Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has headed back home from the campaign trail as his state grapples with a pair of crises.
On Monday, DeSantis had been scheduled to campaign in South Carolina, but instead he was back in the Sunshine State, holding press conferences highlighting efforts to prepare for Hurricane Idalia. The storm has also forced DeSantis to work with President Joe Biden, and the governor noted he had spoken with Biden about federal assistance, per NBC’s Alec Hernández.
DeSantis’ wife, Casey, instead attended GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan’s Faith & Freedom BBQ in Anderson, S.C., telling supporters that DeSantis “is exactly where he needs to be,” per NBC’s Gregory Hyatt.
DeSantis was also back in Florida on Sunday following a racist shooting in Jacksonville, where a white gunman killed three Black people at a Dollar General store over the weekend.
But DeSantis, who called the shooter a “scumbag,” was met with boos at the Sunday vigil for the victims. NBC News’ Matt Dixon writes that the episode highlighted the “mistrust” between the Black community and DeSantis.
“Florida’s Black community and beyond have been vocally opposed to the DeSantis administration’s focus on wiping out higher education diversity programs, the teaching of institutional racism to public school students, scrutinizing African American history courses and drawing a redistricting map that erased northern Florida’s only Black-performing congressional seat, which included the city of Jacksonville,” Dixon notes.
In other campaign news…
Trump trial: Trump and his co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case are set to be arraigned on Sept. 6. One co-defendant, attorney Ray Smith, became the first to plead not guilty on Monday. Trump’s campaign, meanwhile, has continued to use the trial to raise money, claiming in a fundraising email that the campaign has raised $9 million since his mugshot was released last week, per NBC News’ Jake Traylor.
Heating up the phone lines: The New Hampshire Secretary of State’s office was inundated with phone calls from Trump supporters on Monday, after conservative Charlie Kirk said on his talk show that officials were trying to keep Trump after the ballot, NBC’s Emma Barnett reports.
No, it’s Iowa: NBC’s Katherine Koretski and Alex Tabet dig into the state of businessman Vivek Ramaswamy’s operation in Iowa as he looks to capitalize off of the attention from the first primary debate.
Speaking of a debate bump: Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley raised $1 million in the 72 hours after the debate, per Fox news.
Low tide: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez’s presidential campaign has gone largely dark after he didn’t make last week’s GOP presidential debate, NBC’s Alec Hernández and Alex Tabet report.
Biden’s challenge: The Biden campaign is looking to energize Black voters, a crucial part of its coalition in 2024, per the New York Times.
“Not afraid” to tell Ramaswamy off: Rapper Eminiem issued a cease-and-desist letter to Ramaswamy, asking him to stop performing his songs.
A strained state party: The New York Times profiles the turmoil underway in the Michigan Republican Party after Trump’s false claims that he won the 2020 presidential election have divided members and led to fist fights and felony charges.
GOP seeks campaign finance win: A little-known lawsuit filed by the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee could overhaul campaign finance by allowing party committees and campaigns to coordinate more freely, Politico reports.