DeSantis says ‘stay tuned’ on a potential, ‘very soon’ 2024 announcement

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (FLV) – Gov. Ron DeSantis commented on a potential 2024 presidential run announcement in the next month or so, telling a reporter to “stay tuned,” but that it may be coming “very soon.”

A reporter asked DeSantis if he sees himself running for president, announcing this month.

“So, you’re just gonna have to stay tuned on all this,” he said to laughter from the crowd. “You’ll get there, one way or another, very soon – so you just have to do it.”

DeSantis noted he does not want to “short-circuit” the state’s ongoing legislative accomplishments as the session draws to a close this week.

“I’m not going to short-circuit any of the good work that we’ve done,” he said. “I mean, we want to make sure that we’re thorough about doing that.”

The governor commented on one of the final orders of business for lawmakers this session – the budget.

“Look, protecting the taxpayer with these line item vetoes is very important,” he said. “If you look last year, I vetoed some big items 3.3 billion, but that generated the largest budget surplus in the history of the state of Florida.”

“So, we’ll see how it works out.”

DeSantis has previously indicated he would not make any national political announcement until after the legislative session wraps up May 5.

From there, DeSantis has already said to expect bill signings over the past couple weeks.

Those signings will likely include policies like cracking down on China-linked land buys in the state, parental rights expansion, transgender surgeries and other priorities like lowering the age to purchase a firearm to 18.

The governor came back from an international trade mission and kicked off an ongoing slew of bill signings.

At the Panama City press conference, DeSantis announced a “record-long” Gulf red snapper season for 2023.