Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said he wouldn’t accept any offer to be Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate.
“No. I’m running for president,” he said on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures when asked the hypothetical question. “We need somebody that can serve two terms.”
DeSantis faced the question after Trump, the frontrunner in polls for the Republican Party nomination, told striking auto workers in Detroit that he’s competing against “job candidates” in the GOP field and didn’t see a potential vice president in any of them.
DeSantis is among Republican candidates who have criticized Trump’s decision to skip the party’s presidential debates. He has challenged the former president to a one-on-one debate, similar to one between DeSantis and California Governor Gavin Newsom scheduled for November.
Read more: DeSantis Says He Would Veto Big Spending Bills as Shutdown Looms
Trump and DeSantis held dueling speeches at the California state Republican convention in Anaheim last week, highlighting the state’s value in the presidential race.
DeSantis is seeking to rally more support from donors and voters after his campaign was hit by sliding poll numbers and staffing shakeups. He has been spending most of his time in the early primary state of Iowa, while sitting about 44 percentage points behind Trump in the GOP primary race in an average of polls tracked by RealClearPolitics.
“We need somebody that can win states like Georgia and Arizona, which President Trump cannot do or did not do,” DeSantis said in the interview.
