Ron DeSantis is young, has small children, and wants America to know

As top-level presidential candidates go, Ron DeSantis is a rarity these days. Born after the Vietnam War, he grew up when computers were commonplace in American homes, and he still has young children of his own, rather than enough grandchildren to fill a basketball team.

DeSantis would be 46 on inauguration day if elected, younger than any president since John F. Kennedy. It’s a fact he doesn’t explicitly state, but his campaign aims to make sure voters understand.

The Florida governor often talks about having the “energy and discipline” needed for the White House, with a busy schedule of morning and evening events. He and his wife, Casey DeSantis, often talk about their young children, who are 6, 5 and 3 and have joined their parents on the campaign trail. One of the few candidates with children still at home, Mr. DeSantis regularly emphasizes his parental concerns about schools and popular culture while pushing his right-wing social agenda.

When he signed the state budget on Thursday, he joked a tax break on one of parenthood’s most staggering expenses – diapers – had arrived late for his family, although not much.

“I came home and my wife said, ‘Why didn’t you do that in 2019 when our kids were in diapers?'” Mr. DeSantis said.

The clear goal is to draw a stark contrast from his main rivals, President Biden, 80, and former President Donald J. Trump, who just turned 77, both grandfathers who have sons (Hunter and Don Jr.) who are older than than Mr. DeSantis. Voters have expressed concern about the age and fitness of both men, especially Mr Biden.

About two-thirds of registered voters believe Mr Biden is too old to effectively serve another four-year term as president, according to a poll. nationwide poll conducted by Quinnipiac University last month. Only 36 percent of registered voters said the same of Mr. Trump, suggesting that Mr. DeSantis’ relative youth could be a greater advantage in a general election than in the primary.

Yet Mr. DeSantis, 44, rarely talks directly about his age, and the party he represents — older and whiter than the country as a whole — has never been known to nominate young presidential candidates who bring a wave of energy to the White House, as Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did.

His conservative views on abortion, climate change and how race is taught – among other things – have put Mr. DeSantis out of step with many members of his own generation. Majorities of voters in his age group want abortion to be legal in all or most cases, think climate change is a very serious problem, and support the Black Lives Matter movement. According to the Quinnipiac poll, only about one in four voters between the ages of 35 and 49 have a positive view of Mr. DeSantis.

Mr. DeSantis also hardly seems to have a natural talent for capturing youthful enthusiasm the way Mr. Obama did. The 44th president, the last major candidate to run on a platform of generational change, could count on the support of young and influential cultural icons, including hip-hop artists.

Aside from expressing “wake up,” Mr. DeSantis barely mentions cultural influences such as television shows, movies, music, or social media. One of his attempts to reach younger people – announcing his campaign on Twitter with Elon Musk – went haywire when the live stream dropped repeatedly. His rally soundtrack is a generic blend of country and classic rock, augmented by a DeSantis tribute anthem to the tune of Sweet Home Alabama. He doesn’t talk much about his love of golf or his hobbies. His references to parenthood are often inspired by his wife.

But his children – Madison, Mason and Mamie – are very visible. Neat stacks of toys, including baseball bats and a bucket of baseballs, are usually lined up on the front porch of the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee, visitors say.

No presidential family has raised children as young as the DeSantis brood since the Kennedys, sparking hope among supporters of a conservative Camelot in the White House. The comparison is one that Ms. DeSantis in particular seems to lean towards. The elegant dresses and white gloves she sometimes favors seem to evoke Jacqueline Kennedy’s wardrobe.

The couple’s family-oriented image has softened Mr. DeSantis’ opinion among some Florida Democrats. “I don’t like him as a politician,” said 52-year-old Janie Jackson, a Miami Democratic voter who runs a household business, in an interview last week. “But I think he’s a good father and husband.”

Mr. Trump, who has been divorced twice and has five children by three different women, could be particularly vulnerable to such comparisons.

“Being with his family makes him more human,” Dave Carney, a New Hampshire Republican strategist, said of Mr. DeSantis. ‘He’s a father. People can relate to that. It gives him credibility to talk about family issues.”

But voters can smell shtick, Mr. Carney added. “There’s a balance,” he said. “You don’t want your kids to seem like a prop.”

Younger Republicans seem to be responding to Mr. DeSantis. A recent poll from The Economist and YouGov found that the governor received his most support from Republicans and Republican leaners ages 18 to 29, though he was still 39 percent to 27 percent behind Trump in that group.

At almost every stop on their swings through the early nomination states, Mr. DeSantis and Mrs. DeSantis, who often joins her husband on stage to make her own remarks, mention their young family.

On a recent trip to Iowa, Mr. DeSantis and his wife, 42, arrived at the fairgrounds with their children in tow. All three wore DeSantis branded shirts with aTop Gov” logo on the back. They signed a canister that belonged to a pro-DeSantis super PAC – his son did so while wearing a baseball glove – while Mrs. DeSantis, wearing a black leather “Where Woke Goes to Die” jacket despite the heat, knelt down to help. Their eldest, Madison, wrote her name in red and drew a heart above it.

“Did you write your things down there?” asked Mr. DeSantis, after venturing into the crowd while lifting a daughter. The kids then continued with an ice cream giveaway organized by the super PAC.

“Do you want me to hold you?” Mr. DeSantis asked his son, Mason, before picking him up as the boy continued to eat ice cream.

On the stub, Mr. DeSantis usually talks about his kids to emphasize policy issues, particularly on education, or to accentuate his long-running feud with Disney, which he accuses of indoctrinating children.

“My wife and I just think kids should be able to go to school, watch cartoons, just be kids, without having an agenda shoved down their throats,” Mr. DeSantis said during a visit to New Hampshire. “So we take that very seriously and we’ve done an awful lot to support parents.”

Mr. DeSantis’ approach to family issues appeals primarily to conservative Republicans and has been criticized by Democrats and civil rights activists. He signed into law banning abortions after six weeks, prohibiting gender reassignment care for minors, imposing penalties on businesses that allow children to see performances such as drag shows and further restricting instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools.

On the campaign trail, the DeSantises often try to temper the polarizing nature of his political persona with tales of family life.

Mrs. DeSantis usually persuades her husband to be open about their children, including his adventures by taking them for fast food at a restaurant populated by drunk students and, as a sign of the couple’s religiosity, having them baptized with water from the Sea of ​​Galilee in Israel.

On a layover in New Hampshire, Mrs. DeSantis apologized to the public for her hoarse voice, suggesting she had strained her vocal cords in an attempt to protect the furniture in the governor’s mansion from one of her daughters.

“I had a really long, in-depth conversation with that 3-year-old about why she can’t color on the dining room table with permanent markers,” she said.

Now Mr. DeSantis has competition from another youthful, if much lesser-known, candidate from his home state: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, 45, whose campaign announcement video from last week shows him jogging around town and mentioning his kids.

Another lesser known rival, Vivek Ramaswamy, has promoted himself as the first millennial to run for president as a Republican. Mr. Ramaswamy, 37, also has young children, sons aged 11 months and 3 years who joined him on the path. Campaigning with children sometimes requires special adjustments, said Mr. Ramaswamy in a recent interview. For example, his campaign bus has two car seats and a changing table.

At the end of an event in New Hampshire this month, he turned away from the crowd to thank his eldest son, Karthik, for his good behavior during his speech.

“He got a bigger round of applause than I did,” said Mr. Ramaswamy.

Shane Goldmacher contributed reporting from Des Moines.