Gov. Ron DeSantis is making gains in presidential polls. His gains are zero sum; Trump is slipping.
I therefore would advise D.C. Democratic strategists to jump on opposition research against DeSantis as though that's the only game in town. I say I would do so rather than I shall do so for an exceedingly simple reason:
Mountains of Mud, true or not, thrown at Ron 'Savonarola' DeSantis — e.g. he dresses up at night in a Nazi colonel's uniform, he masturbates to Himmler's portrait, he's leaving his estate to the Proud Boys — would only bump him up in Republican circles by 50%.
Nothing grim or salacious can touch these guys, every one of them in the GOP wanna-be race. Democrats tried plastering Trump in 2020 with genuine, truthful dirt of the finest quality. For that noble effort, Dems got thanked by a Trumpy Electoral Vote victory.
What might work is for Democrats to allege through assorted media figures that DeSantis has spoken kind words about the Enlightenment, that he once suggested the Earth is more than 6,000 years old, that he favors educated children, and that he doesn't really masturbate to Himmler's portrait.
Yes, that just might do it. He'd be banished to the icy, Dantean depths of hell by every crypto-fascist cracker in America.