The rabble rousing congressman ready for Ron

“I hope he does it ... I’d like to make that announcement elsewhere."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has earned a reputation as a bit of a social misfit: a loner who is deficient at the backslapping, schmoozy part of the job.

To Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, he’s an old dinner buddy who loved devouring the nuts and bolts of policy and politics over a plate of fish.

“He’s a foodie. He would do research on new places to eat,” Massie told McClatchy in a recent interview, recalling that the two were inside Washington’s Luke’s Lobster when Congressman Eric Cantor lost his 2014 primary race in Virginia.

“Ron DeSantis predicted it before anybody else,” said Massie, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It wasn’t a lowest common denominator discussion when we would hang out.”

The rambunctious Massie and the more insular DeSantis might seem like an unlikely pairing, but the two formed a bond that emanated from coming into Congress together after scoring their first victories during the 2012 election cycle. They quickly found a shared relish for picking a fight.

Now more than a decade later, as DeSantis moves closer to a run for president, Massie looks to be a potentially early backer.

Continue reading my full piece for McClatchyDC on the Massie-DeSantis relationship and where it looks like it’s heading … HERE.

And LISTEN to a top DeSantis adviser knock down the “bullshit” narrative on DeSantis HERE.