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- Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis likes to wear cowboy boots.
- Menswear experts and others have alleged DeSantis wears lifts in his boots to make him look taller.
- It's become one of the foremost talking points about him at a time when he needs positive press.
Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. DeSantis is no stranger to playing the heel.
Whether it's unilaterally replacing two elected district attorneys in Florida, enacting and strengthening the state's contentious "Don't Say Gay" law, or picking fights with Disney, DeSantis has spent his time in office pursuing his goals despite potential public backlash.
But at a time when his campaign is in dire straits, it's own heels that are standing in his way.
Over the past few weeks, social media users latched on to DeSantis' decision to wear cowboy boots at a large number of public events. There's been a suspicion that he's wearing several-inch lifts in his boots to make him appear taller, akin to a high heel, an allegation he and his campaign deny.
Their denials, however, have not stopped anyone from publicly deliberating the topic:
- On Tuesday, menswear expert Derek Guy spoke with three established bootmakers who each said they suspect DeSantis is, in fact, wearing lifts.
- Appearing on "The Daily Show," radio host Charlamagne tha God joked that DeSantis is actually waging his war against Disney "because you got to be this tall to ride the magic teacups."
- Videos on TikTok of users giving their own thoughts on DeSantis' boots have garnered millions of views.
The hosts from the Republican bastion Fox News have also debated the topic, with one arguing that DeSantis' alleged heel lifts were easily verifiable given an eye test.
DeSantis' largest competition (both in height and in polling), former President Donald Trump, has jumped into the discussion as well. His campaign sent out a press release Tuesday afternoon where his spokesperson said DeSantis has committed "borderline psychotic behavior by lying to the American people" about the boots.
The release noted DeSantis' appearance on a recent podcast where he was pressed on the topic. The governor said he hadn't been made aware of the allegations but insisted his boots were standard, off-the-rack Lucchese, a statement the Trump campaign called "major brand damage to a great American footwear company."
If it was the beginning of the campaign or if DeSantis held a commanding lead, the attention to DeSantis' footwear would likely be another speed bump in a long campaign. But in late August, the Washington Post reported that the chief strategist for DeSantis' super PAC warned that the campaign needed to overtake Trump by the end of October.
October has come and gone, and with two months to go until the Republican presidential caucuses in Iowa, DeSantis is still miles behind Trump in national polling. According to an average of polls by FiveThirtyEight, he's 43.2 percentage points behind the embattled former president, despite Trump's myriad of legal entanglements.
With just a short few months remaining to turn the campaign around before primaries begin, this is the time when DeSantis most needs to be kissing babies and shaking hands.
Instead, he's debating the state of his boots.