Elections How Ron DeSantis won the Fox News primary In his primary campaign for Florida governor, the cable network made all the difference.

One of the key ingredients in Ron DeSantis’ victory in the Florida GOP governor’s race turned out to be makeup.

The once little-known congressman spent so much time broadcasting Fox News TV hits from Washington this year that he learned to apply his own powder so he could look as polished as he sounded.


In his primary election campaign against Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, DeSantis’ cultivation of his Fox relationship made all the difference. It powered him to a double-digit win over a once better-known and better-funded candidate whose nomination appeared inevitable months ago. Just as important, the cable network introduced the Harvard-educated lawyer to his most useful patron — President Donald Trump, who endorsed him on Dec. 22.

Since then, DeSantis made 121 appearances on Fox and Fox Business — his campaign estimates it would have cost his campaign $9.3 million to purchase all that airtime.

It’s impossible to overstate the value of a steady stream of Fox appearances among Florida Republicans: Seventy percent of likely Florida GOP voters regularly watch Fox News and Fox Business channels, according to the DeSantis campaign’s polling.

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Putnam sought to counter the Fox effect by repeatedly emphasizing his Florida roots — he even went so far as to underwrite a DeSantis-bashing website with the address “emptystudioron.com.”

But DeSantis’ campaign research made one thing clear: a Fox first campaign was superior to a Florida first effort. For Republicans, all politics isn’t local — it’s on Fox News.

“We are in a political environment where far more attention is being paid to what is happening in Washington than what is happening in Tallahassee. Putnam’s Florida strategy effectively took himself out of the conversation,” said Todd Harris, a lead consultant for DeSantis.

Harris said that while it’s not a mystery that Republicans watch Fox, the campaign’s polling and research provided it with a solid idea about how the primary electorate got its information and how it sees itself. One revelation from the data: Fifty-two percent of GOP primary voters saw themselves as supporters of the president first, while only 37 percent saw themselves as Republicans first.

DeSantis’ combination of Fox appearances and Trump boosterism was perfect for both Fox’s general Republican audience and its audience of one: Trump.

“Trump is going all out for DeSantis because he gets 100 percent of his news from Fox, and he knows DeSantis has gone to bat for him, and he knows Florida is important,” said Roger Stone, a longtime on-again and off-again Trump adviser from Florida who had supported Putnam.

Trump’s endorsement proved priceless. His approval rating among Republican primary voters is in the low 90s, according to public and private Democratic and Republican polls. In 2016, Trump won the state so handily in the presidential primary that his main opponent, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, carried only one county — Miami-Dade, his home base.

This year, the DeSantis campaign’s polling showed that more than half of the primary voters in the governor’s race identified themselves as Trump supporters, and slightly more than a third identified themselves as Republicans primarily. The campaign’s polling showed that 37 percent of the party’s voters watched Fox daily and of those who called themselves Trump Republicans, the daily viewership was higher still: 47 percent.

“It’s fishing where the fish are,” Harris said.

An Iraq War vet and former military prosecutor, DeSantis had already parlayed his membership on the House’s Judiciary, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees into regular appearances on Fox prior to the 2016 election. But after Trump was elected and faced multiple investigations, DeSantis became an early supporter of the president on everything from moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem to questioning the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign.

“DeSantis was already a figure on Fox, and the timing of everything just worked out perfectly for him,” said fellow Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, who has followed in DeSantis’ footsteps in frequently appearing on the network.

“I used to make fun of Ron for putting on makeup. And now I had to go to him for tips to put it on and hide the circles under my eyes,” Gaetz joked.

On Dec. 8, DeSantis and Gaetz flew to a Pensacola rally with Trump on Air Force One, where Putnam allies with close ties to Trump — including Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Trump lobbyist Brian Ballard — tried to keep the congressional duo away from the president in hopes of forestalling that endorsement.

But it was too late. Trump committed anyway, swayed both by DeSantis’ unwavering loyalty on Fox and the president’s recall of comments from Putnam during the GOP convention in 2016 when Putnam unfavorably compared the president to his running mate, Mike Pence.

“If there’s one way to get under Trump’s skin, it’s to compare him to Pence like that,” said one Republican who lobbied the president unsuccessfully for Putnam.

For a time after the Air Force One trip to Pensacola, the effort to keep Trump from endorsing worked. The White House denied the president had offered to back DeSantis on the flight. But in late December, as Trump flew to Palm Beach International Airport for one of his winter stays at Mar-a-Lago, the president saw a clip of DeSantis on Fox and decided to endorse him via Twitter at 1:34 p.m. when the plane landed.

