When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hired 25-year-old Nate Hochman to be a campaign speechwriter in March, it sent an unambiguous message about the direction of the governor's presidential bid.
Among the cadre of young culture warriors within the so-called "New Right," Hochman had already distinguished himself as someone to watch—and not always in the right ways. While collecting bylines at National Review and The New York Times, Hochman had also cozied up to Nick Fuentes, a well-known white nationalist, and pushed for a more illiberal conservative movement. Republicans can no longer afford to support "value-neutral liberty," he told the right-wing publication American Moment in 2022, and must instead "assert a positive vision of the good" that would require the conservative movement to "cohere around the culture war as its organizing, totalizing force."
