Ron DeSantis had a lot of people from nearby DC in attendance at the Pray Vote Stand Summit on Friday; his supporters were people who were cheering wildly for his pretty uninteresting speech.
People are beginning to notice that DeSantis supporters are not organic- and that makes people feel sort of weird.
Some attendees of the two-day event said it felt sort of suspicious that people were clapping like they were because the speech didn’t reveal anything new, and DeSantis isn’t known for being all that inspiring.
DeSantis supporters attempted to start a chant of “Ron, Ron, Ron” a few times .. just letting it trail off because no one was interested.
The supporters clapped at wildly scripted places as DeSantis read his speech off papers at the podium.
DeSantis did get far more applause than Mike Pence had earlier in the day, but that is not really saying much.
People in the crowd identified a few campaign workers they knew were from the ‘consultant class in the swamp’, posing as supporters, who clapped in ways that were over-extended and overly loud- hinting, a few people identified, that the clappers were being enthusiastic because it was their job to do so- not because anything DeSantis was saying was exciting or new.
“The speech was monotone, nasal-y, and boring,” one woman said, questioning why people were clapping like seals. Desantis said the word “Roughshod” a number of times, which thrilled his supporters but didn’t make much sense to anyone else.
See if this gets you on your feet:
Notably, the biggest supporters of DeSantis’s speech came in to hear him and then left. It will be interesting to see where he lands in the group’s straw poll results, which will be released on Saturday.
And DeSantis is having a bad day otherwise:
The news came Friday that Florida Republicans meeting in Orlando dropped a loyalty oath required of GOP presidential candidates, delivering a major victory for former President Donald Trump and a stinging defeat for Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Just before the vote was held behind closed doors at the Rosen Centre, supporters chanted, “We want Trump!” and sang “God Bless America.”
The decision to rescind the loyalty pledge for candidates as a requirement to appear on the March presidential primary indicated that the rift between supporters of the two famous Floridians running for president was growing.
“I hate to see King Don versus Ron-zilla burning down Tokyo,” said Vic Baker, GOP state committeeman for Volusia County, early in the day. “That’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.”