Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance’s (R-Ohio) public profile has changed tremendously since his now-running mate former President Donald Trump first ran for president in 2016. Vance, then a venture capitalist and author of the successful memoir Hillbilly Elegy, was a harsh critic of Trump and used to openly describe him as an “idiot,” wondering whether he might be “America’s Hitler” in a Facebook conversation with a friend.

As Vance radicalized over the course of a successful Ohio Senate campaign, he reconciled with Trump while becoming a fixture of MAGA politics in his own right.

“I allowed myself to focus so much on the stylistic element of Trump that I completely ignored the way in which he substantively was offering something very different on foreign policy, on trade, on immigration,” Vance told the New York Times’ Ross Douthat in June this year.

Along the way, his personal style also shifted, going from the baby-faced blogger of yore to a sitting senator. Vance grew a beard, got sharper haircuts, and settled into a professional suit and tie.

Some people think he hasn’t stopped there though, and are speculating that he’s also wearing eyeliner.

Is JD Vance wearing eyeliner?

On TikTok, the theories have been swirling since Trump announced the pick.

“This is unserious political commentary but I can’t stop thinking about it,” @mamasissiesays said in one video posted on June 19. “Is JD Vance wearing eyeliner?”

The TikToker, who goes by Casey, compared stylized photos of Vance with his official Senate portrait, as well as how he looked on TV appearances.

“No eyeliner to see here … that’s very much a man not wearing eyeliner,” Casey said about his Senate portrait, then contrasted it with a TV appearance. “Obviously something’s going on here,” she commented, “along with some contour, I’d love to know his shade.”

“That is a bold line just a few millimeters over and he’ll have a proper cat-eye on his hands,” she added, zooming in on one shot of Vance’s eye.

“We’re fine with men who wear makeup,” she specified. “What we’re not fine with is hypocrites who make … harmful policies against men who wear makeup.”

She also claimed to have found Vance’s shade, a “deep taupe-gray matte” glide-on eye pencil called “Urban Decay Desperation.”

It's a fitting color for a man who chucked his liberal values to latch on to a candidate decrying crime-riddled American metropolises.

Casey wasn’t the only TikToker who noticed the eyeliner. @skyeleight55, who goes by Skye Dawn on the platform, reacted to Casey’s video with a screenshot of Vance she said she’d taken because she had the exact same thought

“You cannot tell me he’s not sitting there … [with] foundation, eye liner, and filler,” Skye Dawn said.

Another TikToker offered the full JD Vance makeup tutorial for his national debut at the Republican National Convention.

In the post, they draw on a really “tight” eyeliner, both above and “under your eye like you are a 14-year-old girl in 2006," that, along with mascara "makes our eyes look sunken and like we're worried for America."

The Trump-Vance campaign didn’t answer questions about whether they were employing a makeup artist for Vance. Multiple people who worked for Vance in the Senate also didn’t answer questions about his makeup regime. Plenty of politicians wear makeup today on the campaign trail and under the glare of stage and television lights.

Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon blamed his loss in 1960 against John F. Kennedy at least partially on the fact that he refused to wear makeup during their televised debate. Polling before the TV faceoff had Nixon six points up, but his haggard appearance turned voters off.

Kriss Blevens, who’s done campaign makeup for dozens of presidential candidates over the years, also didn’t respond to questions about whether Vance was sporting eyeliner.

But this wouldn't be the first aesthetic secret of a politician outed by TikTok.

Online theories about the footwear of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) did him no favors in a brutal Republican primary campaign against Trump. TikTokers speculated that DeSantis was wearing a wedge shoe to increase his height, something he denied but which led to numerous awkward questions about the boots, and even an attack from Trump, who accused him of wearing high heels.

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Fans of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) had mixed reactions Wednesday night amid reports the 2024 Republican National Convention planned to exclude him from speaking, before reversing course because of a "change in schedule."

But some are hopeful that his speech could lay the groundwork for his future political prospects.

"I will confirm a change in schedule that means he will now be speaking," an unnamed source told NBC News. DeSantis' team, for its part, told the outlet it had always been told DeSantis would have a slot.

Reports about a possible DeSantis snub roiled his fans, with many social media users saying his inclusion would be a show of unity in the wake of a primary season that revealed fractures in the party.

DeSantis, once considered former President Donald Trump's top primary rival, was polling at more than 30% early last year. But as his campaign became untenable, he dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump in January, despite the pair trading barbs.

But a fracture in the GOP shown from the bitter primary might still exist—at least partly—as evidenced by DeSantis fans' reactions to the speaker saga.

"I think we made a wrong turn along the way," commented one user alongside a meme rebuking Kanye West's ex Amber Rose being given a speaking spot.

Rose, a former stripper-turned-model, announced on Monday she would speak at the convention, though she did not specify when. Her announcement follows her endorsement of Trump in May and subsequent July Instagram donning a bikini and a Make America Great Again hat.

"I really wish he'd stay away from this rank clown show," commented another X user, whose bio includes the hashtag #StillWithDeSantis.

"Guess which of these will be speaking at the Republican Convention and which one won't," wrote another with a side-by-side of DeSantis and Rose before the slot for the governor was announced.

"Bad idea," echoed another person. "This is a garbage show and you should stay away unless you are going there to call them out and the new non conservative platform. Just a very bad look. Dont do it."

"Disgusting, but predictable," read one response.

"The Trump republican party is pro abortion, pro degeneracy," added another.

But while some of his fans are disappointed in his decision to speak at the convention, many are optimistic that he could set the stage for another presidential run in four years.

"This is a great opportunity for DeSantis to set the stage for the 2028 campaign," remarked one person.

"I think it’s a good thing," replied someone else. "He needs to stay active in the Republican Party so we can elect him in 2028."

One person expressed hope DeSantis' speech would mirror Ronald Reagan's convention speech after he lost the primary to Gerald Ford.

"After Reagan spoke, the delegates knew they had made a terrible mistake, which they rectified four years later," she wrote, adding that "those questioning why DeSantis would do so should also take the time to watch truly one of the greatest speeches of all time and realize that to be the leader of the free world in the future sometimes you have to be the bigger man now."

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Former President Donald Trump is changing his tune about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)—his former top primary rival that he dubbed "Ron DeSanctimonious"—after the pair met privately on Sunday.

"I am very happy to have the full and enthusiastic support of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida," Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday, a day after the duo met in Florida to ease any lingering animosity.

DeSantis—who scored Trump's endorsement during his gubernatorial race in 2018—turned into a bitter rival as he was initially viewed as the best bet by many conservatives looking for an alternative candidate to Trump. The pair's feud escalated during the campaign, with DeSantis taking jabs at Trump's age and electability, while President Joe Biden and Trump blasted DeSantis over his lack of personality and political acumen.

But the pair appear to moving on from the past swipes, with Trump saying: "We had a great meeting yesterday, arranged by mutual friend Steve Witkoff, at his beautiful Shell Bay Club in Hollywood, Florida. The conversation mostly concerned how we would work closely together to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. Also discussed was the future of Florida, which is FANTASTIC!"

"I greatly appreciate Ron’s support in taking back our Country from the Worst President in the History of the United States. November 5th is a BIG DAY!!!" Trump added.

While DeSantis has been out of the 2024 presidential contest for more than three months and immediately endorsed Trump, the former president's pivot has revived animosity between the pro-Trump and pro-DeSantis factions of the GOP that had been bitterly divided during the primary.

