Welcome back to The Best & The Brightest, and thanks to Teddy Schleifer for filling in yesterday with his scoop about Jeff Bezos circling the Washington Commanders.

In tonight’s edition, news and notes on the heartburn in DeSantis donor world amid the rising concerns that he should sit this primary out—and the counterintuitive case for Glenn Youngkin to step in.

But first…

• Some K Street Blues?: Democratic lobbyist and bundler Steve Elmendorf has been undergoing layoffs at his firm Subject Matter, a firm the Washington Examiner once dubbed an “all-star team of Democratic revolving-door lobbyists… including former top aides to Democratic floor leaders Harry Reid, Dick Gephardt, Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi.” The changes may reflect the power shift occurring on the left atop Capitol Hill with Pelosi out and Hakeem Jeffries in charge. Elmendorf is keeping Cedric Grant, Jeffries’ former chief of staff, but he’s laid off Shanti Stanton, his right-hand woman of 16 years and a former Pelosi aide, along with a handful of others. (Stanton declined to comment.)

  This may be the new financial reality on K Street as firms start accepting investments from private equity. Last year, Coral Tree Partners invested in Subject Matter, which works with clients such as Amazon, Goldman Sachs, Meta, Pfizer and UnitedHealthcare, so it’s possible they see operational efficiencies to maximize their return. Elmendorf, a man about town, seems unfazed. He was spotted at a party for Sally Susman’s new book, Breaking Through, on Wednesday. Last week, he posted photos of his new condo in Greenwich Village. Maybe he took a little something off the top.

  “Details of an employee separation, in any context, are confidential,” said a spokesperson for Elmendorf. “Our intention remains to grow the firm. We are actively seeking opportunities to expand.”

• Donalds Picks Trump: Rep. Byron Donalds, a rising star in Florida politics who is seen as a potential successor to DeSantis in the statehouse, has come out with an early endorsement of Donald Trump. The news has shocked Florida insiders, considering that Byron and his wife Erika are personal friends of Ron and Casey. Back in 2018, after all, Donalds was DeSantis’s pick for Florida G.O.P. chairman. So much for returning the favor! The endorsement comes just weeks after Donalds said he wouldn’t weigh in on the G.O.P. presidential primary until DeSantis officially announced.

  Surely if he runs for governor, Donalds could still make use of his 2018 endorsement from DeSantis, which makes his decision to throw in with Trump even more weighty. It could also just be that Donalds doesn’t believe that DeSantis will ultimately pull the trigger and run, or that he sees where the wind is blowing. More on that below.

Nevertheless, these are businessmen, hedge fund founders, and private equity moguls who appreciate optionality and are now looking to hedge their risk, as I reported last week. “If DeSantis is the guy, we’re ready to go for it and we’re ready to throw our weight behind him,” one major donor told me. “We want one or two of them rather than Trump. DeSantis should not misread early support for him, which I’m sure DeSantis hates. We’re ready to support two Trump alternative candidates, because why wouldn’t we?”

Sure, DeSantis already has about $200 million in the bank, but it’s been a rough month or so. He’s been trending downward in early polling and was completely upstaged by Trump’s indictment and arrest in New York, an oxygen-annihilating media event that seemed, somehow, to have caught the Florida governor and his staff off-guard—first with his disingenuous, chatbot-esque performance during a softball interview with Piers Morgan, during which he fumbled his response to questions about Trump’s looming indictment, and again when he was put on the spot regarding whether he would stand in the way of Trump’s potential extradition.

The trouble with DeSantis is that his candidacy is more compelling on paper than it is in practice. Of course, any would-be president’s ambitions eclipse their accomplishments. But DeSantis, despite ruling over a state of 20 million people, has yet to be tested on a national stage. He’s also revealed a reactive and potentially short-sighted political instinct with his recent moves to legalize permitless concealed carry in Florida and his plan to sign a six-week abortion ban—two base-revving policies that would unquestionably come back to haunt him in a general election.

Other missteps have been stylistic, donors say, like his desire to always appear as the smartest person in the room. Perhaps he should embrace a more genial approach, like their north star George W. Bush, the guy who didn’t drink but whom you would grab a beer with. (Though look how that turned out…)

DeSantis’s people brush off this grumbling as a bunch of moderates who don’t understand what it takes to win the Republican primary these days. Sure, the six-week abortion ban might upset them, but if he’s going to beat Trump in the primary, he needs to campaign to the hard right. But the party’s moneymen worry he’s being myopic, or naive. “He’s showing signs of stress and that only he and his wife Casey are in his inner camp,” the major donor told me. “DeSantis has to do whatever he can to stop the bill from getting the six-week abortion ban to his desk.”

In fact, these donors see it as a real test. One called it a “death warrant.” That’s why you’re starting to hear the intensified grumbling that perhaps DeSantis should do a headfake and sit this one out for 2028. I’ve been in Florida reporting for the past two weeks and have heard this inside conversation at all levels, from voters to G.O.P. leaders to top donors who wonder if DeSantis should really run.

I’m reliably told that Youngkin has made it clear that he will not run before the state legislature elections in Virginia, in November. He’s dead set on flipping the state red and making that his signature success story, outside of his manufactured C.R.T. platform, which DeSantis snatched up and turbocharged. Of course, a very late entry would put him at a sizable disadvantage—especially if it means missing debates, potentially failing to qualify for the ballot in certain states, and arriving without a national campaign apparatus in place. But surely, the argument goes, Youngkin can spend $20 million of his own cash immediately to make up any lost ground, and he’d be able to call on his peers to help bridge the delta. He’s got significant evangelical support waiting in the wings. And by waiting on the sidelines, Youngkin avoids months of Trump attacks.

Sure it’s a longshot, but this may be Youngkin’s last chance at the White House. Whereas donors are telling DeSantis to consider sitting back and waiting until 2028, after Trump is out of the picture, Youngkin is being advised that 2028 is too far away. His term as governor is up in 2025, and he’s term limited from running again. Without a political platform to stand on, he runs the risk of becoming just another rich guy with presidential dreams.

Oh, and there’s the Rupert Murdoch factor, too. I’m told that both Youngkin and DeSantis met with Murdoch, separately, at his $200 million Montana ranch last year, and the Fox and News Corp. owner seemed to get on better with the fleece-wearing former Carlyle co-C.E.O. than he did with the former Navy lawyer.

It’s not just the monied class whose confidence DeSantis appears to be losing; his appeal with the grassroots is also being tested. To wit, multiple sources noted to me that the New Hampshire G.O.P. is still struggling to sell tickets, at every level up from entry-level tickets to $5,000 dinner sponsorships, for the annual Amos Tuck Dinner on April 14, featuring DeSantis as the special guest. With only one week to go, organizers are apparently underwhelmed by the interest in an event they’d hoped would sell out. Meanwhile, The Daily Beast has a story out about how everyone from G.O.P. donors to organizers have been frustrated by the lack of responsiveness from the DeSantis team, as well as his insistence on doing as little media as possible. New Hampshire activists have been particularly miffed that they need to submit requests to the governor’s office to see him while he’s in town—a hurdle they’re not used to as influencers in the first-in-the-nation primary. (A New Hampshire G.O.P. spokesperson declined to comment.)

But maybe DeSantis doesn’t care about New Hampshire or Iowa. NBC News is reporting that he’s instead focusing on outlasting Trump and winning more delegates overall—what people in the know are already calling “the Rudy Guiliani strategy.” Which by the way, didn’t work.