TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his long-awaited plans to run for president on a Twitter live stream on Wednesday night. DeSantis must now navigate how to catch up to former President Donald Trump and win over GOP voters as he’s dragged in the polls.

In a podcast-style livestream called Twitter Spaces, DeSantis joined host David Sacks and Twitter CEO Elon Musk to announce his run for the White House. The announcement on Twitter held plenty of symbolism for the campaign. Trump had successfully used the platform to bolster his own campaign in 2016. However, technical difficulties stalled DeSantis’ online announcement on Twitter.

Sacks attributed the issues to over a half-million people tuning in.

“Man, I think we melted the internet there,” said Sacks after the stream got back on track.

Unsurprisingly, the rocky campaign launch resulted in attacks from Trump.

“I know Ron. The way he handled his announcement, he will handle the Country!” wrote Trump on the social media site Truth Social.

Political analysts tell Spectrum News that it will be a daunting task for DeSantis to decide how to handle the almost certain attacks from Trump over the coming months.

“So far (DeSantis) hasn’t reacted. He hasn’t kicked back so to speak, and now the question comes: How is he going to do this?” said Eddie Fernandez, a Republican political analyst. “Some analysts say in order to beat Trump, you have to beat him at his own game.”

In Twitter Spaces, DeSantis did not mention Trump by name, but alluded to him when discussing the “culture of losing” in Republican politics.

Still, DeSantis has been trailing behind the former president in the polls. In a recent Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, when asked between Trump and DeSantis, 61% of GOP voters preferred Trump.

The DeSantis campaign is likely to use abortion to shore up their campaign against Trump. Though the former president appointed the Supreme Court Justices who ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade, Trump has frequently skirted questions about whether he would support an outright federal ban.

Meanwhile, members of the Democratic party hope DeSantis’ firm anti-abortion stance, along with other measures passed in the recent legislative session, will be too much for voters on the national scale.

“We know the policies passed in Florida do not have national appeal,” said Wes Hodge, former chair of Orange County Democrats. 

DeSantis was elected to hold office as governor until January 2024. During his presidential campaign, he will not need to resign because of a new law he signed earlier this week.