Ladies and gentlemen, Ron DeSantis has left the building. The real question is … does anyone care?
In terms of the polls, it certainly wouldn’t seem to make much difference. In New Hampshire, 538’s polling average had DeSantis at just 5.8% on Sunday. Next up on the Republican calendar is Nevada, where DeSantis failed to clear double digits in Emerson College’s most recent poll of the state’s caucus. Looking down the calendar to South Carolina, we see that the story is the same: DeSantis drew only 8.9% in Nikki Haley’s home state, according to 538’s average, as of Sunday.
In realistic terms, there was no upcoming state where DeSantis might have proved his campaign had even a glimmer of hope. That includes Florida, where Donald Trump more than tripled DeSantis’ numbers in the latest polls. The truth is, DeSantis hasn’t been a viable candidate for months.
The only real thing that changed with DeSantis quitting is that Haley now has what she said she wanted: a two-person race. Poor Haley.