Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis enters the 2024 presidential race

DORAL, FL – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis enters the 2024 presidential race after making the announcement in a Federal Election Commission filing on Wednesday ahead of an online conversation with Twitter CEO, Elon Musk, in which it was initially said he would reveal his plans. 

The Republican nominee is expected to compete with the current Democratic President Joe Biden on the general election ballot in November 2024 and is thought to be Donald Trump’s strongest Republican rival. The former U.S. leader is now facing multiple legal threats, including criminal charges in New York. 

Ron DeSantis enters the 2024 presidential race just six months after being reelected as a governor in Florida by 19 percentage points and in the midst of a heated debate following several laws recently signed by him among which it stands out the immigration law and the permitless carry bill.

The 44-year-old Republican was born in Jacksonville, Florida, and has family roots in the Midwest. Graduated from Yale University, where he played baseball, he went to Harvard Law School and became a Navy judge advocate general officer, a position that took him to Iraq and the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

He ran for Congress in 2012 and won an Orlando-area district, becoming a founding member of the far-right Freedom Caucus on Capitol Hill. Later, in 2019, he started his first term as Florida governor succeeding Republican Rick Scott. 

DeSantis is catholic and is married with Casey Black since 2010 with whom he has three children: Madison, Mason and Mamie. 

He will join in the presidential race former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Former Vice President Mike Pence is also considered a likely presidential candidate but has not yet announced a bid.