Jim McKee is standing at the end of a line that snakes through five aisles of fiction inside the Books-A-Million store in Florida's capital city.
He is smiling because in a matter of minutes, the book he's holding will be signed by its author, Ron DeSantis, the Republican governor who McKee believes should be the next U.S. president. But as a former Donald Trump loyalist, the 44-year-old Tallahassee attorney almost whispers when he first says it out loud."Personally, I'd rather see DeSantis win the Republican primary than Trump," McKee says softly, having to repeat himself to be heard. His voice soon grows louder.
DeSantis' allies privately scoffed at recent reports of anonymous concerns over the direction of his campaign, noting there is no campaign. The 44-year-old governor isn't expected to launch his White House bid for at least two more months. And the first presidential primary contest is roughly 10 months away.
Most voters have only just begun to analyze the differences between the dueling Republican stars as the 2024 presidential election season opens under a cloud of unprecedented scandal. "I hope it doesn't come to where you end up seeing this going forward," DeSantis said in an interview with Piers Morgan, without mentioning Trump by name. "People see that as weaponizing the justice system. So I think it's fundamentally wrong to do that."
DeSantis' recent reference to Russia's invasion of Ukraine as "a territorial dispute " -- a statement he has since walked back -- sowed doubt among some would-be supporters about whether he's ready for prime time. There are also consistent concerns that he doesn't have the charisma necessary to connect with voters on a personal level.
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