“Congressman Ron DeSantis is a brilliant young leader, Yale and then Harvard Law, who would make a GREAT Governor of Florida. He loves our Country and is a true FIGHTER!” Trump wrote.

Months later on Fox, Trump would refer to DeSantis, Gaetz and two other Republican House members, Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan, as “ absolute warriors ” — comments that echoed through the conservative media ecosystem.

On the strength of his free media campaign, DeSantis continued to rise in the polls through the winter and spring. Putnam, sitting on heaps of Tallahassee establishment money and big support from the sugar lobby, had to spend millions to stay ahead. DeSantis, however, kept moving upward without spending nearly as much, largely due to his frequent appearances on Fox.

Putnam’s campaign consistently complained to Fox for equal time, according to a top campaign ally and a DeSantis campaign liaison with the network. It relented once by giving Putnam — the Tallahassee establishment favorite, a 44-year-old who had held various elected offices without interruption for 22 years — an interview with host Shannon Bream, a Tallahassee native and daughter of a former Leon County commissioner.

Putnam didn’t play well on TV, at least in the eyes of Trump, who told others that the red-haired Putnam either “looked like a shrimp” or “looked like shit,” according to those who recall the president sneering at Putnam.

The Fox airtime for DeSantis effectively wiped out the cash advantage held by Putnam, who had never lost an election until Tuesday.

Putnam had bragged for months about running a “Florida First” campaign. His campaign touted pastoral outdoor barbecue events. He attended the Wausau Possum Festival. At the first live debate between the candidates at a June 28 Republican Party of Florida conference, Putnam started the evening by relishing the comparison of DeSantis’ broadcast-based strategy with countrified homespun meet-the-folks campaign.

“It’s completely different than a Washington, D.C., studio. And I just want to say, ‘Welcome to Florida, congressman,’” Putnam said to applause.

The debate was broadcast on Fox. And though Putnam wanted to talk Florida-specific issues, the national broadcasting company made it more of a national debate that, in the estimation of DeSantis’ campaign, played to DeSantis’ strengths.

Five days before the debate, Trump re-endorsed DeSantis.

“Congressman Ron DeSantis, a top student at Yale and Harvard Law School, is running for Governor of the Great State of Florida. Ron is strong on Borders, tough on Crime & big on Cutting Taxes - Loves our Military & our Vets,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “He will be a Great Governor & has my full Endorsement!”

DeSantis made sure to name-drop Trump 21 times during the debate. Putnam mentioned the president five times.

The effect of the president’s endorsement and the Fox debate were devastating for Putnam.

“Before the June endorsement, we were up 9 in our internals. Afterward, we were down 14 points,” said a Putnam campaign hand who didn’t want to be identified. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Within two weeks of the debate, DeSantis was leading in public polls as well.

The DeSantis campaign then set about cutting a TV ad that would check all the boxes — appeal to Trump voters, get viral-like coverage on Fox (as well as other networks) and outrage Trump-hating liberals. In the ad, DeSantis’ wife — Jacksonville TV personality Casey DeSantis — poked fun at her husband’s Trump-based campaign.

“Everyone knows my husband Ron DeSantis is endorsed by President Trump. But he’s also an amazing dad,” she narrates direct to camera. “People say Ron's all Trump, but he is so much more.”

The ad then cuts to different scenes of him as he tells his little kids to “build the wall” with toy blocks, reads Trump’s “Art of the Deal” book and “Make America Great Again” slogan and uses the president’s trademark “big league” phrase as his baby son lies in his crib.

The ad more than paid for itself in free media. The following day — July 31, roughly one month before the GOP primary — Trump headed to Tampa to rally for DeSantis. The next week, DeSantis and Putnam met for their final debate.

By that point, Putnam was no longer making fun of DeSantis for being the candidate of Fox News. Putnam was complaining about it.

“It has felt a lot like I’m running against the 'Seinfeld' candidate,” Putnam said. “The campaign’s being run out of studio. They have a smattering of celebrity guest appearances. And at the end of the day, it’s all about nothing. But unlike 'Seinfeld,' it’s not funny.”

On Monday, Trump took twice to Twitter again to urge Republicans to vote for DeSantis — and the tweets were promptly picked up by Fox News. But by then, the race was long over.

