circling the drain

Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis capped off his disastrous week with the most humiliating campaign stop yet

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Ron DeSantis

It’s been another brutal week for Ron “Don’t Say Gay” DeSantis and his sad presidential campaign.

First, we learned that DeSantis’ biggest donor is no longer funding his vanity project, due to the Florida governor’s obsession with the culture wars. Then one of his biggest, and craziest, political cheerleaders, Kari Lake, said she’s over his “Big DeSantis Energy” (eww).

But wait: there’s more! DeSantis sustained blistering attacks from a Republican political group; and now, we find out his polling is worse than ever.

A new survey of GOP voters shows the gay-hating candidate has slipped to third place in the Republican presidential race, narrowly behind entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who was virtually unknown just a few months ago.

More than 50% of respondents say Donald Trump is their preferred candidate, with Ramaswamy sliding into a distant second at 11%. DeSantis, meanwhile, is at 10%.

This can’t be how DeSantis imagined his much-publicized campaign reset would be going.

With bad poll numbers and low favorable ratings, DeSantis’ team recalibrated, and pledged the demagogic governor would focus more on in-person events. That seemed to be a curious strategy, considering DeSantis’ inability to converse with humans.

Just a couple of weeks ago, he shamed a poor girl at an Iowa fair for drinking an icee!

While DeSantis came across as a total narc, at least he was able to stick around the event in question and be awkward with potential voters. That wasn’t the case Friday, when two protesters cut short his first campaign stop in the Hawkeye State.

That’s right: two. The women told DeSantis to head back to Florida, and called him “pudding fingers” for good measure (for the blissfully unaware, a former DeSantis staffer said he once ate chocolate pudding with three fingers).

DeSantis’ wife, Casey, otherwise known as “America’s Karen,” tried to continue the event, but to no avail. DeSantis’ team quickly hurried their boss back to his bus.

The protesting women said they were part of a political action committee called “B***** Get Stuff Done,” which supports abortion rights (DeSantis signed one of the most restrictive abortion policies in the nation as Florida governor).

Ever since launching his campaign, DeSantis has pointed to his extreme record in Florida as evidence he would be able to enact far-right policies as president. But even that argument is now falling flat.

Many of DeSantis’ signature policies are being dismantled in court.

The “Stop WOKE Act,” which bans any classroom or workplace discussion that could make people feel uncomfortable about race, was partially blocked by a federal judge.

In June, another federal judge temporary blocked a law that would bar children from seeing drag shows. Around the same time, a judge also struck down Florida’s ban on Medicaid coverage of gender-affirming health care, and blocked enforcement on two state bans on gender-affirming care for minors.

Oh, and DeSantis is still involved in a nasty legal entanglement with Disney, his state’s largest private employer and tourism attraction.

Left with no answers, DeSantis replaced his campaign manager this week, just a few weeks after firing more than three dozen staffers, including one who retweeted a video with Nazi imagery.

With that in mind, maybe DeSantis should’ve actually engaged with those protesters. He could’ve learned a thing or two about effectively getting his message across.

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