'He's Young': Palin Says DeSantis 'Doesn’t Need to Run' in 2024 POTUS Race, Urges Trump Support

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has sounded off against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis seeking the presidency in 2024 on the Republican ticket, even though he hasn’t announced his candidacy yet. Polls show GOP voters prefer DeSantis over former US President Donald Trump, who has Palin’s backing.

Speaking to US media earlier this week, Palin said Trump has the best chance to win the GOP Primary race and the 2024 presidential election overall, and urged at least one potential challenger to step aside.

"DeSantis doesn’t need to [run]. I envision him as our president someday but not right now," Palin said. "He should stay governor for a bit longer. He’s young, you know. He has decades ahead of him where he can be our president."

The Florida executive, who just won reelection in November, hasn’t yet announced his candidacy for president, but if he did, DeSantis would be 46 years old at the time of the election - two years older than Palin when she appeared on the 2008 Republican ticket as the vice presidential candidate alongside the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). McCain and Palin lost the election to then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL).

Palin, who mounted a separate failed bid to seize the northerly state’s open US House of Representatives seat last year, said Trump has the 2024 nomination in the bag. She also offered up some thoughts about who the real estate mogul might choose as his running mate.

"When you talk about the specific people, the individual people who are looking at putting their hat in the ring… they got a lot of guts thinking they’re gonna go up against Trump," Palin said.

"Trump needs to choose somebody who, like him, has nothing to lose,” she said of a potential running mate for Trump. “What more can they do to that person personally or verbal attacks or anything else on family? That person has been through the wringer, so they know what they're getting into. And that person then can just focus on doing what's right for the people."

When asked, she replied she was “not necessarily” suggesting herself.

"However, I'll tell you, the opportunity that I had to run with someone who wasn't as commonsense [of a] constitutional conservative as I, and I think the majority of Republicans were, but still having the opportunity to form a team like that in running, in offering ourselves up in service to America—oh my goodness, no greater honor, no greater opportunity," she added.

DeSantis has left some vague hints he is considering a presidential run, and is expected to make such an announcement this spring. After Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and former US ambassador to the United Nations, announced the launch of her primary campaign earlier this month, a reporter asked DeSantis if it would prompt him to announce as well.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" he replied.

Despite not announcing, polls show Republicans prefer DeSantis to Trump in a 2024 matchup, and that he would likely do well against US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, if he seeks reelection. Conservative US media outlets have also made their preference for DeSantis clear, as Trump is wracked with one scandal after another. That has prompted Trump to unleash his characteristic smear tactics against the Florida governor, who he has nicknamed “Ron DeSanctimonious.”

Palin did not comment on Haley’s presidential bid. On Tuesday, Vivek Ramaswamy, a conservative businessman who is the author of several “anti-woke” books in recent years, announced his campaign for the GOP nomination as well.