Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended his 2024 presidential campaign yesterday and endorsed former President Trump days before the New Hampshire primary, announcing his exit in a video on X.

Why it matters: DeSantis entered the 2024 campaign widely viewed as former Trump's most formidable opponent, but early missteps and strategic errors hampered his effort.

• DeSantis' announcement will give Trump an added boost ahead of the New Hampshire contest where he is looking to effectively end the GOP primary with a large win over former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
• DeSantis campaigned aggressively in Iowa but came in second behind Trump by about 30 percentage points.

The big picture: DeSantis launched his presidential campaign in May, but he had been laying the groundwork before then, highlighting his legislative accomplishments in Florida related to his "anti-woke" agenda.

• He cruised to re-election as governor in 2022, when many other Republican candidates underperformed expectations, which fueled the speculation that he was ready to take on Trump.
• DeSantis' pitch to voters was that the Sunshine State — which passed aggressive restrictions under his leadership on abortion rights, LGBTQ people and more — could be a model for the rest of the country.

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Forget about Wynwood or Art Basel for a second. Broward County has something to say.

Driving the news: The third-annual Ignite Broward art and light festival will bring together local and international artists to showcase their bright, immersive digital creations.

• The free festival — featuring light-based sculptures, 3D projection mapping and interactive exhibits — will be held Wednesday through Sunday.
• Exhibits will be displayed at Mad Arts in Dania Beach and Esplanade Park in Fort Lauderdale.

Here are some of the coolest exhibits at Mad Art:

🌳 "Luminescent Sylva" uses hyper-realistic LED walls to transport you to a verdant forest oasis created by the museum's MadLabs team.

• Feel the crunch of leaves underfoot and touch the trees around you to activate digital fireflies.

🎞️ "The Light Pours Out of Me" by the Cuban-American artist Richard Vergez is an audiovisual dungeon that melds the analog and the digital to create a hallucinatory experience.

• The haunting ring of a landline, recorded on a cassette player, is warped through a digital filter as a flashlight mounted to a record player spins light beams across the room. Everything is caught on surveillance cameras.

🔦 "Laser Like Water" reflects bright lasers against shiny ropes, a mirrored screen and a standing pond to create mesmerizing patterns. Jean-Sébastien Baillat, Ottomata and Diagraf created the work.

What they're saying: Marc Aptakin, Mad Arts founder and a former Wynwood-based artist, tells Axios the success of the Miami art scene has led to copycats and a region "saturated" with murals.

• With the digital-forward Ignite festival, Aptakin wants the Broward scene to stand out. "If you want to drive a lot of attention to yourself, be innovative."

Phillip Dunlap, director of the Broward County Cultural Division, tells Axios his goal is to strengthen the South Florida art scene and bring people together.

• "We can create something unique to our area that doesn't copy what someone else is doing but helps us create our own identity instead of looking for validation from the outside."

If you go: Mad Arts, 481 S. Federal Hwy, will host exhibits from 10am–8pm, with extended hours until 11pm on Friday and Saturday.

• Exhibits at Esplanade Park, 400 SW 2nd St., and the nearby Museum of Discovery & Science will be shown from 6pm–10pm with extended viewing until 11pm on Friday and Saturday. (Wednesday's opening night exhibit won't start until 7pm.)

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🎞️ "Razing Liberty Square," a documentary about climate gentrification and Miami's Liberty Square housing project, is set to be shown locally this week and air on PBS Jan. 29. (Miami Herald)

🍎 Of 17,000 teachers working for Miami-Dade Public Schools, four have been chosen as finalists for Teacher of the Year. (NBC6)

⚾ A team of baseball players who defected from Cuba has been practicing in Miami, though plans to play in Colombia were scuttled by the government there. (AP)

New business applications across Florida fell 3% between December 2022 and December 2023, seasonally adjusted Census Bureau data shows.

Why it matters: Business formation rates are an excellent indicator of economic sentiment — few people try to start a company when they foresee bad times ahead, Axios' Alex Fitzpatrick and Alice Feng report.

By the numbers: Florida received over 32,000 new business applications in January 2019. This figure swelled to 55,995 in November 2023 before dipping to 52,677 last December.

• Meanwhile, Colorado (+115%), North Dakota (+37.7%) and Iowa (+33.7%) had the highest year-over-year change in new business applications between December 2022 and December 2023.

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Martin here. I was lucky enough to watch the Heat retire the No. 40 jersey of Udonis Haslem Friday at halftime of the Hawks game.

• It felt like the entire city came together to honor our hometown hero.

Why it matters: UD wasn't the most talented player in Heat history, but he might have been the most beloved.

• The epitome of "Heat Culture," Haslem went from an undrafted player out of Miami Senior High to a three-time champion and 16-time team captain.

Yes, but: The Heat (24-19) lost the game on a heart-breaking buzzer-beater in front of Haslem, Dwyane Wade and other former Heat players in attendance for the special night.

• That's just how the season has been going for Miami lately.

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