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Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during the annual Feenstra Family Picnic at the Dean Family Classic Car Museum in Sioux Center, Iowa on May 13, 2023.
Rebecca S. Gratz | The Washington Post | Getty Images
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to officially announce next week that he is running for president in 2024, NBC News reported Thursday, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
The governor’s official entry into the Republican primary field will put him one-on-one with former President Donald Trump, the party’s current front-runner for the nomination. Trump has already spent months treating DeSantis as his main campaign rival, beating him with torrents of criticism over his gubernatorial record, political skills and personality.
DeSantis was already on track to make a public announcement about his political plans by the end of May. The recent move of his political operation to a new location would have triggered a 15-day window for him to file a nomination paper with the Federal Election Commission.
But he will instead make an official announcement in the next seven days, NBC has confirmed.
The announcement will come at a precarious time for DeSantis. While he won a landslide re-election victory in November and enjoys high support in Florida, polls from the potential primary field show him trailing Trump by increasingly wide margins.
Meanwhile, some members of his own party have begun to question his strategy over some of his most high-profile actions as governor. DeSantis’ willingness to use the power of his office to engage in polarizing struggles over social issues has helped propel him onto the national stage. But one of his most important battles against Disney has turned into a long court battle that shows no signs of resolving soon.
“DeSanctus is being completely destroyed by Disney,” Trump exclaimed Thursday after the company announced it was abandoning plans to open a new employee campus in Florida.
A spokesperson for DeSantis’ political operation declined CNBC’s request for comment on earlier reports that the governor would submit key FEC documents next week.