Ron DeSantis

Ronald Dion DeSantis (; born September 14, 1978) is an American politician serving as the 46th governor of Florida since 2019. Before becoming governor, he was the U.S. representative from Florida's 6th congressional district from 2013 to 2018. DeSantis was a candidate for the 2024 presidential election, but suspended his campaign before the primaries in January 2024.

After graduating from Yale University and Harvard Law School, DeSantis joined the U.S. Navy in 2004 and was promoted to lieutenant before serving as a legal advisor to SEAL Team One. He was stationed at Joint Task Force Guantanamo in 2006 and was deployed to Iraq in 2007. When DeSantis returned to the U.S. about eight months later, the U.S. attorney general appointed DeSantis to serve as a special assistant U.S. attorney at the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Florida until his honorable discharge from active military duty in 2010.

DeSantis was first elected to Congress in 2012 and was reelected in 2014 and 2016. He briefly ran for U.S. Senate in 2016 but withdrew when incumbent senator Marco Rubio sought reelection. DeSantis won the Republican nomination for the 2018 gubernatorial election and narrowly defeated the Democratic nominee, Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum, in the general election.

In the 2022 gubernatorial election, he defeated former governor Charlie Crist in the landslide. On May 24, 2023, DeSantis announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. On January 21, 2024, DeSantis withdrew his presidential candidacy and endorsed Trump.