to pledge allegiance to George Floyd, whatever it is, people feel like we’re beleaguered. I think that’s a feeling.
And so the question is, who do they want? Do they want the hot temperature? Do they want the the guy who’s got a lot of personality and a lot of fight or they want the workman-like guy. Again, I think we’re going to find out. But I would not be surprised at all if you’re talking about De Santis out of this race in three months. I would not be surprised at all. I think that there’s a likelihood that it just is not. Now he may be smart enough and have a system enough that he builds out a way to campaign for nine months. You know, Scott Walker hung hung around for about six months, and Jeb, with his money, hung around a little Longer, but it became pretty clear pretty quick. But if you’re down in the in the, you know, low teens or you’re in the teens and and you’re just punching away, damaging the top of the ticket, damaging the leader, it’s not gonna work for very long. So we’ll see what happens. We’ll see what happens, but we’re certainly gonna have a race.
And here’s the thing. Last thing you need to know, Trump loves this. Trump loves showing that he will expose the bad guys and he will fight and he doesn’t care what party they’re in, and he mostly wants the attention, people paying attention and talking about him talking about others ’cause he knows how to win. That’s what he’s planning on.
All right, we’ll take a break and be right back. It’s Ed Martin here in the Pro America Report back in a moment.