One Truth Social user using the moniker "LibsareMentallyIll" replied to Trump's post, questioning: "Now he's your buddy after all the shit you talked for no reason about him in the primary?"

"So all the horrific things you said about DeSantis and names you called him was just a show?" asked another user who went on to blast the Trump administration for not completing the border wall and adding to the national debt.

Others were quick to get a jab in at DeSantis and echoed Trump's past comments that the Florida governor is a "RINO," or a Republican in Name Only.

"DON'T PICK DeSantis AS YOUR RUNNING MATE," replied another person on Truth Social. "At the end of the day, he's a RINO and will always be a RINO."

Echoed another user: "Please keep him at arms length. He was all about the RINOS! I'm just not sure is his deep loyalties. Respectfully"

"Please please do not allow him in your circle if you become our President," wrote someone else before espousing a conspiracy theory about Robert F. Kennedy's assassination. "JFK made friends with LBJ right before he became President to 'join' forces/ LBJ hated RFK and look how that turned out for RFK Sr? I would not wish that upon you Sir. It was a coup taking out RFK and we the people know."

"DeSantis is an untrustworthy Rino," quipped another user.

Before he entered the primary, Trump had floated DeSantis as a possible vice presidential pick. And now Trump's change of tune is reviving speculation about his yet-to-be-announced VP decision.

But even if the animosity has been put aside, DeSantis is unlikely to score that spot on Trump's ticket.

The online prediction market PredictIt currently puts DeSantis' odds on par with those of Vivek Ramaswamy—but behind steady frontrunner Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Tulsi Gabbard, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem—despite her odds dropping in the wake of her revelation that she killed her 14-month-old dog.

And reports indicate Trump's meeting with DeSantis had nothing to do with vice presidential talks, but all to do with money—and convincing DeSantis to help fundraise ahead of November.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Chaya Raichik, who runs the X account Libs of TikTok, usually see eye to eye on policy: Both support Florida's anti-LGBTQ legislation and other far-right issues. But lately, the DeSantis administration has spoken out against Raichik's viral posts, criticizing and fact-checking her.

Raichik, who has grown immensely popular with her critique of the LGBTQ community, has been connected to tens of bomb threats and accused of running harassment campaigns.

In a post on Sunday, Raichik shared a video of a Florida high schooler being attacked by one of her peers while at school. Raichik claimed that the student who beat the girl didn't face any consequences—and the school is trying to cover it up.

"The school's response was telling the 2 students they couldn't talk to each other," Raichik wrote, most likely sharing the video because the assailant she was claiming wasn't disciplined was Black. "They reportedly failed to inform the teachers and have been trying to shove this under the rug."

About 24 hours after it was posted, Raichik's tweet was debunked by DeSantis' team.

His former campaign rapid response director Christina Pushaw said, "you cannot just believe everything you read on the internet."

And Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis' press secretary, called Raichik's words a lie.

"Another lie about Florida from LoTT. This incident happened months ago. The offender was disciplined and subsequently removed from the school," Redfern tweeted. "A lesson could’ve been learned when @GovRonDeSantis called out the previous lie, but I guess clicks are more important than truth."

The "previous lie" that DeSantis called attention to was when Raichik claimed Florida issues driver's licenses to undocumented people last month. DeSantis himself reposted her tweet and called it a lie, too.

"Truth shouldn’t be a casualty of attempts to generate clicks and engagement farm," DeSantis tweeted about Raichik.

At the time, Raichik tweeted that she was disappointed in DeSantis for correcting her via a "personal attack."

This time around, Raichik simply posted another tweet about the situation. She said she confirmed with the Florida State Board of Education that the perpetrating student was suspended and remarked that the victim's mother might choose to send her daughter to a new school. Notably, Raichik applauded DeSantis for the state's school vouchers program, which allows families who enroll their kids in private schools to receive a financial voucher to use toward tuition.

"This story shows the importance of school choice vouchers which DeSantis has passed in Florida," Raichik wrote.

Her second tweet even got an endorsement from Pushaw.

"Thanks for providing this update that includes important clarifications!" Pushaw tweeted at Raichik. "We welcome journalists & content creators to reach out to our office to get whatever information we can provide about something happening in Florida, to ensure that everything they share is accurate and they have the full story."

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Warning: This story includes details about suicide and crimes of a sexual nature.

On Nov. 1, 2022, Taylor Swift revealed that she was going on tour for the first time since before the pandemic. Billboard would go on to describe it as “the most chaos-inducing tour announcement of the decade.” Far from Good Morning America’s studios where Swift sent her fans into a frenzy by announcing the Eras Tour that fall day, the news set into motion a series of events that would bring about the downfall of a man known in Florida as a Republican kingmaker.

The strange, salacious tale of the kingmaker’s demise and, ultimately, death began with a young Swiftie in Jacksonville, Florida.

Hoping to secure early access to tickets, which for many proved easier said than done, the young woman turned to an old family friend: Kent Stermon. Records show that Stermon quickly agreed to help and even dangled the prospect of backstage passes and the chance to meet Swift herself. Prosecutors would later note that the woman, whose identity has never been revealed, “was aware Stermon had offered other individuals assistance in obtaining access to special events such as concerts, and sporting events.”

But first, via what prosecutors described as “a bizarre and fraudulent scheme,” the woman had to prove she would fit in with the vibe they were curating for the VIP bash at Swift’s concert. Stermon instructed her to email a “backstage coordinator” he knew. The coordinator referred to Stermon as her “uncle” in emails, records show. The coordinator, with Stermon encouraging her along in phone calls and DMs, convinced her to send provocative photos, including one of her pouring beer over her bikini-clad body, and answer questions about her sexual history and boundaries, such as if she would go topless in a hot tub.

When she refused the coordinator’s request for photos of her naked breasts, they rated her a seven out of 10 in terms of the likelihood that she’d get the backstage passes. Via Facebook messenger, she told Stermon that this was her boundary; records show he replied, “Proud of you buddy.”

An investigation would later reveal that there was no backstage coordinator. The woman was actually corresponding with Stermon himself via a fake email he appears to have made for this purpose. Another email address he instructed her to send photos to belonged to a cop buddy of his. (The officer has not been accused of wrongdoing.)

On the afternoon of Nov. 18, Stermon summoned the young woman to his office to reimburse her for tickets she’d personally acquired at his behest. The likely awkwardness of meeting privately with a family friend, who at 50 was old enough to be her father, to receive $1,500 cash turned sinister and, she told police, frightening, soon after she arrived at the nondescript office where Stermon worked as an executive for a moving company that relocates military families.

During their meeting, Stermon bragged about his connections to powerful Republicans, claiming he was responsible for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) appearing onstage at a Luke Bryan concert a few weeks prior and at one point making a show of rejecting a call from Jacksonville’s then-Mayor Lenny Curry (R).

She later told police he was clearly “flashing his power at me” and said this was both intimidating and typical behavior. “He’s kind of a showboat. And he’s too charming. You know what I mean? Like tries too hard,” she said.

Stermon also peppered the woman with questions about her sexual history and shared explicit details about his own past.

Increasingly uncomfortable, she told police she began telling him what he wanted to hear.

“I was very frightened because he’s a bigger guy and I’m a small woman,” she said, adding, “In my head I was like I need to get out of here in the safest, least traumatic way possible without getting raped or hurt or killed. Because I didn’t know what this man was capable of.”

