Trump vs. DeSantis battle overshadows Florida GOP meeting in Orlando

Florida Republicans gathered in Orlando on Friday for a potentially tense quarterly meeting fueled by a heated GOP primary between Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump.

State and county GOP officials preached unity as they walked the halls of the Rosen Centre on the way to meetings and panel discussions closed to the news media.

But a vote on rescinding a loyalty pledge for candidates to appear on the March presidential primary ballot, reportedly scheduled for late Friday, indicated that the rift between supporters of the two famous Floridians running for president might only be growing.

“I hate to see King Don versus Ron-zilla burning down Tokyo,” said Vic Baker, GOP state committeeman for Volusia County. “That’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.”

Outside the meeting rooms, merchandise tables on either side of a doorway were draped with flags backing Trump on one side and DeSantis on the other. Trump souvenirs such as a T-shirt of his Atlanta booking photo above the words “No Surrender” were available at both tables.

The loyalty pledge was the biggest issue at the meeting. Imposed in May, it follows the national GOP’s lead and requires anyone on the March GOP primary ballot in Florida to promise to support the eventual nominee.

Trump has refused to sign any such pledge, a stance that had already disqualified him from the national GOP’s first primary debate last month. Trump said he did not plan on attending that event anyway.

“Why would I sign it?” Trump told the conservative TV network Newsmax last month. “I can name three or four people that I wouldn’t support for president. So right there, there’s a problem.”

It isn’t yet clear, however, if the Republican Party in Florida or any other state would leave Trump off their primary ballots if he holds true and doesn’t sign the pledge.

Former Florida Republican chair Joe Gruters, a Trump supporter and frequent DeSantis critic, called for an executive board vote to rescind the pledge requirement. That could create a potential test of whether the governor’s hold on the state party is weakening in the wake of his slide in the polls to Trump.

A Fox News poll released Thursday showed Trump reaching the 60% support mark nationally, with DeSantis a distant second at 13% and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy just behind at 11%.

Baker said he and the Florida GOP in general were officially neutral between the two men, but he hoped that whoever won the nomination would back the winner, whether the pledge was in place or not.

“It would be the right thing to do, no matter who prevails,” Baker said. “Traditionally, that’s what we’ve done. I think there are great risks depending on which way it goes. But we’ll have to see how that shakes out. There’s so many moving parts in this that nobody can predict how it’s going to turn out at this point.”

Asked if Trump would back DeSantis if he won, Pam Kyllonen, the state committeewoman for Gadsden County, said she hoped he would. “But you never know,” she said.

Allen Goldstein, the vice chair of the Polk County GOP, said he disagreed with any rule that would keep candidates off the ballot.

“He’s got a lot of support here,” Goldstein said of Trump. “I also love Ron DeSantis. … I think one day he’s going to be probably one of the best presidents we have, [but] I do feel that he’s running too early right now.”

Just beyond the desk where county GOP officials lined up to check in was another group sharing the same hotel: the annual NAACP Florida convention. Republicans in red walked past NAACP merchandise such as a “Vote, Vote, Vote” shirt.

The dueling meetings created an incongruous scene in the wake of the national NAACP’s travel warning for Florida as “openly hostile for African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals.”

DeSantis slammed the travel warning as a “stunt” by a group with a “very left-wing agenda.”

Carl Davis, an NAACP member from Lady Lake, took issue with DeSantis on that.

“We’ve been around over 114 years,” Davis said. “What we’re doing is as simple as this: we’re fighting for equality and justice in this state, and in every other state. And that’s all I have to say about that.”