NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE T he national political press is bored with Ron DeSantis. His campaign has been declared hopelessly moribund more often than the Fast & Furious franchise. Between his declining support in national polls of Republican primary voters, the unsustainable rate at which his campaign is burning through funds, and the prolonged retooling of its staffing and messaging efforts over the summer, media have drunk deeply from the well of schadenfreude that is their DeSantis campaign deathwatch. They’re clearly over it. When the political observers in the press deign to give DeSantis any attention anymore, it’s to mock his failing presidential bid and compare him unfavorably to the wily, nimble, self-effacing Donald Trump — the absence of whom on the debate stage in Milwaukee tonight threatens to give reporters an incurable case of ennui.

Some allege that even the GOP’s voters are “bored” of this campaign, but that is more likely a bit of revealing projection. Media outlets have all but moved on to the new, exciting flavor of the week: Vivek Ramaswamy. Rather, what the press is covering with such breathless anticipation they’re practically willing it into existence is the prospect of political combat between Ramaswamy and his rivals in the still-lively race for second place. A sprawling Washington Post piece this week forecast the fireworks reporters expect when the untested pharmacology billionaire makes first contact with his fellow Republican presidential aspirants.

“Increasingly,” the Post reported, “some of his rivals consider him a threat because of the warm response he is getting from GOP voters and the uptick in his support in some polls, though whether he holds up under that pressure is an open question, some Republicans said.” And who knows? The 2024 GOP field follows media narratives and the chatter on social media so closely that Republicans on the debate stage might train much of their fire on Ramaswamy.

There could be some benefits associated with scoring some points against the Ramaswamy, who functions consciously as a proxy for Donald Trump but doesn’t similarly trigger the GOP’s protective instincts. If, however, Ramaswamy gets the frontrunner treatment, that would almost certainly be to DeSantis’s benefit. Moreover, it would suggest that political observers in the press and Republicans alike have gotten so far ahead of themselves that they’re creating conditions which DeSantis can leverage into a comeback narrative.

All the ingredients for a political resurrection are already present. The widely reported and certainly premature anxiety among some of DeSantis’s donors notwithstanding, most of the Florida governor’s biggest financial backers are standing by the candidate. It’s the prospect of unserviceable debt that tends to do campaigns in before the first votes are cast, and DeSantis’s campaign and super PAC have the cash on hand to go the distance. Notwithstanding some early profligacy, the DeSantis campaign and PAC are investing in best practices that historically generate real returns for presidential campaigns.

The campaign has built some impressive infrastructure in the early states, where polls of the race are far closer because that is where the candidates are campaigning and on the air. This is not just the case in Iowa alone, where DeSantis needs a strong finish to justify his continued presence in the race. The Florida governor is following New Hampshire governor Chris Sununu’s advice, pressing the flesh in the Granite State while his PAC “plans to pour resources into on-the-ground organization” including voter outreach efforts augmented by digital, SMS text, and direct-mail advertising. Nor is the DeSantis campaign sleeping on South Carolina, where DeSantis has secured the endorsement of a number of local lawmakers. DeSantis will join Representative Jeff Duncan to headline the Palmetto State’s annual Faith & Freedom BBQ next week, taking top billing away from the state’s native son and fellow speaker, Senator Tim Scott.

Perhaps the best thing that DeSantis has going for him right now is that media have been so unimpressed with the governor’s campaign that they’ve inadvertently set expectations for him absurdly low. DeSantis has been cast as awkward and aloof. He’s been caricatured by the Trump campaign and the reporters who retail the narratives of DeSantis as bumbler and a maladroit campaigner. No one expects the Florida governor to be a scintillating presence on the debate stage. All of these expectations can be exceeded – particularly if DeSantis’s rivals internalize the notion that his candidacy has already achieved terminal velocity. But even if DeSantis does not turn in a magnetic performance in Milwaukee, he can still benefit from a comeback narrative – even if his campaign has to fabricate one.

That is, after all, what Bill “comeback kid” Clinton’s campaign did. Clinton’s similarly moribund campaign slunk away from Iowa following Senator Tom Harkin’s landslide caucus victory in 1992 and went into New Hampshire gravely wounded. Clinton’s bounce back in New Hampshire amounted to coming in second place behind Senator Paul Tsongas. But before Tsongas could claim victory, Bill Clinton hit the stage, anointed himself the “comeback kid,” and rode that moniker all the way to his party’s nomination. DeSantis, too, can benefit from artificially low expectations and political media’s desperate desire for drama in the race for the Republican nomination. Indeed, if he is sufficiently adroit, the stage is presently set for DeSantis to execute a similar strategy.

Of course, DeSantis’s downward trajectory in the national polls may be a leading indicator of how voters in the early states are responding to his candidacy. His campaign and its allies may blow through their cash, hit the skids, and be forced to close shop. The Florida governor could embarrass himself on the debate stage or on the campaign trail in a fashion so spectacular it precludes the prospect of recovery. Any number of unfortunate circumstances could yet befall the DeSantis campaign. But to survey the coverage of the race he has run so far is to be forgiven for thinking that Donald Trump’s most viable challenger for the nomination is already out of the game. DeSantis can parlay those misplaced assumptions into a gripping story of a man who beat the odds and turned the tables on all his detractors. And the only thing Americans like more than an underdog is a good comeback.