Then he started propositioning her. She told police she turned down $10,000 to give him a lap dance that he specified had be at least 20 minutes; the $5,000 he offered her for FaceTime sex was a non-starter as well. But before she could leave, Stermon demanded she give him something in exchange for the $1,500—and it had to be more than 30 seconds. Desperate to escape, she agreed to let him see her naked breasts; through tears, she told officers that when it was over, he pointed to his crotch to show her how excited he was.

Afterward, Stermon led her out the back door—she’d gone in the front, so this was arguably odd—where she said he insisted on physical contact, saying, “You’re that uncomfortable, you can’t even give me a hug?”

She could’ve tried to forget. Instead, she told her family. Later she and her father confronted him at a Panera Bread. Her father told police that Stermon had readily agreed to meet, perhaps so accustomed to getting his way and never having anyone push back that he didn’t expect the meeting would be anything but a casual conversation between old friends. Instead, it was a blow-up in which the father told Stermon that he’d “[expletive] with the wrong family” and purportedly said he’d “bury” him. The woman told investigators that she said to Stermon, “You will never do this to another woman ever again.” She said the man who’d bragged about rejecting the mayor’s call and seemed to have an endless supply of powerful friends reacted to the confrontation like a 12-year-old getting scolded, “scurried out,” and peeled out of the parking lot so fast that an observer wrote down his license plate.

Subsequently, she and her father reported Stermon to the police, who launched an investigation.

Stermon was at the height of his power. He had it all: A $2 million house in an exclusive community, a cushy job, plenty of money, and friends in high places.

Learning he was being investigated appears to have sent Stermon into a rapid downward spiral, however. Days later, he had a stroke and was temporarily hospitalized. Records from the investigation show that he began searching for information on the penalty for soliciting prostitution, how to delete various online accounts, for a criminal defense lawyer, and how to kill yourself.

Then, on Dec. 8, his body was discovered in his vehicle at a local post office. He’d fatally shot himself. In a suicide note addressed to “sis” and a redacted name, he wrote, “I love you both too much to put you through this. You’re better off w/o me. Go find your own version of [redacted] and be happy!”

Stermon’s powerful friends were stunned. He was an influential figure in Florida—a longtime political reporter there described him as the “man behind” DeSantis. People say Stermon had a commanding presence and clearly enjoyed flaunting his wealth and connections, just as he did with the young woman in his office the day that brought everything crashing down. He was known as a guy whose ring people had to metaphorically kiss to get access to DeSantis or simply run for office, part of the political machine that controls much of Florida, a machine that includes donors, politicians, and consultants. Those who went up against Stermon and his allies say that they could and would make or break people at will. Many cogs in this machine, like Stermon, have voracious appetites for money, power, and the trappings of success.

These same desires that made Kent Stermon also brought about his downfall.

After his death, DeSantis’ office released a statement saying, “The Governor and First Lady were shocked and saddened to hear of Kent’s passing, and their prayers (and our entire office’s prayers) are with his family during this difficult time.” The Board of Governors, the influential body that has authority over the state higher education system, which DeSantis appointed Stermon to in 2019, expressed its “heartfelt condolences” and touted Stermon’s history of being “a champion of higher education and student success in Florida.” Others who’d known him made similar statements.

The outpouring of support fell to a hush when news broke that Stermon was under investigation for sexual misconduct at the time of his death.

The dead can’t be prosecuted; nevertheless, the State Attorney’s Office (SAO) continued investigating whether there were other victims, perpetrators, or if this was part of a “broader fraudulent scheme.” Nine months later, the SAO said it had determined Stermon could’ve been tried for multiple crimes: false imprisonment, solicitation of prostitution, theft by false pretenses, and unlawful use of a two-way device.

The SAO concluded that there were no other victims nor anyone else involved in Stermon’s scheme.

“Because the investigative objectives have been met, and in light of Stermon’s death, we will be taking no further action in this matter,” the SAO’s disposition memo states.

With that, the case was closed.

Questions linger to this day. Although the investigation found otherwise, many are convinced there were other victims. And if so, they wonder what, if anything, did his powerful friends, including in the police, know about it? Had other incidents been covered up? The young woman said Stermon claimed that he paid an assistant $10,000 for one lap dance per year so she could make ends meet. The sheer brazenness of the scheme to prey on this young woman, along with the facts that he’d known her since childhood and was friends with her parents, convinced many that this was not a first time offense.

Some whisper that Stermon’s allies in government and elsewhere would rather never see the whole truth about the fallen kingmaker come to light.

This story is based on more than 7,000 pages of records the Daily Dot received via a public records request from the DeSantis administration, hundreds of campaign finance and business records, dozens of news reports, prosecutor’s investigative files, and interviews with experts and members of Florida’s political class.

The records request sought all correspondence to and from the governor’s office in 2022 that included Stermon’s name or that of the companies he owned or worked for. Notably, none of those records, which took many months and a threat of litigation to obtain, include any emails from the governor’s official email address. DeSantis has been repeatedly criticized for arbitrarily denying or delaying public records requests. His administration has been sued for delaying releasing records and for asserting that executive privilege precludes him from providing his communications.

The rise of a kingmaker

Stermon’s first known tie to the Florida political establishment was formed in college when he roomed with Florida state Rep. Travis Cummings (R), with whom he remained friends until his death. After college, he worked for a couple of large corporations before landing a job at Jacksonville-based Total Military Management (now known as TMM), according to an archive of his profile on the company’s website.

In the decade-plus he worked for TMM, Stermon rose through the ranks to become president of the company, a role he held until his death. As his career advanced, so did his involvement in Florida politics. A longtime Jacksonville resident who formerly served in public office recently told the Daily Dot that Stermon “kind of came from nowhere.” They requested anonymity for fear of reprisal from state powerbrokers.

Stermon showered money on Republicans. Campaign finance records show that from 2009 on, he and his family donated at least a cumulative $350,000 to candidates for state, federal, and local office. The vast majority of his federal donations went to representatives who served on committees with authority over Department of Defense (DoD) spending, which makes sense given that he was an executive with a company that gets significant DoD contracts. TMM says it coordinates the relocation of 60,000 members of the military and their families annually, purportedly more than any other DoD contractor in the business.

Other recipients of Stermon’s largess include DeSantis, former Jacksonville Sheriff Mike Williams (R), Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters (R), state Rep. Jessica Baker (R), and many other Florida Republicans.

Stroking checks has a way of opening doors—for Stermon literally and figuratively. In 2013, Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford (R), who is now a member of Congress, issued Stermon a badge to access Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) facilities, according to Jacksonville Today, which he would retain until his death. The outlet reports that at the time of Stermon’s death roughly 400 non-JSO employees had badges, but the vast majority were contractors, vendors, or interns. Stermon was among a select group of nine people who were granted access as members of the “sheriff’s circle.” Stermon’s access was revoked around the time police started investigating him. In the wake of Stermon’s death, Sheriff Waters said he’d discontinued the sheriff’s circle entirely.

Even among the nine, Stermon’s access was exceptional.

Six months before his death, Folio Weekly broke news that he could come and go freely at JSO facilities. (Disclosure: I was the editor of Folio Weekly from 2016 to 2018.) In response to media requests at the time, JSO said there were no records of Stermon using his badge. Mere weeks after his death, JSO released records showing that Stermon used his badge to enter its facilities on nearly 200 separate dates from 2017 to 2022, often multiple times in a single day, for a grand total of more than 700 swipes. The other eight members of the sheriff’s circle, on the other hand, rarely if ever used their badges. The sheriff’s office reportedly blamed a “software issue” for the records’ temporary disappearing act. Some say they still don’t believe this explanation.

