Did collapse of local news hurt Ron DeSantis' 2024 campaign?
In Florida, an ascendant Gov. Ron DeSantis successfully did an end around on local press in recent years, propping up new media outlets and using friendly national interviewers to make his points without push back.
Yet the 2024 presidential campaign, and the problems Donald Trump presented, necessitated a different strategy.
DeSantis spent weeks in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina starting at the midpoint of 2023, making himself available to local press with everything from in-person and virtual press conferences to long form interviews and town halls.
Nowhere was he more present than the Hawkeye State, where he visited all 99 counties in what was called the “Full Grassley,” as he bro...
