Ron DeSantis seeks to reset his campaign. But is it too late to beat the Trump juggernaut?

A focus group oftwo-time Donald Trump Republican voters who residein some of the earlyprimary states was recently asked: What presidential candidates interested them?

Many chosethe former president,while a few brought up South Carolina Senator Tim Scott andentrepreneur VivekRamaswamy, accordingtoJohn Conway, director of theRepublican Accountability Project, ananti-Trumpgroup seeking to support Republicancandidates who don't believe the 2020 election was stolen.

Not one of the members of the focus groupmentioned Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

"We're watching the group. And we're like, when are they going to bring up DeSantis?" Conway said. "We had to ask them, we had to prompt them.Nobody said Ron DeSantis."

It's an indication of justhow much DeSantis who a year ago was perceived by some as the one Republican capable of giving Trump a good competitive run in the primarieshas fallenfrom thepolitical landscape, and how far attempts to reinvigorate his campaign would have to go.

Fallen from the political landscape

Perhaps his best chance at a fresh start is this week, with the first Republican presidential candidatedebate being held in Milwaukee. But a strong debate showingor his recent instalment of anew campaign manager still may do little to halt the commanding lead byTrump, who seems at this point destined to win the Republican nomination.

"I don't know that anybody was going to win this election besides Trump," said Michael Binder, faculty directorof the Public Opinion ResearchLabat theUniversity of North Florida.

"So you were always going to be up against it no matter what."

DeSantis, says Conway,will really have to do a lot of worktrying again to convince voters that he is the clear alternative, that he is a more electable version of Trump.

"He's really kind of lost the sense of 'Trump without the baggage,'" Conway said. "He's really alienated that position from himself. Maybe the campaign can pivot. They're trying to get him in front of voters more. They're trying to give him a little bit more access to everyday folks and talk to the media a little bit more.

"It's going to be a bigger reset, I think, than just changing the campaign manager."

Although he's still running second to Trump, DeSantis'spoll numbers havecratered over several months.Therewere times last December when some polls showed DeSantis besting the former president. But now,according to some Republican primary polls, Trump holds an almost 40 pointlead over the governor.

If there's any good news forDeSantis, hispoll numbers are a bit higher in the early primary state of Iowa than his national numbers, although Trump still holds adouble digit lead there.

But in New Hampshire, polls suggest former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and DeSantis are getting about the same support.

What happened?

Still, for a period time, DeSantisseemed to hold some promise for those seeking an alternative to the former president So where did it all go so wrong?

Conway said that last summer,according to their focus groups, the Jan. 6 hearings began to worry some Republicans that they could have an effect on Trump's electability.

Enter DeSantis, who had been garnering some national media attention for his handling of COVID-19. News clips showed DeSantis at odds with the medical establishment and other public health officialsover maskingand lockdowns, something that greatly appealed to a great many Republicans.

It looked like he was "very much kind of built inthe Trump MAGA mold," Conway said, "And so lots of voters were really interested in him."

Then came the 2022 midterm elections, with the predicted Republican "red wave" failingto materialize. Many Republicans were disappointed with the results, blaming Trump for backing candidates who were too radical.Yet the one bright spot was DeSantis's crushing victory over Charlie Crist.

"We're doing focus groups after this. And everybody is [saying] 'I'm in the DeSantistrain,'" Conway said."So midterms, you really see this massive appetite for Ron DeSantis."

That support eventually faded, Conway said, because much of it was "shallow" formulated before Republican votersgot a good look at the candidate on the national stage.

But also, once DeSantis became a potential threat to Trump, the former president unleashed his ire on the governor. This happened in conjunctionwith the string of indictments against Trump, which helped rally support for the former president, and bleed support from DeSantis.

'Doesn't like politicking'

Meanwhile, as a candidate,DeSantiswasbeingcriticized for lacking the skills of a natural campaigner.

"I was one of the few people that were saying, I don't know if this guy's going to sell nationally for a lot of different reasons," Bindersaid."You know, mostly he doesn't like politicking."

Awkward moments were captured on video and wentviral on social media.

There were also "the unforced errors," said Republican strategist Whit Ayers. Those included his technical-glitch-filledcampaign launch on X, formerly known as Twitter; his claim that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was a "territorial dispute" and his recent suggestion thatanti-vaccine activist and conspiracy theoristRobert Kennedy Jr. would be a good person to run the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

He fought with Disney,wenthard against LGBTQ rights, and signed a much stricter abortion law banning access to the procedure in Florida after six weeks of pregnancy.

"The anti-woke stuff is really targeting as is alot of other stuffthe always Trump [voters]," Ayers said. "And the always Trump voters are always Trumpfor a reason. They're always going to be for Trump."

Instead, Ayers said, DeSantis should have been focussing on the 'maybe' Trump voters of the Republican party, those who may like Trump but are looking for an alternative, concerned that the former president won't be able to win in 2024.

'Profound miscalculation'

The DeSantis strategywas to convince the MAGA Trump Republicans that DeSantis was more truly their candidate on an ideological basis, saidPope (Mac)McCorkle, a formerDemocratic consultant and a professor at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy in Durham, N.C.

"It's just that the the appeal of Trump ... you react to him on a passionate level. And so much of DeSantis's [campaign]has been this kind of wooden [candidatewho has]got all the right positions.

"And picking these fights that even Trump wouldn't pick, I think that that has been a profound miscalculation," McCorkle said.

There are course-correctioncandidates who have had near-death campaign experiences andhave actually benefited from them, he said.

"Unfortunately, right now, it doesn't seem like DeSantis is benefiting from that because he doesn't seem to be changing."

"The way you get out of these near-death experiences is to kind of come on as authentic,of the people," McCorkle said. "Hedug a hole here."

"I don't see him somehow surpassing Trump, taking votes away from Trump, unless Trump is just starting to fall apart."