Former Sheriff Mike Williams, who today heads the Jacksonville division of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), did not respond to inquiries.

JSO insiders, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Daily Dot that Stermon would go into areas that contained sensitive information about ongoing investigations, including sex crimes, which some find particularly disconcerting in light of what the young woman accused him of doing to her. If anyone questioned his access, they said, their concerns were brushed off at best. Stermon was known to be vindictive, insiders say.

It was common knowledge that crossing Stermon could hurt an officer’s career and that he had the sheriff’s ear, particularly when Williams was in office. Florida Politics reports that Williams’ “friend and confidant” Stermon served as the finance director for his successful 2015 campaign that raised nearly $550,000. The following year, JSO named him “citizen of the year.” Records the Daily Dot obtained show that on two occasions, as recently as the August before his death and once when Williams was sheriff, he listed a Mike Williams as his emergency contact when he went on ride-alongs with officers on duty. On one of those forms, Williams’ address is shielded under the law preventing the release of information about officers’ residences. The other lists JSO headquarters as Williams’ address.

Mirya R. Holman, a professor of public policy at the University of Houston, has extensively studied county sheriffs and the power they wield. She’s co-authoring an upcoming book on the subject with Emily M. Farris, a professor at Texas Christian University. Holman recently told the Daily Dot that it’s not particularly unusual for sheriffs to grant special privileges to civilians.

“Most of the time that is used as a fundraising component, which seems to be a piece of this,” Holman said. “Sheriff’s posses are often people who donate money to the sheriffs.”

Sheriffs have gotten in trouble for selling access, she added, but it’s rare. Their powers are vast and some states allow them to deputize civilians. During the 2020 civil rights protests, the sheriff a county over from Jacksonville made national news by threatening to deputize gun owners in case protesters got unruly.

Of reports that Stermon carried on like he was actually a police officer, Holman said, “This sort of cosplaying being a cop, it’s weird, but I can’t say that it’s that unusual.”

JSO insiders and others involved in Florida politics who knew Stermon told the Daily Dot that Stermon wore police insignias during ride-alongs and on other occasions and was even known to jump into the fray when officers were using physical force on a suspect. Perhaps he liked people to think he had the authority of a police officer.

The Daily Dot requested the names of all officers Stermon joined on patrol, as well as the dates of each ride-along. JSO provided three, two in 2020 and one in 2022. According to the forms, all three were with the same officer in the K9 unit.

Impersonating a police officer is a felony in Florida. People can also be charged with a crime for accessing state or federal law enforcement databases without authorization or simply giving out confidential information about investigations. (It’s not clear whether Stermon accessed these databases.) Earlier this year, a JSO officer was charged with accessing law enforcement databases and passing the information along to “criminals.” News4Jax reports that six JSO employees have been charged with providing confidential information to unauthorized people since 2011.

A year before Stermon got access to JSO facilities, he made the first of many donations to a political newcomer who’d just launched his first campaign for public office: Ron DeSantis. Over time, Stermon developed a reputation for being a trusted member of DeSantis’ inner circle, a particularly remarkable fact given how notoriously cloistered DeSantis is. Stermon reportedly served as the Northeast Florida chair for his first governor’s race, chaired a committee during DeSantis’ transition, and was known to be the man you had to see to get to DeSantis. A 2019 article in Florida Trend described him as one of DeSantis’ “closest friends” and “a prominent figure in Northeast Florida politics.” He was listed only behind Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis and the consultant widely credited with saving DeSantis’ first campaign, with whom the governor later had a falling out.

“You had to go through Kent to get to DeSantis …  he was holding the purse strings,” a Jacksonville political insider recently said.

DeSantis’ office did not respond to inquiries about Stermon. A source familiar with the matter said that Stermon was not actually a gatekeeper to the governor, but that he liked to give the impression that he was.

DeSantis’ relationship with Stermon did cause a couple minor scandals over the years. In 2018, a South Florida attorney filed an ethics complaint over Stermon and a colleague at TMM renting DeSantis a condominium they co-owned after his congressional district lines were redrawn. The complaint alleged they charged a below-market rate, which would violate rules prohibiting representatives receiving gifts, was rendered moot when DeSantis resigned to run for governor. The Naples Daily News noted that the rent charged was consistent with market estimates for similar properties.

In 2019, First Lady Casey DeSantis took some heat for flying in a donor’s private jet to attend a fundraiser at TMM for the Republican Party of Florida. Stermon brushed it off, telling Politico that he enjoyed seeing his “good friend” for lunch.

“I held a successful fundraiser for the Republican party of Florida. I appreciate the First Lady’s continued friendship and support of the party,” he reportedly said.

Along the way, Stermon met and befriended political consultant Tim Baker. Baker worked on DeSantis’ first congressional campaign. Records show that Baker’s company, Data Targeting, was also paid $225,000 for “research/consulting” in DeSantis’ first gubernatorial campaign.

Baker may have been Stermon’s most influential friend of all. Via email, Baker characterized their relationship as more business than personal, telling the Daily Dot that the two “were friendly over the years in the context of support for various political candidates and causes such as support for our law enforcement community.”

Baker has become one of the go-to conservative consultants in Florida, working on successful campaigns for local, state, and federal representatives, many of whom reportedly go on to do his bidding. Baker denied exerting such influence over his clients, saying that he has simply lobbied them on occasion at the behest of a client, which he has always disclosed in accordance with the law. “I don’t know what ‘do your bidding’ means,” he said.

His successes are many, his defeats few.

Two key exceptions came the same month last year. That May, Democrat Donna Deegan bested Baker’s candidate, Republican Daniel Davis, in the Jacksonville mayoral race. Weeks prior his wife, now a member of the state legislature, lost her bid to become Speaker of the House. The race was viewed as a proxy war between DeSantis, who has purportedly come to detest Baker for reasons unknown (some suggest it’s because the governor has refused to take orders from Baker), and former President Donald Trump. DeSantis backed the victor because, according to Florida Politics, he viewed Baker as a “stalking horse” for Trump “with whom Tim Baker, Jessica’s political consultant husband, is identified as being in close proximity.”

Those May disappointments aside, he’s been wildly successful in Florida politics, climbing the ladder at the same time Stermon was making his mark.

Today Baker is one of the most quietly powerful people in the state.

A political insider told the Daily Dot they believe Baker has hitched his wagon to Trump in the hopes of taking his machine national.

“The thing about the governor is in a year Tim is going to be the power still,” said Christina Meredith, a Republican who ran against Baker’s wife for Florida House.

The height of power

Longtime political reporter Peter Schorsch, the publisher of Florida Politics, described Stermon as DeSantis’ “bestie” in a 2020 list of influential Floridians. DeSantis appointed Stermon to the Board of Governors, which has authority over the state’s university system and has been particularly visible amid the governor’s ongoing war on education.

Records the Daily Dot obtained from DeSantis’ office give further clues as to the nature of their relationship.

On one occasion, Stermon acted as the go-between to get the governor to do a video for Jacksonville University. He wrote that his contact at the university “has always been very helpful and supportive of the Governor. He is often times a guest on local tv and always very supportive of the boss. If we could accommodate this I would appreciate it.” Within minutes, the governor had agreed to do the video, records show.

