The denial is categorical, but it rests on the governor's own word against reporting built on unnamed sources.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has rejected a report that he is preparing to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2028, accusing The Washington Post of inventing the claims. According to the Times of India, the newspaper reported on Friday, citing three people briefed on the matter, that the governor was making preparations for another White House campaign.
DeSantis responded in a post on X, saying he had not contacted anyone about a possible run. “The Washington Post is fabricating this out of whole cloth. I have not reached out to anybody about running for anything. Just another pathetic attempt to garner clicks. Using anonymous sources of course!” he wrote. The denial is categorical, but it rests on the governor's own word against reporting built on unnamed sources, and neither the newspaper's account nor the governor's rebuttal can be independently verified from the material available.
The timing matters. The report emerged days after the November 3 midterm elections, in which Democrats won control of Congress. Florida nonetheless remained a Republican stronghold, with the party retaining the governor's office. Byron Donalds, who had Donald Trump's backing, defeated Democrat David Jolly in the gubernatorial race and will succeed DeSantis, becoming the state's first Black governor. Donalds campaigned on affordability, pledged to continue the conservative policies pursued by DeSantis, and benefited from a substantial campaign fund, according to the report.
According to The Washington Post, those results have strengthened DeSantis's position within the Republican Party as attention begins to shift towards the 2028 contest. Dan Eberhart, a longtime GOP donor who worked on DeSantis's 2024 campaign, told the newspaper that Florida's performance had given the governor greater standing among potential candidates. “Florida's walls not being breached by the blue wave gives DeSantis more credibility than nearly anyone in the opening days of the 2028 primary,” Eberhart said. That is a donor's assessment, not a measure of party opinion, and it should be read as such.
The wider context is a party digesting a national defeat in which its most prominent state operation held firm. DeSantis, 48, sought the Republican nomination in 2024 but could not overcome Trump's support among party voters; he suspended his campaign in January that year, before the New Hampshire primary, and endorsed Trump. A second attempt would depend on the president's own intentions and on whether the party's base treats the governor as an heir or a rival, neither of which is established here.
What is not known is substantial. The identities and motives of the three people cited are undisclosed, no timeline for any decision has been reported, and there is no confirmation of meetings, staffing or fundraising. For now the public record consists of a newspaper's anonymous sourcing, a governor's flat denial and a midterm result that has changed the arithmetic of a contest still three years away.
