On Sunday, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ended his presidential bid and announced his endorsement of former President Donald Trump after landing just over 20% of the Iowa caucus vote. The race is down to two, and after primaries in New Hampshire left Nikki Haley in the dust, it’s looking like Trump will lead the party this November. Nevertheless, party infighting only continues with online attacks and congressional hold ups threatening the unity of the GOP.
The Republican party needs to reset its priorities: There will be plenty of time to fight over budgets, abortion rights, and foreign policy after securing the presidency. Until then, any internal squabbles can be used as free ammunition by the Democratic party. Republicans will need to get their house in order to secure a majority vote in November.
Moments after DeSantis declared his campaign over, many prominent figures in the Republican party took to Twitter to express their personal feelings on the matter. Many people reacted specifically to Charlie Kirk’s X post that DeSantis should have to give back any money he raised since he wasted people’s time. Things have only escalated following the New Hampshire primary where Haley came in second and claimed that there are “dozens of states yet to go” while people such as Ronna McDaniel, RNC Charwoman, are calling for Haley to bow out.
This infighting regarding the two top Republican candidates comes on the heels of some equally dirty debate fighting. During the final pre-caucus debate on January 10, Ambassador Nikki Haley and Gov. DeSantis argued back and forth on CNN while Trump held his own town hall on Fox News. The programs were like an infomercial on mud-slinging, with Haley and DeSantis repeatedly accusing each other of lying. Haley demonstrated her ability to sow further division in the party by announcing that DeSantis has so many lies that she had to create a website to show them all, desantislies.com, while DeSantis continued to attack Haley for her support of Trump policies.
Now that DeSantis is out of the way, Haley has aimed both barrels at the former president, who is likely to be the Republican nominee. Haley has attacked Trump’s relationship with the Chinese leader, his age, and his unwillingness to debate her -- all in the three days since the Florida governor’s departure from the race.
All of this points to larger issues playing out on X within members of the party: No one wants to unify. Just days before announcing he was going to drop out, DeSantis himself was participating in the slander by telling people that if they want to succeed around Trump they just have to “kiss the ring.” How can any candidate in good faith recommend their supporters move to another candidate they just finished attacking?
It’s not just the candidates engaging in this infighting. During the middle of this cycle, when Rand Paul (R-KY) endorsed Trump, he not only vowed to support his chosen candidate, but made it clear that he was “never Nikki.” Meanwhile, conservative commentator Candace Owens is having to dedicate an entire portion of her show to explaining how supporting or liking Vivek Ramaswamy was not in fact a “betrayal” to President Trump.
Even Congress reflects this internal division. Just months ago Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted from his position, by his own party, over budget disagreements. Now again, Republicans are unhappy with some of the conciliatory moves from new speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and are threatening another removal.
YouGov polls reveal that since last year, unfavorability of the Republican party has risen from 49% to nearly 58%. Meanwhile, Pew is reporting that as of December, Republicans rank below Democrats in almost every measure of leadership, including “tries to unite the country” and “is concerned with the needs of people like me.”
These poll numbers mark the severity of the situation. At some point, Republican party members must admit these political fights, low punches, and X spats are more damaging than any actual policy disagreement there may be. These debates may be important, but they won’t mean anything at all if Republicans can’t win an election.
The presidential election will take place in under 300 days, at which point the Republican party needs to have demonstrated to the country’s voters why their party is the best. That argument is made all the more impossible when throwing baseless accusations at their own side that will later be used by the opposing party.
In his video ending his campaign, DeSantis harkens back to Reagan’s “Time for Choosing” speech, reminding the Republican party that it’s not about fighting one another, but about fighting against opposing forces. His message rings especially true for Trump and Haley, who at some point must realize that only one person can obtain the nomination, and whoever it is must gain the support of the other to win the general election. It’s time to rally, stop the pettiness, and get to work. There is a country to fight for.