On another occasion, a top DeSantis’ aide informed FDLE, which provides security for the governor, that Stermon would join him in the motorcade during a visit to Jacksonville. DeSantis isn’t known for palling around with just anyone—even former Republican colleagues in Congress have said he “had no friends.”

Another document from 2022 placed Stermon at the top of the list of people from Northeast Florida to invite to an event, above the mayor, the sheriff, and other prominent politicians.

In one exchange that year, Stermon forwarded the curriculum vitae of a young man he’d apparently met with who wanted to work for the governor to DeSantis’ office, commenting simply “very impressive young man.” Within minutes, a DeSantis’ aide replied, “Wow! For sure. Will also share with Chris Spencer for OPB consideration. Thanks for sharing!” The aide was apparently referring to the Office of Policy and Budget.

A seemingly innocuous communication between Stermon and the governor’s office that year has become significantly more intriguing in light of subsequent political appointments.

Records show that on Feb. 1, 2022, Stermon emailed one of DeSantis’ senior advisers a link to a story about Freddie Figgers, who owns a telecommunications company. The email, which had the subject line “hey buddy,” said, “Do me a favor and read this and call me.”

According to campaign finance records, one day prior, Figgers donated $25,000 to the political committee supporting Sheriff T.K. Waters, whose campaign Stermon supported. The previous November, Figgers had also donated $25,000 to a political action committee (PAC) that supported DeSantis.

Several sources said Stermon actually tapped Waters to run for sheriff after others either declined or said they wouldn’t let him use JSO as his playground if they were elected. Waters denies it.

“Kent Stermon did not have any involvement in Sheriff Waters’ decision to run for Sheriff. After Sheriff Waters won the special election but prior to taking the seat, Mr. Stermon was notified that he would not have any privileged access to the sheriff and the building. This was done prior to the investigation and before Sheriff Waters officially took office as Sheriff,” he said in a statement.

In the two years since Stermon emailed DeSantis’ office about him, Figgers has secured plush appointments, a no-bid contract, and an earmarked item in the state budget. In March 2023, DeSantis appointed him vice chairman of Enterprise Florida, which promotes economic development in the state. The following month, Figgers accompanied DeSantis on a trip to Tokyo to meet with the Japan Business Federation. DeSantis also named him to the State Board of Administration’s Investment Advisory Council.

Last summer, DeSantis appointed Figgers to the Florida Commission on Ethics. Within weeks, the Central Florida Tourism District that replaced Disney’s special district amid DeSantis’ war with the theme park gave Figgers company a no-bid million-dollar deal, according to emails obtained by Florida Bulldog. After word got out about the contract, Figgers’ canceled it. All insisted that there was no wrongdoing.

A nonprofit Figgers runs also received a $500,000 earmark in the 2024 Florida budget to distribute tablets to at-risk youths and seniors, first reported by journalist Jason Garcia. Figgers Communications makes tablets. The funding request does not explicitly state where the nonprofit is to acquire the tablets. State records show that seven different legislators submitted requests for the appropriation.

Figgers did not respond to questions.

Currency united

In interviews last summer and in recent weeks, multiple political insiders in Florida described Stermon as a money man. As campaigns become ever more expensive, even on the local level, candidates need massive amounts of cash to be competitive. Stermon was a guy who could get the funds flowing. All you had to do, sources say, is obey the wealthy benefactors.

Christina Meredith vividly recalls meeting with Stermon at the suggestion of her pastor from Eleven22, a Jacksonville megachurch, after she decided to run for a seat in the Florida legislature.

She said her pastor told her, “You need to meet Kent. He is the kingmaker.” She thought this was a strange description for a man of the cloth to use, but agreed to sit down with the so-called kingmaker.

The bizarre meeting in Stermon’s office, the same place he made the young Swiftie show him her breasts, left a distinctly unpleasant impression of the man.

Meredith was seven months pregnant at the time of the meeting, which her husband and a female political consultant also attended. None of that stopped Stermon from making crude, sexual remarks throughout. He talked about how he couldn’t be trusted around women and asked her how she would handle the sexually charged atmosphere in the Florida legislature if she won the seat.

“It was so inappropriate and so uncomfortable,” she said.

She said he also promised to hook her up with major donors. That never happened. Meredith said that any support Stermon may have gotten her evaporated when political consultant Tim Baker’s wife, state Rep. Jessica Baker (R), decided to run for the same seat. Meredith said Kent warned her not to run against Baker.

“Kent Stermon was Jessica’s No. 1 supporter,” she said.

The Bakers ran one of their typically vicious campaigns against Meredith. They blanketed Jacksonville with ads and mailers calling Meredith, a Republican and longtime resident of Northeast Florida, a “California liberal” because she lived there as an adult and won the Miss California pageant. She said they even questioned her story of surviving years of child rape, which has been extensively documented, including in her memoir, CinderGirl: My Journey Out of the Ashes to a Life of Hope.

Both Bakers deny questioning Meredith’s history of childhood trauma. In an emailed statement, a staffer for Rep. Baker characterized Meredith’s past as a “sad tragedy” and denied that Baker had any role in downplaying it. “Nowhere in that story, or elsewhere, is there any comment from Jessica about that topic,” the staffer said, referencing a story in Florida’s Voice, an outlet Columbia Journalism Review has characterized as “a small, hyper-partisan right-wing news site.” Florida’s Voice owner Brendon Leslie declined to comment.

The staffer further noted that Stermon donated $1,000 of the roughly $450,000 Baker raised.

Weeks after she lost the election, Meredith says her husband was fired from the megachurch. She believes that Stermon, who was a major benefactor to Eleven22, may have had a hand in it. Eleven22 did not respond to an emailed inquiry.

In a move she views as tantamount to stealing her story, one of first bills state Baker filed was a law Meredith had been advocating for years—based on her own life experience as a survivor of child sexual assault—that allows people who rape children under the age of 12 to get the death penalty. DeSantis signed the bill into law last May. Meredith noted bitterly that it’s become one of his talking points.

“Here’s how I feel about the governor: Betrayed,” she said.

She said that DeSantis didn’t get publicly involved in the race, but she got the impression that he supported Baker. “He did … allow Jessica to make it seem like he had endorsed her on all her mailers and commercials and text messages so I just assumed they were all in bed together,” Meredith said.

Meredith was one of many people who recalled that Tim Baker and Stermon were friends. Both belonged to the world of money and influence that courses through Florida politics.

“Nobody can stop them,” she said of the Bakers.

Tim Baker downplayed his influence. “I get that people have loved to make me a boogy [sic] man for all things they don’t like but the reality is far more boring,” he told the Daily Dot via email. “It’s far easier to attack some consultant as bad than it is to say ‘[expletive] the mayor or councilman’ because they didn’t do what you wanted or your project didn’t get funded or you didn’t get a client but the reality is I’ve never been the one standing in the way.”

He characterized the people who lob accusations at him as “disaffected losers.”

Emily Nunez also went up against the machine and lost. Nunez, a Republican, said she was similarly warned it would be “ugly” if she got in the race. “They just kept hammering me over and over again … it’s like copy paste, ‘liberal Democrat, Emily wasn’t there when DeSantis needed her most,’” she recalled in a recent conversation.

