| Good morning. Florida's political news has been dominated by Gov. Ron DeSantis' entrance into the presidential race. But there was another huge story last week you don't want to miss. The Tampa Bay Times revealed that a recent FBI raid at the home of a Tampa media consultant, Tim Burke and his wife, Tampa City Council member Lynn Hurtak, stemmed from an investigation of alleged computer intrusions and intercepted communications at the Fox News Network. A letter from a federal prosecutor sent to Fox News describes an ongoing criminal probe into computer hacks at the company, including of unaired video from Tucker Carlson's show. Read more about the far-reaching facets of this case. |
| [CHARLIE NEIBERGALL | Associated Press] |
| The Rundown: Last week, DeSantis officially became a candidate for president when he filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission and made an announcement on Twitter. This week, he held his first public rally as a candidate. But despite rumors that he would kick off his campaign in his hometown of Dunedin, he instead did so at an evangelical church in Iowa. The location was notable because it highlights both the fact that DeSantis' campaign is targeting evangelical voters, and that his camp sees victory in the early states as crucial to building his momentum. Evangelicals are only one piece of the puzzle that DeSantis is now trying to assemble, in order to form a coalition of Republican voters looking for an alternative to former President Donald Trump. Many pollsters estimate that Trump still has a firm grip on around a third of Republican voters. With that in mind, we dug deeper into DeSantis' looming math problem and how his team thinks they can solve it. DeSantis' speech in Iowa also incorporated some new material. He took repeated jabs at Trump, though without ever saying his name. ("I've been listening to these politicians talk about securing the border for years and years and years. ... We'll actually construct a border wall.") He got a little more specific about what he promises to do if elected. DeSantis talked more about abortion than he has previously, emphasizing the bill he recently signed that bans most abortions after six weeks. During his Florida reelection last year, DeSantis was mum on that topic, suggesting he's pivoting as he competes for Iowa Republican primary voters rather than general-election Floridians. Then in the middle of his speech, he did something unusual. He took a break to hand the stage over to his wife, Casey DeSantis, who then spoke to the crowd, emphasizing their young family. It was a reminder of her huge influence in DeSantis' political world. Then as he wrapped up, DeSantis told the crowd they needed to avoid getting "distracted," presumably by Trump. "If we get distracted, if we allow the election to become about other things, other than (Joe) Biden's failures — if he's able to hibernate in his basement for the whole campaign and not have to answer tough questions — well then, we may be in danger of seeing a Democrat sweep in 2024," he said. The long road to the 2024 Republican presidential nomination begins. |
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