Ron DeSantis will announce his presidential bid in a Twitter chat with Elon Musk, sources say

governor of florida Ron DeSantis plans to announce he is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination Wednesday night during a Twitter Live appearance with the platform owner, Elon Musk, three people familiar with the plans tell CBS News. There will also be a campaign launch video from DeSantis, followed by trips to presidential primary states after Memorial Day.

The announcement will take place at 6 p.m. ET and will be hosted by David Sacks, a technology executive close to Musk and a supporter of DeSantis, the sources said.

The news was first reported by NBC News.

It wasn’t immediately clear if DeSantis and Musk would appear together in person. The governor is scheduled to travel to Miami Wednesday through Friday for meetings with longtime top donors, who will be tasked with helping raise millions of dollars for his fledgling campaign in hopes of starting with a noticeable financial boost when he will join the field.

While he previously expressed a desire to keep Twitter as a politically neutral space, the joint appearance of the platform owner and the governor of Florida will be seen as at least Musk’s tacit endorsement of DeSantis’ offer. It was not immediately clear whether Musk planned to endorse the governor outright. And the joint appearance comes as former President Donald Trump, once the the platform’s most prominent and recent usersaid he would avoid the site in favor of his own social media tool, Truth Social, which is popular with a segment of the conservative movement.

Sources told CBS News last week that DeSantis should file his papers run for president on Wednesday. Also last week, his political operation left state GOP headquarters to move to new office in Tallahassee — a move that cost more than $5,000 — and triggered a federal campaign law requiring DeSantis to register as a candidate and appoint a senior campaign committee within 15 days.

In Sarasota, Fla., last week, DeSantis was asked if he would announce a race in the next 15 days. He said “a few other things left on the [legislative] agenda”, including the state budget.

DeSantis’ entry into the 2024 presidential race comes after months of visits to early presidential primary states and across the country to promote his new book and tout his legislative record as governor. DeSantis was in Iowa for several events earlier this month.

He is currently serving his second term as governor of Florida after winning re-election by a nearly 20-point margin in November 2022. In the state last legislature, which ended in May, DeSantis signed a succession of bills popular with conservatives, including a six-week abortion ban and another that established the carrying of concealed firearms without a license. On the road, he also highlighted bipartisan bills that would raise teachers’ salaries, cut prescription drug prices and cut taxes on household goods.