The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, a hard-right contender for the Republican presidential nomination, will take the debate stage in Alpharetta, Georgia, on Thursday night.
But his opponent will not be Donald Trump, the former president and clear frontrunner, or Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who has surged into second place in the polls. Nor will DeSantis face any other Republican.
His opponent will be Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, a Democrat who is not seeking his party’s nomination next year, given Joe Biden’s presence in the White House and intent to serve a full second term.
The DeSantis-Newsom “slugfest”, as its Fox News hosts describe it, will be moderated by Sean Hannity. Long close to Trump, the prime-time anchor and prime “culture war” warrior has chosen to market his Trumpless project as The Great Red vs Blue State Debate. Accordingly, the two governors have done their best to gin up some fight night-style enthusiasm.
DeSantis told Fox his opponent “caters to a very far-left slice of the electorate. I think that will be on display.”
Newsom told Hannity: “I don’t like people who demonise other people or go after vulnerable communities. I also don’t like liars.”
Florida and California are two of the most populous states, rich rewards in terms of electoral college votes. But neither is likely to be a battleground next year.
California was once governed by Republicans – most famously Ronald Reagan, most recently Arnold Schwarzenegger – but has become solidly Democratic.
Florida was once a swing state – the scene of George W Bush and Al Gore’s knife-edge, election-deciding contest in 2000 – but has trended increasingly Republican.
For both governors, furthermore, the debate carries political risks.
DeSantis, long Trump’s closest challenger but now in reverse in the polls, may be seen to be desperate for attention – and, perhaps, as small. Recently the subject of reports that he wears lifts in his shoes, the governor, at 5ft 11in, will shake hands with, then square off against, a 6ft 3in opponent.
In life, appearance is not everything. On the debate stage – from Richard Nixon’s stubble and sweat against JFK in 1960 to Donald Trump’s manic misbehaviour against Biden 60 years later – it often very much is.
Newsom may risk questions about what exactly he thinks he is up to, given Biden’s presence in the White House but also polling which consistently shows voters think the president too old for a second term, fueling speculation about whether he might yet step aside.
At 56, Newsom is 25 years younger than Biden. Of course, that most likely means his real target is 2028, and the first post-Biden primary.
Sidney Blumenthal, a former aide to Bill and Hillary Clinton now a Guardian columnist, said: “Newsom’s looking to 2028 and DeSantis is already politically dead.
“I don’t know that Newsom can perform a Lazarus-like miracle for DeSantis. The more useful debate would be between DeSantis and Dean Phillips” – the Minnesota congressman who has launched a quixotic, long-shot campaign to unseat Biden.
“They both exist in the political twilight zone.”
Rick Wilson, a former Republican operative turned co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, said Fox News’s Great Red vs Blue State Debate would probably turn out to be nothing more than a sideshow.
“Both men are engaged in purely performative politics,” Wilson said. “Neither has a practical goal in mind but both are hungry for attention.”
Fundamentally, Wilson said, staging the contest between DeSantis and Newsom was an expression of “the Fox News ecosystem’s desire to portray California as the liberal hellhole of their fervid nightmares”.
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December 01, 2023 at 01:26AM
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Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom to take debate stage in shadow contest - The Guardian US
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