American evangelist and missionary Franklin Graham (L) and Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention in Orlando, Fla., on May 22, 2023. (Courtesy of the Florida Governor’s Office)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis filed a formal notification with the Federal Election Commission that he is running for president, his spokesman Bryan Griffin told The Epoch Times. He filed at 2:24 p.m., Griffin said.
DeSantis, whose entry into the race has been awaited for months, is expected to publically announce his candidacy tonight at 6 p.m. on the Twitter social media platform with Elon Musk.
An elections bill passed by the Florida legislature in its recently concluded annual session, stating DeSantis does not have to resign his governor’s post to run for president, reached DeSantis’s desk yesterday. He has 15 days to sign it or allow it passively to become law. Florida House Speaker Paul Renner said he does not believe the original law would have required it in any case, and called the language a “clarification.”
Polls show DeSantis significantly behind former President Donald Trump for the nomination, but suggest he’s by far the leading challenger at the moment.
DeSantis, 44, was reelected in November to a second term as the governor of the third-largest state.
