Ron DeSantis files paperwork announcing his candidacy for president

Ron DeSantis has filed the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run for president of the United States.

“Ron DeSantis for President” is now listed on the FEC’s website as a principal campaign committee. Caitlyn Tortorici is listed as treasurer.

DeSantis is scheduled to speak about his candidacy at 6 p.m. on Twitter spaces with Elon Musk. His first television interview as a presidential candidate will be on the Fox News Channel at 8 p.m. Eastern with Trey Gowdy. He is scheduled to be interviewed on conservative radio show host Mark Levin’s tonight as well, according to the Associated Press.

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison issued an almost immediate response to the filing. The Florida governor has pushed “an extreme MAGA agenda focused on ripping Floridians’ freedoms away and now he wants to take that agenda nationwide,” he said.

“DeSantis got his start as a co-founder of the ultra-right wing House Freedom Caucus where he supported Paul Ryan’s plan to end Medicare and Social Security as we know it, voted for national abortion bans, worked to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and supported Donald Trump’s tax giveaways to the biggest corporations,” Harrison said in a written statement.

“Now, as Floridians suffer under some of the highest housing and health care costs in the nation, DeSantis has tripled down on a MAGA agenda — including banning abortion, making it easier for criminals to carry guns, signing laws that allowed book bans, parroting Putin’s talking points, and bailing out huge corporations while Florida families foot the bill.

“If there was any doubt — DeSantis’s announcement turns up the volume on an already messy Republican primary. One thing is guaranteed — whoever makes it out will only have done so by catering to the most MAGA, right-wing Republicans in the primary.”