Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis made a subtle but notable change to his Twitter account when he dropped the Florida abbreviation from his account handle in recent days.
For years, the 44-year-old has been reached by the account handle “@RonDeSantisFL” on his personal account.
The Hill reported that at some point this week, Florida’s second-term governor changed the account to “@RonDeSantis.”
Additionally, the official “@TeamRonDeSantis” account has also dropped the FL abbreviation from its handle.
The change in both accounts was noted just before it was announced by NBC News that the governor will announce he will join the 2024 GOP primary on Wednesday evening during a Twitter Spaces chat with Elon Musk.
The outlet reported DeSantis will lay out his campaign during the chat and will then quickly release a campaign video.
The governor also reportedly has plans to begin courting voters in crucial early primary states just after Memorial Day next week.
The governor has not yet confirmed the report.
DeSantis has been wildly successful as a congressman and as Florida’s chief executive.
He won his 2018 gubernatorial bid by a razor-thin margin against Democrat Andrew Gillum but defeated Democrat Charlie Crist last November by almost 20 points.
Although he has not entered the race, polls have consistently shown him as popular among potential primary voters.
Former President Donald Trump currently leads the rest of the pack of both declared and undeclared candidates by a wide margin, according to the Real Clear Politics average.
Tuesday, the average showed Trump leading DeSantis 56.3 percent to 19.4 percent.
Former Vice President Mike Pence comes in a distant third with 5.6 percent support.
DeSantis closes the gap a bit more in Iowa where he trails by 11.5 points in the average.
That could change when or if DeSantis makes his announcement on Wednesday.
Trump received a major boost in support when he was charged in April with 34 counts of questionable falsifying of business records by activist Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
But DeSantis could change the race with name recognition, a conservative record to run on, and the biggest financial war chest among all candidates.
If his Twitter account is any indication, he is primed to separate himself from Florida and run a national campaign to seek the Republican Party’s nomination.
If he is successful in both a primary and a general election, DeSantis will be only 46 years old at the time of the inauguration in January 2025.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
