Trump-DeSantis 2024 Ticket Could Pave Path To Presidency For DeSantis, Says Political Strategist

Political strategist Michael Starr Hopkins believes Florida Gov.Ron DeSantis running as vice president with Donald Trump in the 2024 election might be beneficial for DeSantis’ political trajectory.

What Happened: Hopkins outlined his thoughts on the potential pairing and the current state of the Republican primary field in an interview with NewsNation on July 4, saying DeSantis running as Trump's vice president would potentially position him for a presidential run in 2028 in light of current polling numbers.

According to up-to-date polling information from FiveThirtyEight, Trump is leading the pack with 52% support, with DeSantis trailing at 23.3%. Hopkins identified the significant gap between Trump and the rest of the Republican contenders as a challenge for the party.

“At the end of the day, we were seeing is just this huge gap between Trump and the rest of the field. Trump’s gonna be the Republican nominee, and I think that’s a real problem for Republicans because there’s a ceiling for where he gets Republican votes,” Hopkins told NewsNation.

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Despite DeSantis’s popularity in his home state of Florida, he currently stands as a distant second in national polls. Hopkins opined that serving as Trump’s vice president could be a silver lining for the Florida governor, given his current standing.

“When you’re someone like Ron DeSantis, who’s performing so poorly in the polls right now, it would be a great opportunity to put yourself in a position to then be president in 2028,” Hopkins said.

Hopkins' prediction assumed both Trump and DeSantis could resolve their public spats and share a ticket, a prospect he said might be difficult given Trump’s reluctance to share the spotlight.

The prediction also assumes a likely faceoff between Trump and President Joe Biden in 2024, which Hopkins believed might end up similar to the 2020 election. “Given the fact that Biden is able to really bring in Democrats as well as Independents and Trump has that hard cap, I think you’ll probably see a pretty close repeat of what we saw in 2020,” the strategist said.

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