‘Great American Comeback:’ Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announces presidential candidacy on Twitter

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially filed a declaration of candidacy for president.

The Florida governor is entering the race as Donald Trump’s top GOP rival.

DeSantis officially announced his presidential election campaign — dubbed the “Great American Comeback” — on Twitter Wednesday afternoon with a video ad.

DeSantis made a live announcement of his presidential run with Elon Musk on Twitter around 6 p.m. Wednesday, though the announcement was plagued with lags and delays.

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DeSantis’ campaign manager, Generra Peck, stated that she found out from Musk that nearly 1 million people had been trying to get into the Spaces room where the announcement was held.

“They had more than 700k in the room to start with hundreds of thousands trying to get in...had to relocate the room,” she wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, the governor’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, said that DeSantis had raised $1 million within an hour following the announcement.

“To voters who are participating in this primary process, my pledge to you is this,” DeSantis said during the announcement. “If you nominate me, set your clock to Jan. 20, 2025 at high noon because on the westside of the U.S. Capitol, I will be taking the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States. No excuses, I will get the job done.”

However, Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz told News 6 that she felt as though DeSantis was “distant” in his address.

“Ron DeSantis, in my experience, has been the most distant, most disconnected elected official I have ever seen,” she said.

“We’ve never had a Floridian elected president in our almost 200 years as a state,” UCF history professor and News 6 political analyst Dr. Jim Clark said in an interview. “So this gives Floridians a chance maybe to send a Floridian to the White House.”

He will join an increasingly crowded field of Republican presidential hopefuls including South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, who announced his candidacy Monday.

To view the official filing, click here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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