Ahead of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ meeting with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill to reportedly solicit endorsements for a potential 2024 run, two GOP congressmen, Reps. John Rutherford (R-FL) and Greg Steube (R-FL) endorsed President Donald J. Trump.
Not only did congressional representatives leave the meeting without giving their endorsement, but many downplayed their attendance, with Politico noting that attendees “tried to downplay their attendance, saying they went because the governor was a former colleague and they wanted to say hello.”
Rep. Steube explained why he endorsed Don over Ron, per the report:
Just ask Stuebe, who told Playbook in a brief interview last night that DeSantis has never once reached out to him during his five years in Congress nor replied to his multiple attempts to connect. He recalled a recent news conference dealing with damage from Hurricane Ian where the governor’s aides initially invited him to stand alongside DeSantis, only to tell him that he wouldn’t be part of the event when he showed up.
Trump, on the other hand, was the first person Stuebe remembers calling him in the ICU to wish him well after he was injured in a January tree-trimming accident. “To this day, I have not heard from Gov. DeSantis,” he said.
Things suddenly changed last week, Stuebe said, as Trump started rolling out his Florida congressional backers. ”For the first time ever, I hear from DeSantis’s political person,” he said, referring to aide RYAN TYSON, who reportedly contacted other Florida Republicans about their endorsements.
For Steube, the outreach was too little, too late. And he continues to have sharp words for DeSantis, criticizing him for his robust political travel schedule amid a busy legislative session and just months after winning a new four-year term.
The congressman concluded, “Floridians want him focused on Florida,” adding, “which is the job they elected him to do.”
Trump has now secured the public backing of seven GOP members in the Florida congressional delegation, including Reps. Matt Gaetz, Anna Paulina Luna, Cory Mills, Byron Donalds, Bryan Mast, as well as Rutherford and Steube.
“I’m happy and honored to endorse Donald J. Trump for president in 2024,” Steube told Newsmax. “He’s the only person that can reverse, on day one, all of these disastrous policies of the Biden administration. And the type of things that have happened under the Biden administration would have never happened under President Trump.”