Ron DeSantis
Though he hasn’t formally announced a presidential campaign, Florida’s governor is considered the chief rival to Trump. DeSantis is in his second term as governor, and during his time in Tallahassee he has gained national recognition for his COVID-19 policies and embrace of the culture wars.
DeSantis has also leaned into education issues, reshaping Florida’s public education policies and engaging in local school board races during the 2022 election cycle. His efforts as governor have won him popularity with Republican voters, and though he hasn’t launched a campaign, DeSantis is set to make stops in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, another early voting state, to promote his new book.
DeSantis skipped CPAC this year and instead addressed donors at a retreat hosted by the conservative Club for Growth.
Mike Pence
The former vice president and Indiana governor has signaled he is exploring a presidential bid and said he intends to make a decision on his political future by the spring. Pence, though, has suggested he believes the GOP should move on from Trump.
“I think we’re going to have new leadership in this party and in this country,” he told CBS News in January.
Pence also has declined to commit to supporting Trump if he is the Republican nominee, instead saying that he believes GOP voters will choose “wisely again” in 2024 and thinks “different times call for different leadership.”
While Pence has promoted the policies of the Trump administration, he has also criticized the former president for his actions on Jan. 6, saying in November that Trump’s words were “reckless” and put him and his family, who were on Capitol Hill that day for the joint session of Congress, in danger.
Tim Scott
Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, officially launched an exploratory committee for a 2024 presidential campaign in April, declaring in a video that he would “never back down in defense of the conservative values that make America exceptional. And that’s why I’m announcing my exploratory committee for president of the United States.”
He’s betting on the appeal of his upbeat vision for the country. “I see that America is starving for positive, optimistic leadership,” Scott told CBS News political correspondent Huey-BurnsTim Scott declines to say whether he’d back the 2024 GOP presidential nominee if it’s Trump after announcing the launch of this exploratory committee. “I want to provide that alternative not to any specific candidate, but for the American people.”
“The difference between me and others, I believe, is that my focus is on the fact that I used to be a kid who didn’t see a future,” Scott continued. “I used to be a kid that was angry about the cards that I was dealt. I was blessed by a mother who never surrendered. I was blessed by a mentor who always loved and supported my ideal self. And it’s because of those two individuals that I now have greater faith in the future for others. And I see my responsibility of sharing the good news of who we can be because we have been. If we can unite this country around the solutions, focusing more on those solutions than anything else, it’s my only path forward, and it’s the one I’ve chosen.”
In his interview with Huey-Burns, he also declined twice to commit to supporting Trump, if the former president wins the GOP nomination.
Scott, the only Black Republican senator, has been visiting early-voting states. He has hired former GOP Sen. Cory Gardner and a longtime GOP operative to lead his super PAC Opportunity Matters, according to Axios.
Chris Sununu
Sununu, the governor of New Hampshire, has not held back in criticizing Trump and provided a preview of his pitch to voters during an interview with “Face the Nation” last month, during which he promoted a “New Hampshire model” of leadership.
Sununu said the American people are “tired of extreme candidates” and partisan gridlock.
In 2021, Sununu decided to forgo a run for the Senate to challenge first-term Democrat Maggie Hassan and opted instead to seek a fourth term as governor, which he won in November.