McMaster made trip to Florida at invitation of potential 2024 presidential candidate
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster flew to Florida last month to appear at an event hosted by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate.
The June 23 gathering in Fort Lauderdale, first reported by Politico, included panels featuring governors who share DeSantis’ priorities.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who comes from another early-voting presidential primary state, also appeared at the event.
Arkansas Republican gubernatorial nominee and former White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Maine Republican gubernatorial nominee Paul LePage, and Nevada Republican Senate nominee Adam Laxalt also attended.
“He was invited by a colleague to his event and he was happy to go,” said Brian Symmes, spokesman for McMaster.
The event wasn’t listed on the McMaster’s public schedule as his office does not list all of his political events, Symmes said. McMaster did not spend the night in Florida, Symmes said.
DeSantis is a rising Republican star and a potential 2024 presidential candidate who has not ruled out running for the White House even it former President Donald Trump seeks reelection.
DeSantis was hosted by a small group of influential South Carolina Republican donors back in May in Charleston, though a source told The State the fundraiser was for his 2022 reelection, not 2024.
McMaster went to Florida earlier this year to pay a visit to another possible 2024 hopeful.
In February, McMaster made a trip to Mar-a-Lago to visit Trump, who McMaster backed early in 2016 when he was the state’s lieutenant governor. The two men had a 30-45 minute meeting to catch up, but McMaster has not publicly divulged any other details of their conversation.
The two have continued a good relationship ever since McMaster became the first statewide official to endorse Trump. Trump campaigned for McMaster in 2018, when the governor was pulled into a GOP runoff against John Warren.
