A group of prominent Michigan Republicans are encouraging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to jump into the 2024 presidential race — a significant and thinly veiled shot at the only announced Republican candidate: former President Donald Trump.

Last month, Bryan Posthumus, the Republican floor leader in the Michigan state House, flew to Florida and hand-delivered DeSantis a letter encouraging him to run for president. The letter — which was signed by 18 Republican members of the state House, one quarter of party’s caucus — called DeSantis “uniquely and exceptionally qualified to provide the leadership and competence that is, unfortunately, missing” in the White House under President Joe Biden, according to excerpts provided by a Posthumus spokesperson. …

While the letter doesn’t explicitly endorse DeSantis over Trump, it illustrates simmering discontent with the former president among Republicans, following a series of elections that saw the party get bludgeoned at the ballot box.

[That’s quite the head start. The longer DeSantis waits to announce, one has to wonder how many more such efforts will emerge to get him to commit to 2024. DeSantis will likely wait in any case until Florida’s legislative session is concluded, which would be sometime in May, IIRC. — Ed]