If Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis doesn't develop a message to run on, he'll soon fail to attract other megadonors to his presidential campaign, political author Dick Morris told Newsmax.
When DeSantis announced his candidacy, Morris told "Saturday Report," he "just naturally assumed that his record in Florida would carry him, and it hasn't. And when a donor begins to leave, this is not the rat leaving the sinking ship; this is, you know, the crew leaving the sinking ship. And it's very, very hard to reverse that. I think the key element ... is that the DeSantis has to attract other major donors, which basically means: 'I'm out.'"
In an interview, Robert Bigelow, DeSantis megadonor and founder of Bigelow Aerospace, said DeSantis would need to adopt a more moderate campaign if he is to gain support among the electorate.
"He'll lose if he doesn't," Bigelow said, referring to DeSantis' chances at beating former President Donald Trump. "Extremism isn't going to get you elected."
When questioned about his decision to make funding cuts, the entrepreneur cited the governor's "extreme stances" on policies such as the six-week abortion ban that DeSantis signed into law in April.
Nonetheless, as Morris maintained, "DeSantis never had a message for his campaign," which is why his support has dropped since January.
"He first said, 'I'm a great governor of Florida.' OK, but what about president of the United States? He's sort of never got around to it.
"And then his message became, 'I'm just like Trump, but I'm not obnoxious and nasty and all of those things.' And then, when that didn't work, his other message was, 'I'm to the right of Trump on abortion and a couple of other issues.' And when that failed to get traction, he then said, 'Well, I don't have the baggage that Trump takes into the primary.' And that did not get traction. And he's sitting there having tried three or four game plans, none of which worked."
Despite some objections to funding DeSantis, Bigelow has stated that he is "the best guy for the country."
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
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