DeSantis embraces state authority as his campaign falters

MIAMI — Hours after Ron DeSantis greeted Americans Sunday night disembarking off a flight from Israel he helped arrange, the Florida governor was on an Iowa radio station touting the effort.

He followed that the next day with another spot on an Iowa broadcast, where he said, “I just rescued people.” His campaign also jumped in, texting supporters earlier this week that, “while others are chirping, Ron DeSantis is taking action.”

DeSantis flights, which brought more than 250 Americans home from Israel, come at a key stretch for the governor’s struggling presidential campaign. DeSantis has held up his chartered flights to hammer President Joe Biden’s initial handling of the Americans stranded in Israel while creating contrast with former President Donald Trump, who leads GOP rivals by wide margins and criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the wake of Hamas’ attack on Israel.

While the flights show DeSantis’ know-how and knack for driving the national conversation, his use of executive powers to further his political ambitions may not upend the trajectory of the race. The flights could serve as a reminder of DeSantis’ potential and strength as a governor but also expose his weaknesses as a presidential candidate, some GOP strategists contend.

“These are like the Hail Marys at the end. Like, ‘Maybe this will turn it around.’ But it's a stunt,” said Sarah Longwell, a GOP strategist with the anti-Trump Republican Accountability Project who supports any Republican besides the former president. “He's a stunt man, not a leading man.”

DeSantis' Israel flights also show the governor understands how to use his state authority, even as he struggles with the retail part of politics.

“Gov. DeSantis seems to be better at running for president when he's governing rather than campaigning,” said Jon McHenry, a GOP pollster in New Hampshire whose firm North Star Opinion Research Group worked on DeSantis’ 2018 gubernatorial campaign. “He drives the conversation more effectively when he's governing, and actually doing something, rather than sort of talking about what ideological perspective he might be coming from.”

DeSantis tapped into a nearly $700 million dollar emergency fund created two years ago to respond to disasters to help pay for charter flights that were orchestrated with the help of a Florida-based non-profit group run by military veterans.

He was allowed to use the special emergency account to pay for the airlifts because he declared a state of emergency due to an event happening thousands of miles away from the state.

The governor has used his executive in the past to carry out his policy and political goals. He suspended elected Democratic prosecutors who, DeSantis contended, were refusing to prosecute certain crimes. During the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, he spent millions of dollars without approval from the GOP-led Legislature and ignored judicial appointment deadlines. DeSantis also at times ignored budget provisions ordered up by state lawmakers.

He also famously transported nearly 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard last year in a move widely panned by critics as a stunt, using more than $1.5 million in interest earned off federal Covid-19 aid. He repeated the actions twice this year by sending migrants to Sacramento, Calif., in a dig at Democratic critic Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Ryan Williams, former adviser to Mitt Romney who worked on his 2012 presidential bid, said the flights were the right thing to do and smart politics, allowing DeSantis to insert himself into an international crisis and show voters that he can take action and preview what he would be like in the Oval Office. As a sitting governor, DeSantis has powers that other candidates don’t have — even Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) is still just one of 100 U.S. senators.

William recounted how Romney, as Massachusetts governor in 2006, ordered all state offices to refuse security for former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami when he was visiting Harvard University.

“Every politician in every office is thinking about how their official actions affect their political prospects,” Williams said. “And they want to communicate that to voters to try to win points and raise money.”

DeSantis’ effort drew praise from those who were on the flights. Ron Neumann, who is from Melbourne, Fla. and had been living in Israel with his wife the past 18 months, said they had two flights canceled before they were able to connect with Project Dynamo, the group that organized the flights in concert with the state.

“I saw all these people standing around, then everybody started cheering and stuff. I got goosebumps,” Neumann told reporters this week.

DeSantis wasn’t the first politician to organize flights out of the war-torn Middle East in the past week and a half — Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) traveled to Israel to help nearly a hundred Americans get out of the country and the Biden administration on Friday began ferrying stranded Americans from Israel to Europe.

But DeSantis’ administration was able to piece together a much larger effort after a Republican state senator and former combat veteran put the governor’s team in touch with Project Dynamo. Florida’s emergency chief has told other media outlets that $4 million has been spent so far.

“The governor knows how to use the levers of executive authority to deliver results and has always stepped up to the plate when people are most in need,” said Bryan Griffin, a spokesperson for DeSantis’ campaign, adding that the governor “does not let bureaucracy, excuses, or naysayers stop him from doing the right thing.”

Since that initial flight, DeSantis has announced that Florida’s emergency management department deployed two cargo planes to Israel full of supplies. And on Wednesday, he posted on social media that another flight of Americans arrived home from Israel.

“He seems to be a lot more comfortable and a lot more effective when he's actually taking action,” McHenry said. “And as the governor, you get to do that.”