Certainly. He has a young family and a wife who recently had cancer. But if he ever wants to be president, playing the wait-and-see game is not a good bet. He's most likely old news by 2028 (just ask Presidents Christie and Huckabee!)
Yeah, it’s 2024 or never. Just look at Cruz. His one shot to win was 2016, and now he’s a National laughing stock if he ever ran again.
Well, I could see him get another try in 2028 if he either comes very close at the nomination (and Trump subsequently losing) or DeSantis narrowly losing to Biden and overperforming expectations. However, both would require him to at least run in 2024. If he sits the election out, there's a high probability you're correct.
If DeSantis loses in 2024, he's finished in Presidential politics. At best he'd go the way of Romney and get elected to the Senate if/when Rubio or Scott call it quits.
Even if he starts as underdog in the summer of 2024 and just narrowly falls short? Even Al Gore would have been the nominee in 2004 again, if he wanted to.
Or wouldn't Republican voters forgive him losing to Biden?
I doubt it. If they didn't forgive Romney for losing to Obama (and this was before Romney became a thorn in Trump's a*s as a Senator), then I doubt they'd forgive DeSantis.
