Last month, answering a foreign policy question from a voter in New Hampshire, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis opened with a biography often overshadowed by his laser focus on social and cultural issues.
«I’m the only veteran running out of all these candidates,» responded DeSantis, who in the 2000s served as a Navy attorney at the Guantanamo Bay detention base and then deployed to Iraq, drawing applause at the town hall-style forum.
“I will be the first president elected since 1988,” he added, “who actually served in a war.”
DeSantis then launched into a broader response, returning to his military career only when asked directly about it later.
Though it’s a part of life that sets him apart from former President Donald Trump and other rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, DeSantis has sought it out sparingly in his first eight weeks in the race, usually as a perfunctory aside or an impersonal transition to his more prosaic political proposals. There Have Been Fleeting Moments: A Theme From “Top Gun” video of his candidacy for re-election in 2022, a guest bartender gig at a Nevada VFW saloon and the occasional line about how he could have made more money as an Ivy League-educated lawyer, but instead wanted to serve his country.
Now, as DeSantis struggles to gain traction in his White House race, his campaign is telegraphing a new strategy that will feature his service in the Navy much more prominently in roadside messages and television ads.
“We found,” the campaign wrote in a confidential memo to activist donors obtained last week by NBC News, “that when voters hear about the governor’s biography primarily as a dad and as a veteran, they like it and are open to hearing more about it. he.»
But even those who appreciate DeSantis’ service and want to hear more about it from him are skeptical that it will help reverse his declining fortunes in a Trump-dominated field. And there are early signs that DeSantis is uncomfortable or unwilling to talk about his experiences in a way that can’t fit into his traditional discourse.
“I think having veteran status has a small advantage over any candidate in any race,” said Russ Duerstine, executive director of Concerned Veterans for America, a right-wing advocacy group that endorsed DeSantis for governor. in 2018 and is expected to issue an endorsement in the presidential race. “It would be an understatement to say that it is a game changer.”
As DeSantis reminded his New Hampshire audience, no combat veteran has been elected president since George HW Bush nearly 35 years ago. Sen. John McCain’s experience as a prisoner of war in Vietnam was central to his campaign as the Republican nominee in 2008. Several other veterans have run in the last three presidential cycles. But with the exception of Pete Buttigieg running for the Democratic nomination in 2020, none made much of an impression by emphasizing his service.
“The standard question is, ‘Gee, isn’t it important to be a veteran?’ And the answer is, ‘Yes, it is,’” Jim Gilmore, a former Virginia governor and Army veteran who fought a remote and low bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, he said in an interview.
“But I will give you a better answer,” added Gilmore, who served as ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in the Trump administration. “Is that the most important issue that is going to decide the nomination? Is that the most important issue that will decide the presidential election? And the answer is: not yet.
The campaign’s first effort to put DeSantis’ military experience front and center came Tuesday during a news conference in South Carolina, where he unveiled a «Mission First» military plan. The speech was notable not for the new ground DeSantis covered, but rather for how he essentially applied his culture war themes to his vision for fighting real wars. He framed his message around attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion practices and critical race theory, or DEI and CRT, as political combat is known for short.
A DeSantis administration, he promised, would eliminate the «awakening» of the military and, in doing so, would address the recruiting challenges the military has faced in recent years. Enlistments are down, but military experts have cited other factors from obesity, drug use and a criminal record narrowing the pool of Covid-eligible recruits.
A South Carolina Republican who is not affiliated with either presidential campaign later expressed disappointment with the overall content of DeSantis’s speech.
“His military service should be the main issue going forward,” said the Republican, who was granted anonymity to share candid remarks. “However, this grand ‘plan to restore the armed forces’ didn’t sound personal, and it could just be … someone else talking aroused commonplaces. … This is like your basic stump speech with ‘in the army’ thrown in.”
Duerstine acknowledged enlistment and morale problems, blaming «broken promises about health care and these endless wars» that started under previous administrations.
“We endorsed him for governor in 2018 because of his stance on health care choice in Florida and how that affected veterans in his state,” Duerstine said. “So I’m glad he focused on the military. Where it lands with this DEI and CRT, it’s too early for me to guess.»
Jon Soltz, president of VoteVets, a progressive advocacy group, said the military is important to voters, but characterized the policy issues DeSantis frames as out of the ordinary.
“When your ship is sinking, you’re going to try anything,” said Soltz, who like DeSantis is an Iraq War veteran. “He sees some opportunity here to restart this. He’s picking out these divisive social issues that help ground him. So does this work? Maybe with the extreme, extreme right.”
Dan Bean, DeSantis’ commanding officer when they served as prosecutors in the Navy reserves, said the emphasis on culture wars is relevant to the mission.
“Flying people to abort or paying for transgender surgeries, I think those are all unfortunate distractions,” Bean said, referring to two Pentagon policies that have drawn criticism. «People may be free to make those decisions, but that’s not something the military should be involved in.»
Bean, a Jacksonville lawyer who appeared in a pro-DeSantis ad last year and said he supports the governor’s presidential campaign, adding that he thinks the governor needs to open up and share more of his military experience.
“I think it sets it apart,” Bean said. “He’s getting more personal. I think the American public wants to see that. I also think they want to know more about him.”
in a joint interview with her husband that aired Thursday on Fox News’ «Fox & Friends,» Casey DeSantis acknowledged that «there are truths that [voters] I don’t know, that he served in the United States Army, that he was a JAG officer…he got the Bronze Star for meritorious service.” In the same interview, the governor made passing mention of his service in contrasting Trump, saying his experience as a military officer instilled in him a unique discipline.
However, personal moments remain rare. One exception came towards the end of last month’s town hall in New Hampshire, when Phil Taub, a private equity lawyer who runs a veterans charity, asked for DeSantis’ thoughts on addressing the high suicide rates among veterans. DeSantis opened up briefly, ending in a sympathetic response as he recalled his arrival in Fallujah, Iraq, in the summer of 2007, «assigned to Navy SEAL Team 1 as part of the surge.»
“I think at the time, there was not necessarily an appreciation that if you came back and your limbs were okay, and there were no visible war wounds, you were somehow okay,” DeSantis continued. «And those are not wounds that we understood as much as we should.»
DeSantis also weaved together some standard talking points — a tirade against Big Pharma, his opposition to Covid vaccine mandates — before mentioning the policies he has pushed in public office, including a bill he introduced in Congress to grant federal grants to match service dogs with veterans. Living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The Pups Helping Wounded Servicemen Act, or PAWS Act, approved after DeSantis left the House.
The suicide rate for those who participated in privately funded programs was «infinitesimal,» DeSantis said. «I mean, they didn’t get a perfect score, but they were very close to it.»
Taub, in a post-event interview, said he appreciated DeSantis’ response.
“He didn’t get every point right,” said Taub, who endorsed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. “But he showed me that he understands the problem.”