WASHINGTON (TND) — Thursday night will feature a political debate between two big-state governors who have long been considered future presidential candidates as Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are set to continue their public feud in an event hosted by Fox News.
DeSantis, who is running for the Republican nomination, is stepping outside the traditional campaign model to spend 90 minutes arguing policy and politics with Newsom. The governors have spent the last two years poking each other in interviews and elsewhere as they try to position their states and themselves as leaders in the U.S.
The governors will debate at 9 p.m. Thursday night on Fox News moderated by Sean Hannity, whose nightly program is one of the most-watched shows in the U.S.
For DeSantis, it will be a departure from his more recent experiences of crowded debate stages with other Republican presidential hopefuls all hoping to make a dent in former President Donald Trump’s huge lead in public opinion surveys. He came into the race as the No. 2 option for Republican voters in most polls but has seen some struggles as of late.
DeSantis is fighting to hang onto his status as the second option for GOP voters with former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley’s surging campaign. Both are trying to position themselves as the main Trump alternative to a voter pool that has continued to show support for the former president, but with some parts of the party that are searching for a new leader at the top of the ticket.
“I don’t think he probably initially wanted to do it, but then looking at the landscape, I think it was a political calculation,” said Aaron Kall, the director of debate at the University of Michigan. “If he does well, that could provide them a lot of momentum heading into the Alabama debate.”
Also different from the first three debates DeSantis has participated in this year is that the opposition will be a member of the opposing political party and will hold views totally opposite to his. Instead of jockeying with other Republicans for voters who agree with their policies to some degree, he will have to make a case that his party’s positions will put the country in a better place than Democratic ideas.
There will be sharp differences in opinion on how to handle essentially every issue facing the country from assistance to Ukraine, the state of the economy, what to do about illegal immigration and the southern border and the war in Israel. The governors are also likely to be asked about the former president, which could be a touchy subject for DeSantis to navigate.
In addition to defending his own record of California’s governor, Newsom will also have to defend the state of the country under President Joe Biden who has suffered from low approval ratings throughout most of his first term. DeSantis and Hannity have been highly critical of most parts of the president’s agenda, which Newsom has defended.
Newsom has made a point to appear on Fox News and posted on former President Donald Trump’s social media site Truth Social as part of a push to get more Democratic messaging on the right-leaning network and said his party should make more of an effort to get their policies in front of Republican voters.
He has also taken out advertisements in Texas and Florida going after their Republican leaders’ policy choices. The moves have furthered speculation about his presidential ambitions, though he opted against challenging Biden in 2024 and is one of the reelection campaign’s most active surrogates, even making an appearance on Fox after one of the presidential primary debates earlier this year.
But the 56-year-old governor is still considered to be a future frontrunner in an open primary for future Democratic presidential nominations, with the next coming in 2028. The debate with DeSantis, who is also young in political terms at 45, could be a sneak peek at a future presidential debate even if he ultimately loses this year’s Republican primary.
“Both of them are going to have several future major elections in front of them,” Kall said. “They want to be put in the best positions for the future because no matter what, if it is Trump and Biden, both of them can only serve one more term, so it’s going to be someone totally new in 2028, and being in front of a big audience like this and being in kind of a big debate spectacle really raises your profile nationally.”