Multiple sources told the Daily Dot that Baker’s venom doesn’t only extend to his candidates’ opponents. If any of his former candidates step out of line, it’s common knowledge that Baker will not hesitate to threaten them. People say he can be charming—until he’s not.

Republican political veteran Robin Lumb told the Daily Dot, “Baker is intelligent and superficially charming but he’s the most ruthless campaign consultant I’ve ever encountered.”

Multiple people familiar with Baker’s work said that he gets clients to share their darkest secrets, anything that the opponent might use against them in the campaign, “and then they have you.”

Baker denies threatening any of his clients. “I think if you actually asked the good people I’ve helped in their campaigns they would tell you the exact opposite of your sources’ assertions: I don’t ask my friends to do anything (and they often kindly complain that I am hard to get a hold of),” he said.

Nunez, Meredith, and multiple others described a shadowy web of power in Florida that extends from moneyed interests, like Stermon and his wealthy cronies, to consultants like Baker and his colleagues who shuffle dark money from committees to PACs to 501(c)(4) nonprofits, occasionally 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and back again in a seemingly endless shell game of transactions that obfuscates the original source of the funds. The representatives who tap into this web, several sources said, are often little more than automatons doing the consultants’ and donors’ bidding.

In January, the Florida Trident published a story about “Jacksonville’s culture of corruption.” Several current and former members of Jacksonville City Council described a corrupt political machine that poured money from special interests into PACs and campaigns run by Baker.

Dark money expert Maurice (pronounced “Morris”) T. Cunningham said that such funds have become pervasive throughout the nation since the Citizens United decision paved the way for unlimited giving. He said that the wealthy benefactors whose dark money is increasingly infiltrating races all the way down to the local level like to hide that they’re behind the donations in part because their legislative priorities are so different from average Americans.

Cunningham said “alarm bells” should ring every time funds shift around so much it’s impossible to figure out where they came from. “By any commonly understood definition, it’s corruption. But it’s legal,” he said.

“How can you say we’re a democracy when we make public policy in this fashion?” Cunningham added.

Conservative political insider Lumb is dismayed by what he sees happening in Florida.

“There was a time when the state party could be counted on to protect the integrity of the Republican brand,” he said. “That time has passed. Now it’s the ‘dark money’ PACs and power brokers who are pulling the strings.”

Multiple people said that Baker also takes money from corporations in exchange for access to his clients. Baker denies it, saying that he simply works as a lobbyist at times and always fully discloses it. After an effort to sell JEA, Jacksonville’s public utility, went up in smoke amid a scandal that recently saw its former CEO convicted of federal crimes, reports emerged that Baker had been retained by Florida Power & Light, which wanted to buy the utility, as a consultant. At the same time, he was advising JEA on the sale, which sources described as effectively playing both sides. (Disclosure: My spouse works for JEA.)

“It’s clear that they push policies and legislation that benefit his clients and don’t benefit the people,” Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon (D) said of Baker, whom she knows by reputation. “...They want people to be beholden to corporations.”

Some say that Stermon had an arrangement where he’d provide consulting for companies and people—for a price—and in exchange, get them in the room with a politician willing to do what they wanted.

A kingmaker falls

Stermon’s death stunned Florida’s political aristocracy. News that he was under investigation at the time was an even bigger bombshell. Or was it?

Several people said that they weren’t particularly surprised to learn that a woman had accused him of a crime. Those who knew him even casually describe him as something of a braggart who assumed an at-times uncomfortable level of familiarity, including by commenting on the appearance of women he found attractive with mere acquaintances. Several people who talked to the Daily Dot for this story believe there are other victims who chose not to come forward. It does seem rather pointless to accuse a dead man, after all, and most survivors of sex crimes don’t report it to police. It’s also arguable that any potential victims may have been intimidated by the wealthy man with powerful friends who was so embedded with police that he had his own parking spot.

“He liked to throw money around,” recalled political consultant Raymond Johnson of Stermon. Johnson is one of a small but growing number of Floridians who have publicly gone against the Bakers and their associates. “In this business, you don’t just get in unless you’re incredibly wealthy, unless you’re a Kent Stermon,” he said.

“These guys are so narcissistic that they are literally out of their mind,” Johnson opined of the machine that controls much of Florida from behind the scenes.

Among the records obtained by the Daily Dot, one email stands out. In the spring of 2022, a woman who worked for the governor emailed another woman in the office a four word message: “Kent Stermon got me.” There were no responses to the email included in the records.

The Daily Dot is not identifying the woman, who did not respond to multiple inquiries, because the context of the email is unknown. Her social media accounts and LinkedIn page show that the woman, who is attractive and young, had worked for DeSantis’ office for a few months at the time.

Multiple sources wondered if Stermon’s reason for buddying up with cops wasn’t simply because he enjoyed feeling that sense of power. They believe it may have been a preemptive move by a man who played by his own, rather than society’s, rules. No current or former officer has been implicated in crimes involving Stermon, including his scheme with the young woman over the Taylor Swift tickets, though they did interview one during the investigation.

One of the two email addresses Stermon gave her to send photos belonged to a police officer, prosecutors say. The files released after the investigation concluded contain video of him being interviewed on two separate occasions after Stermon’s death.

The officer admitted he received the images, which he described as “innocent,” “standard modeling pictures” and claimed he simply assumed Stermon was trying to hook him up with her because he was going through a divorce. He said that his friend Stermon was known to hook other men up with women.

He insisted he had no knowledge of Stermon’s elaborate ruse, though he did say Stermon told him that he was potentially going to give the woman Taylor Swift tickets but hadn’t made his mind up yet. Investigators cleared the officer of any wrongdoing.

If the young Swiftie had kept his money and her silence, today Stermon may have been greasing wheels and swinging his power around Florida. Instead, he’s dead and gone—but the machine grinds on.

Correction: In one instance, this article incorrectly stated Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters' (R) name.

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Chaya Raichik, who runs right-wing Libs of TikTok, claimed today that Florida issues driver's licenses to undocumented individuals, bashing the state over a recent violent attack by an immigrant. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) responded to Raichik's tweet calling that a lie and accusing her of trying to "generate clicks and engagement farm."

Raichik's initial tweet pertained to a clip from a Florida local news outlet WPTV about three undocumented Guatemalan men who were accused by police of forcing a Florida woman into a car and sexually assaulting her.

WPTV also reported one of the men received a citation in January 2024 for not having a driver's license, but the Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg (D) abandoned the charges in exchange for the man paying a $100 fee and obtaining a valid driver's license.

"Apparently FL also gives illegals drivers licenses!" Raichik tweeted. "Biden’s open borders allows [violent] criminals to terrorize Americans."

However, the report goes on to say man cannot obtain a driver's license in Florida, as the state does not issue driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants.

Raichik's tweet received a Community Note from X fact-checking her statement about Florida issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. But she got fact-checked by DeSantis, too.

DeSantis tweeted that Florida law "prohibits illegal aliens from getting drivers licenses but also prohibits recognition of licenses issued to illegal aliens from other states." The latter is a result of a July 2023 law prohibiting the recognition of undocumented immigrants' driver's licenses from "Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, and Vermont," all of which issue driver's licenses to undocumented individuals.

"Truth shouldn’t be a casualty of attempts to generate clicks and engagement farm," DeSantis tweeted at Raichik.

Before DeSantis even replied, though, Raichik clarified her statement about Florida's laws and directed fury at Aronberg.

