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Opinion: It’s clear that Ron DeSantis is no longer on the rise, but someone else is

Photo/Damon Winter/The New York Times / Screens show Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy during the first Republican presidential primary debate at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, on Aug. 23, 2023. “In a crowded debate, you can tell which candidates are seen as the greatest threat because they take the most incoming fire from their rivals,” writes New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow.
Photo/Damon Winter/The New York Times / Screens show Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy during the first Republican presidential primary debate at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, on Aug. 23, 2023. “In a crowded debate, you can tell which candidates are seen as the greatest threat because they take the most incoming fire from their rivals,” writes New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow.

By Charles M. Blow / New York Times News Service 4 min read

MILWAUKEE — In a crowded debate, you can tell which candidates are seen as the greatest threat because they take the most incoming fire from their rivals.

During the Republican presidential primary debate Wednesday night, that person wasn’t Ron DeSantis, who was once considered Donald Trump’s greatest threat, but Vivek Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old political upstart with little chance of actually securing the nomination. Watching the DeSantis campaign collapse has been an extraordinarily edifying spectacle.

There would have been no DeSantis without Trump. Trump endorsed DeSantis for governor of Florida when DeSantis was struggling against a strong Republican opponent for the party’s nomination. DeSantis rode Trump’s endorsement to victory.

So, there was always something in the DeSantis campaign that knew that he was Macbeth coming to kill his king. The only problem was that DeSantis had ambition, but not the bloodlust. He lacks the courage.

Instead of making the case to voters that Trump was unfit, he is counting on Trump’s martyrdom being his downfall. His gamble has yet to pay off.