Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went to work in a key early primary state on June 2 as he began introducing himself to the voters of South Carolina.
The state poses a particular challenge: it is home to not one but two of DeSantis’s declared challengers for the Republican nomination, a popular former governor in Nikki Haley and a popular current senator in Tim Scott.
DeSantis didn’t shy from the challenge. He held his first event in Beaufort, which Scott represented in Congress, and his second one outside Lexington, the legislative district where Haley got her start.
Speaking in the same venue where she spoke two months ago, DeSantis drew a slightly larger crowd. Haley spoke to about 400 people at The Grove on Augusta, an event venue on U.S. 1 in Gilbert, on April 6. A DeSantis campaign staffer said his crowd exceeded 500. Haley’s crowd filled the un-air-conditioned structure, but DeSantis’s packed it….