"Florida Law does not allow illegals to get a drivers license," Raichik tweeted. "It was a woke State Attorney’s office who instructed an illegal to get a drivers license and subvert Florida Law."

Both Raichik and DeSantis garnered backlash for their tweets—she for making a false statement about Florida issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants and he for calling out Raichik.

"You should delete the tweet & make it accurate," an X user responded to Raichik's clarifying tweet. "Clarifying after the fact doesn’t make it better & promotes misinformation for your gain."

"Out of all the people to go at, why @libsoftiktok?" right-wing influencer @MazeMoore tweeted at DeSantis. "If she made a mistake it will come out in the community note. Very strange tweet."

Raichik also clapped back at DeSantis and said she was disappointed in him for "publicly attacking [her] calling [her] a liar and a grifter."

"I understand DeSantis wanting to correct the record and this post could've been a correction- championing Florida's incredible record on illegal immigration. Instead it turned into a personal attack," Raichik tweeted. "For the record- I think DeSantis is a good Governor, have publicly said this, and still stand by it. This personal attack from him is disappointing."

To Raichik's point, she has lauded DeSantis in the past—DeSantis reached out to Raichik when her identity was initially exposed in 2022 and invited her to come stay in his guest house "for refuge."

"I was almost in tears," Raichik told Tucker Carlson in a 2022 interview. "He took time out of his extremely busy schedule to send someone to call me to make sure I’m safe. It was incredible."

Raichik praised his decision to send migrants to Martha's Vineyard in 2023 and said "he should send more!" She was also one of his most vocal supporters during his failed 2024 presidential bid.

As one user put it, "I hate when mom and dad fight."

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Memes asking the location of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) went viral on X after MAGA operative Laura Loomer questioned his whereabouts on Monday.

“Wild night in Florida. Death threat at the home of @DonaldJTrumpJr in South FL, and a bomb threat at the Orlando International Airport,” Loomer posted. “Where is @RonDeSantis?”

Trump Jr. was reportedly mailed a letter filled with white powder on Monday evening, according to the Daily Beast.

Around 6pm the same night somebody called in a bomb threat to the Orlando International Airport, but the area was cleared in a couple of hours, reported Spectrum News 13.

Loomer, a pro-Trump diehard who was a frequent and virulent critic of DeSantis during the Republican primary campaign before he dropped out, was quickly mocked on X for casting blame on DeSantis, who couldn’t much of do anything about the two incidents. 

Posters jumped in on the joke by mockingly blamed DeSantis for all sorts of daily sins.

“My cat threw up on the area rug. Where was Ron DeSantis??” asked @ThisThatOther2.

“I had acid reflux last night after too much Pinot,” jabbed @jason_scalese. “Where was Ron DeSantis?”

The jokes ranged from the surreal to the mundane, but it wasn’t just Loomer detractors who got in on it.

Under her original post, MAGA conservatives also joked about all the things DeSantis might be up to now that he was out of the race for the Republican nomination.

“On his Book tour 🤣” suggested @PU28453638.

“He's busy running his shadow campaign,” offered @The_Weed_Shop, referencing claims DeSantis hasn't fully abandoned his 2024 bid.

“Ron is putting on his high-heel boots probably,” proposed @zharr_1, referencing a speculative meme that DeSantis was wearing lifts in his boot to make himself look taller. DeSantis claimed they were cowboy boots, but the meme was picked up on by Trump and other conservative influencers to mock him.

After “Where is Ron DeSantis” started trending, the pace didn’t let up.

“EPIC!! I wish he would see this, I'm sure he'd have a good laugh,” posted @CrossingUNStyle, a DeSantis influencer whose post mocking Loomer kicked off the jokes. “So I have to ask...where is Ron DeSantis? 🤣”

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) dropped out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination in January, but that isn't stopping some Republicans from voting for him. In fact, a niche group of Republicans on social media are urging others to continue to cast their vote for the former candidate.

"Today is February 27, 2024 and @RonDesantis remains the standout choice for President of the United States," X user @theasrealas tweeted today. He has posted similar messages on his X account since before DeSantis dropped out of the race on Jan. 22.

Others shared that they voted for DeSantis in their state primaries.

"I proudly cast my vote for Ron DeSantis in the SC Presidential primary this morning," South Carolina voter @LynnieMac429 tweeted last week. Former President Donald Trump (R) won the state's primary and got 47 of its delegates.

His sole remaining competitor, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won three delegates.

In South Carolina, DeSantis gained 2,951 votes compared to Trump's over 450,000.

But some aren't seeing his campaign as completely over. As Trump's legal stumbles continue, users online have speculated DeSantis hasn't really dropped out, and is keeping his campaign alive to step in should Trump be jailed or forced to withdraw.

He's posted multiple videos on his X account about issues along the southern U.S. border and held a press conference on constitutional reforms he said would “hold Washington accountable."

It's unclear what will happen to Haley and her base in this dream, who would have a stronger case should Trump falter somehow.

Voters in Super Tuesday states, whose primaries are on March 5, shared their early voting ballots on X saying they are voting for DeSantis, too. Fifteen states vote in the presidential primary elections on Super Tuesday.

"Just filled out my Arizona primary ballot," @SayWhat85629 tweeted, alongside a photo of the Arizona Republican Party's early primary ballot. "Ron gets my vote." Fellow Arizona voter David Paschall said he's doing the same, as did die-hard DeSantis voters in North Carolina and Texas.

Even after Super Tuesday, which is known for determining a clear frontrunner in the Democratic and Republican races, DeSantis voters are still going to bat for him on their ballots.

"Everybody thought we were kidding when we said we were going to do this. We are not," Ohio voter @SameOldNancy tweeted about her continuing support for DeSantis. "Just as soon as my Ohio ballot arrives, I’ll be marking it for DeSantis."

The Ohio primaries are on March 19.

"Voting DeSantis in primary!" @nedK1119 tweeted, alongside a photo of their mail-in Washington Republican primary ballot. Washington's primary elections are on March 12.

So where will all these DeSantis votes go? Republicans allocate their state delegates either proportional to the fraction of the vote a candidate receives, a winner-take-all method, or a mix of both. And while DeSantis might be able to pick up a handful of delegates—such as the nine he got in Iowa before dropping out—those delegates will probably end up supporting the likely nominee at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in July.

Amazingly DeSantis' endorsement of Trump after dropping out hasn't seemed to sway his most hardcore followers, who were prostrate at his failed campaign and refused to support the former president.

"To all those whose core political beliefs still are with Ron DeSantis. Continuing to vote for him," @FuriasRuler, a DeSantis voter, tweeted. "How we lost our conservative values to an orange buffoon is beyond logic. Trumps opinions are all over the page pandering to every group to avoid a massive defeat by Biden. How Republican politicians can tolerate him is inexplicable."

And support for DeSantis is so unwavering among a niche group of Republicans that they even plan to vote for him in the general election.

"I can't wait to cast my vote for Ron DeSantis in the primary," @IzzyBee0509 tweeted last week. "And the General."

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Boosters for former Republican Party presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) redubbed him the “future of the party” after a judge dismissed a case brought against DeSantis by the Disney Corporation. 

The case stemmed from Disney’s 2022 criticism of a DeSantis-backed “parental rights in education” bill that banned teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom, reported Politico.

Disney’s criticism of that bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” by its critics, led to DeSantis taking action to dissolve the local government district in central Florida where Disney has effectively self-governed Walt Disney World since 1967. 

