How DeSantis plans to jolt the GOP presidential primary and seize back the narrative

In the early days of his governorship, Ron DeSantis, still largely unknown to even the people who elected him, barnstormed across Florida's 65,000 square miles, popping up almost daily in a different community to announce new initiatives or unexpected actions. News outlets, opposition Democrats and fellow Republicans unaccustomed to such energy from the executive were caught by surprise.

"Where did this Ron DeSantis come from?" read a February 2019 headline in the Tampa Bay Times, a month after he took office.

Now as he's set to announce his 2024 White House bid on Wednesday, DeSantis is preparing to once again jolt his rivals, the political class and the media with an aggressive schedule and unconventional approach to a presidential campaign. That'll begin with the announcement, which he's making in a conversation with Twitter owner Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces, a live audio component of the platform.

Just as in 2019, DeSantis' political team is plotting an unpredictable, relentless blitz of the political map designed to quickly get the Republican in front of thousands of primary voters, stir the pot and invite contrasts between the 44-year-old governor and the campaigns of the aging front-runners in each party, according to people familiar with the planning.

"Just wait," a Republican fundraiser close to the campaign teased.

It's a playbook that Floridians are familiar with after five years under DeSantis' singular rule, where on any given day and with little warning, he will summon local news cameras to jump on the latest controversy animating conservatives, unveil new proposals that push the state further right or flex his power to thrust Florida into the national spotlight. His movements are often planned to "keep the partisan opposition in the media and in the Democratic Party on their toes," he wrote in his recent book.

Untested, though, is whether DeSantis can, through exhaustive travel and executive fiat, similarly force the Republican primary to be fought on his terms.