Though he has not yet made any sort of formal announcement, it is widely assumed that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will eventually announce his candidacy and challenge former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

According to failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, however, DeSantis should remain in Florida and not mount a presidential campaign as it is "President Trump's turn" once again to be the GOP nominee in the next election cycle, Townhall reported.

Lake, a former local TV news anchor, is an outspokenly staunch supporter of the former president who is continuing to fight a legal battle to overturn the reported results of Arizona's 2022 elections.

DeSantis should wait his turn

During a recent interview with Newsmax host Eric Bolling, Lake was asked for her thoughts about the two clear frontrunners for the 2024 GOP nomination -- Trump and DeSantis -- and left no doubt about where she stood on that question.

She first praised the former president and expressed her desire to see him return to the White House "right away" before shifting her attention to the increasingly popular Florida governor, who was just overwhelmingly re-elected last year by a significant margin over his Democratic challenger.

"I think Ron DeSantis is an effective governor; there's no doubt about that. The people of Florida just re-elected him," Lake said. "I'm assuming when they re-elected him, they were hoping he'd stay around for a while."

"I guess he's in his 40s. He's about ten years younger than me," she continued. "He's got a long political future ahead of him, and I think he should respect that the people just voted him in as governor and serve out that term for the people of Florida, and then he could, obviously, run for president."

"But this is President Trump's turn," Lake said, and further added that she was confident in Trump's ability to govern immediately and bring his "America First" policies to fruition, while she still had doubts about where DeSantis stood on certain issues and questions about some of the people who surround him.

Lake won CPAC straw poll for top VP pick

The Hill reported last week that Lake was a featured speaker at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in the Washington D.C. area, and apparently proved to be quite popular with attendees at the event.

In fact, Lake won the CPAC straw poll of attendees on who should be the GOP vice presidential pick of the eventual nominee, garnering 20 percent support in a field of 28 prospective candidates, including Gov. DeSantis, who drew 14 percent support.

Former President Trump resoundingly won the CPAC straw poll for who should be the nominee with 62 percent of the vote, which dwarfed the 20 percent of attendees who picked DeSantis as their preferred nominee.

Lake a top contender to be Trump VP

Meanwhile, Axios reported this week that Lake is said to be a top contender among four prominent Republican women that Trump is closely eyeing as a potential running mate for his 2024 campaign that he launched in the immediate aftermath of the midterm elections last year.

On the plus side for Lake is the fact that she is "unfailingly loyal" and "willing to defend him vociferously" on any issue, but also runs the risk of potentially upstaging Trump or displaying too much ambition of her own for the presidency.

Also mentioned by the outlet as possible considerations to be Trump's VP pick are former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who has launched her own 2024 campaign; Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump's former White House press secretary; and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who has been a close ally of the former president.