After DeSantis followed through on the threats and the Florida legislature set up a new governing body, Disney sued DeSantis, the Secretary of Florida’s Department of Commerce, and members of the new governing body in a Tallahassee court, arguing that they’d been retaliated against for exercising their free speech.

According to an order filed today by Allen Winsor, a Trump-appointed judge overseeing the case, the court acknowledged that the change in the governing body “work[ed] to Disney’s significant detriment.” But it also maintained that “no one reading the text of the challenged laws would suppose them directed against Disney. The laws do not mention Disney.”

Because of that, and despite a history of statements by DeSantis about his motivations for the change, Judge Winsor said that Disney’s argument didn’t have any standing, and dismissed the case on both the counts Disney was alleging.

DeSantis allies immediately jumped online in reaction to the ruling to praise the governor for his role in “defeating” the company—and take digs at former President Donald Trump, who’s lost a series of high-profile civil judgments recently and faces dozens of criminal felony charges.

“Disney just lost their Federal case against Ron DeSantis,” posted @GrageDustin. “It’s refreshing to see that the future of the Republican Party actually wins his cases.”

“Another Trump L,” posted an account called DeSantis Appreciation Society over a screenshot from April last year where Trump claimed that “DeSanctus is being absolutely destroyed by Disney … this is all so unnecessary, a political STUNT!”

“DeSantis took on Disney, one of the biggest companies in the world, the largest media company worldwide, after it meddled in state politics,” posted Pedro Gonzalez, a writer for the think-tank-backed Chronicles Magazine who went all in on DeSantis. “The Democratic Party and elements of the GOP rooted for Disney, Trump sided with Disney. DeSantis still won.”

Other DeSantis boosters took the moment to call out conservative influencers who’d followed Trump’s lead in criticizing the lawsuit.

“Did your favorite ‘influencer’ lie to you and say that DeSantis lost to Disney?” wrote @MaxNordau, a popular online DeSantis influencer.

Others saw an opportunity to paint DeSantis as a winner and Trump as a loser, echoing a narrative among DeSantis supporters who believe that now that DeSantis is out of the race, the Republican Party has little chance of winning the presidential election.

“Ron DeSantis just beat Disney in federal court,” posted @SwissWatchGuy. “Donald Trump lost $83 million to E Jean Carroll. We really, really messed up as party.”

So while DeSantis unceremoniously ended his bid for president in 2024 after just one primary, his believers clearly see a future. Perhaps as early as 2028.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) ended his run for the Republican nomination over the weekend with a video message posted to X announcing that he was throwing his support behind former president Donald Trump, who’s ahead in the polls by a tidy double-digit margin with the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday.

“Following our second-place finish in Iowa, we’ve prayed and deliberated on the way forward. If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome … I would do it, but I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory,” DeSantis said. “Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign.”

DeSantis then immediately endorsed Trump for the Republican nomination, saying that it was clear to him that “the majority of Republican primary voters want to give … [him] another chance.”

Despite DeSantis’ Trump endorsement, Trump supporters went for the jugular against pro-DeSantis influencers on X. 

“We can take the votes of DeSantis supporters but @RonDeSantis is done,” posted pro-Trump online attack dog Laura Loomer. “His supporters should humble themselves, vote for Trump, and be grateful for President Trump. @RonDeSantis is a globalist … He can’t ever be allowed to have another chance.”

“Traitors will never be given second chances,” she wrote in another post in response to pro-Trump Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) thanking DeSantis for his Trump endorsement.

“He endorses Trump too. It's totally over for DeSantis's influencers,” wrote Scott Greer, a far-right podcast host who used to be an editor for the Daily Caller, in reaction to DeSantis’ video announcing his campaign suspension.

“That was actually a decent speech, his supporters are more off putting than him,” posted @booriley0.

DeSantis supporters reacted with various levels of equanimity and disgust to the attacks, with some digging in on their DeSantis support, some saying that they’d never vote for Trump, and others saying that it didn’t matter what happened, with Trump as candidate the Republicans would never win now.

“Remember this when Trump loses,” posted @bishopmikey.

“I think … [DeSantis] is a great man and an honorable person,” posted @SwissWatchGuy. “If the GOP prefers Trump to him, then the GOP isn't worth a damn.”

“Longer term, I think there is going to be immense damage to the conservative movement as a result of how this primary has played out,” he continued, theorizing that the lesson GOP politicians would take from the contest was that there’s no use sticking to conservative values, and that the result of Trump staying the face of the Republican party would be millions of people leaving the party and joining the Democrats, where they would slowly learn and accept the “ideas of the left."

“Today is a terrible day for conservatives, worse than any mere election loss, because now we know for sure we have no party,” @SwissWatchGuy finished.

Others lamented DeSantis’ downfall, with the reactionary pro-DeSantis polemicist Pedro Gonzalez— whose racist and antisemitic private chats leaked in June—saying that Trump as the standard bearer of the party meant more “pander[ing] to minorities while neglecting white middle Americans.”

“Kiss the ring Pedro,” posted @alcadizzar19 in response to a post from Gonzalez criticizing Trump for supposedly blowing over a billion dollars running against Biden and losing.

Gonzalez responded with a meme of Bugs Bunny saying ‘no.’

The DeSantis-Trump camps have clashed with increasing venom over the past few months, with things coming to a head when former Fox News host Tucker Carlson called DeSantis’ online supporters the “nastiest, stupidest, most zero-sum people” in a panel interview with the pundit Tim Pool in the middle of December.

Pro-DeSantis influencers quickly jumped on those remarks, pointing to a series of vicious online attacks on the DeSantis camp by online Trump surrogates. Trump surrogates quickly pushed back.

“Thank you for making Tucker’s point about your disgusting team. DeSantis campaign staffers will be permanently unemployed in politics come March,” promised Alex Bruesewitz, a Republican political consultant who runs a political agency called X Strategies and backs Trump.

After DeSantis’ announcement that he was dropping out, the hardline New York Young Republican Club put out a statement ripping into DeSantis.

“A lesson for DeSantis,” read the title. “Loyalty Counts.”

“Rather than stand by Trump’s side … the below-average-height governor embarked on what can only be described as a masochistic run for the presidency,” read the statement.

“The New York Young Republican Club firmly and unmistakably rejects DeSantis’s endorsement of Trump. DeSantis is not (and never was) an America-first candidate. Rather, he is a country-club mouthpiece of the neoliberal wing of the GOP who would prefer to go back to the halcyon days of Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor.”

“Don’t be fooled by DeSantis’s appeal to the MAGA movement; he represents nothing more than a reversion to the establishment Republican Party of the early aughts that championed billionaire tax cuts, the sunsetting of Social Security, and unfettered illegal immigration at the southern border.”

“Goodbye to Ron and his nasty online sycophants,” the statement went on. “As Winston Churchill said, ‘[the] truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is.’ (Unlike Ron, we used a real Churchill quote.)”

DeSantis was widely dinged for not actually quoting Churchill in his dropping out announcement. Apparently the quote actually came from an old Budweiser ad.

And while the statement from the NYYRC made itself clear, it also added fuel to the fire for the bad blood between Trump and DeSantis boosters.

“There's something wrong with these people,” commented pro-DeSantis booster John Cardillo. “Very very wrong.”

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The post ‘Traitors will never be given second chances’: DeSantis, Trump online armies refuse to bury the hatchet after bitter primary fight ends appeared first on The Daily Dot.