Florida Governor Ron DeSantis made a detour to South Carolina following the Iowa caucuses instead of heading directly to New Hampshire, as is traditional.
This move aims to challenge his rival, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, on her home turf and solidify his position in the race for second place against former President Donald Trump.
While DeSantis trails both Trump and Haley in New Hampshire polls, he hopes to gain momentum by focusing on South Carolina, which holds the first GOP primary in the South.
Read: Florida Gov. DeSantis Bet Big On Iowa, But Trump Still Won By 30 Points. So What Now?
DeSantis’s South Carolina Campaign Event
Ron DeSantis made his presence felt in South Carolina holding a campaign event in Greenville, in the state’s largely conservative northwestern corner.
The event was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. at the Runway Café, and this choice of location sends a clear message to Nikki Haley that DeSantis is determined to perform well in her home state.
“She (Nikki Haley) goes around and says that she’s a champion for school choice. Did they do school choice when she was Governor here? No,” said DeSantis from Greenville. “And and as a result of her not doing school choice, when she left office, U.S News and World Report ranked South Carolina 50th out of 50 states in education.”
DeSantis also fired at Trump for ‘holding over’ Obama staffers when he took office in 2016.
“When Trump came in, he kept a lot of the Obama holdovers in places like the National Security Council. Big mistake, they tried to sabotage him. I will, on day one, remove every Biden holdover,” said DeSantis.
Although DeSantis is prioritizing South Carolina, he has not forgotten about New Hampshire. After his campaign event in Greenville, he flew to New Hampshire, where he is scheduled to participate in a CNN town hall on Tuesday night.
However, on Tuesday, Haley said she would only debate if Trump or Biden were on stage.
“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them,” Haley said in a statement. “He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”
The debate scheduled tonight is still up in the air.
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