John Ellis: “The Republican Party has been transformed by Donald Trump. It is now driven by a populist movement. The core constituents of that movement are not college-educated and live in exurban and rural counties. Their view of ‘Wall Street’ is roughly in line with that of Bernie Sanders, socialist Senator from Vermont. Their view of the ‘1%’ is every bit as disdainful as that of Mr. Sanders.”
“A presidential campaign that advertises its support from hedge fund and private equity titans isn’t going to get very far with the ‘base’ of the modern Republican Party. ‘Losing Ken’, in fact, would be a plus. The fact that the DeSantis campaign did not understand this is pretty much all you need to know about why DeSantis is no longer a candidate for president.”
“He never had a base. He had a base of donors. If you’re going to run for the GOP presidential nomination, it’s far more important to speak to and for the base than raise money from people the base instinctively and persistently distrusts.”
