As JD Vance called to thank those who backed his successful Senate campaign in Ohio last fall, donors on the other end of the line shared a useful bit of information.
Establishment Republicans had been calling around to some of the same people, attempting to build support for a potential presidential run by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to two sources familiar with Vance’s conversations. Vance, who owed his victory in large part to former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, moved to quickly return the favor.
The “Hillbilly Elegy” author soon penned an endorsement of Trump’s 2024 bid for The Wall Street Journal — an early missile in a full-scale effort by the former president's allies to ground a DeSantis campaign before it launched.
Trump is now counting on those relationships developed during his two previous campaigns and four years in the White House to build a political juggernaut capable of rolling to the GOP nomination.
For reasons of personal affinity, political calculation and for being purely transactional, he is reaping the benefits of his past support for Republicans who are now in a position to reciprocate. Some of his endorsements have backfired on the party, particularly during the 2022 midterms in battlegrounds such as Arizona and Pennsylvania. But others are bearing fruit for Trump himself just in time for a showdown with DeSantis who, according to polls, remains his closest rival.
As of Friday, Trump had endorsements from more than 50 members of Congress: nine senators and 48 representatives, including more than half of the Florida Republicans serving in the House.
“It was like a knife through butter,” one Trump campaign official said of efforts to lock up the Florida endorsements. “We did not have to do a lot of convincing.”
While the strong show of support doesn’t quite give Trump an aura of invincibility, it contributes to a widely held perception — backed by polling — that he is the exclusive favorite for the nomination at this moment in time. And the endorsements are putting pressure on the rest of the field to show similar signs of strength to voters and donors.
DeSantis, who has yet to declare his candidacy, has mustered three congressional endorsements, with only one coming from a Florida member: his former secretary of state, Rep. Laurel Lee. A separate senior aide to Trump said that the campaign did not even attempt to get Lee's endorsement because of her ties to the DeSantis administration.
DeSantis' allies say, however, that Trump’s endorsement list shows weakness, not strength.
“Donald Trump had nearly unanimous Republican support in 2020 and every voice that isn’t behind him now is a defection,” said Erin Perrine, a spokeswoman for Never Back Down, a pro-DeSantis super PAC. “Trump only has ground to lose on endorsements while Governor DeSantis, who isn’t even an announced candidate, continues to have a growing base of support.
But some DeSantis supporters have taken rueful note of the flood of institutional support for Trump.
“There’s definite concern,” said Dan Eberhart, a longtime DeSantis donor who remains squarely in the Florida governor’s camp. “It feels very much like Trump is securely in the lead.”
“If DeSantis was going to be the nominee, you’d think he’d have to be ahead in Florida to start,” Eberhart added.
The Trump campaign official predicted that DeSantis may receive only one additional endorsement from his state’s congressional delegation: Rep. Aaron Bean, a former Republican member of the Florida Senate who was a close DeSantis ally. A spokesperson for Bean declined to comment.
Trump’s political team, this official added, has received signals from some members who are concerned about DeSantis vetoing state budget items important to their congressional districts. There’s hope among Trump’s team that these members will publicly support the former president after the state budget process is no longer in play and DeSantis has less sway over where the funding can flow.
Trump rolled out many of the Florida endorsements this week in a dramatic drumbeat timed to coincide with DeSantis meeting with lawmakers in Washington. Trump then invited those Republicans to a private dinner Thursday at Mar-a-Lago, his resort in Palm Beach.
During the nearly four-hour dinner, much of the conversation focused on foreign policy, including extensive discussions about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to the campaign official, who was at the event. DeSantis' name came up briefly when Trump bragged about polling that showed him surging after being indicted by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
