At Ron DeSantis’ election victory party in Tampa Tuesday night, supporters of the right-wing Florida governor chanted, “Two more years!”
Governors serve four-year terms, but DeSantis is considered a possible challenger to Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. DeSantis’ great performance in Florida on Tuesday — just like the others Republicans in the USA has faltered – now it has significantly strengthened this position.
Trump reportedly plans to announce in 2024 this month, seeking to capitalize on Republican success in the midterm elections. At a rally in Ohio on Monday, he backtracked on the Nov. 15 announcement.
But on a night when the “red wave” expected by Republicans seemed unlikely – although control of the House and Senate remained in the balance – the atmosphere in Trump Florida At home, Mar-a-Lago, it was reportedly unsettling.
Meanwhile, in Tampa, the celebration of DeSantis’ landslide victory over his Democratic rival, Charlie Crist, was raucous.
In a speech filled with allusions to his handling of the controversial Covid pandemic that has killed 82,541 Floridians, the third largest DeSantis said: “We chose facts over fear, we chose education over nurture, we chose the law over disorder and mayhem.
“Florida was a haven of sanity when the world went mad. We stood as a citadel of freedom for people across the country and, indeed, around the world. We faced attacks, we took hits, we weathered storms, but we stood our ground.
“We did not back down. We had a conviction to guide us and we had the courage to lead. We promised. We made promises to the people of Florida and we kept those promises. And today, four years later, the people have given their verdict.”
DeSantis declined to say whether he intends to serve a full second term, which is embarrassing his debate with Christ. In Tampa, as supporters chanted “two more years,” the governor smiled broadly and said, “Thank you very much.”
He didn’t address Trump at all, let alone the former president’s threats. informed earlier in the day to reveal “things about him that won’t be very flattering” if DeSantis does end up running for the White House.
A poll of the tentative Republican field in 2024 gives Trump a wide lead, but DeSantis is the only name that regularly draws double-digit support. The Florida governor regularly wins in the polls when Trump remains out of the spotlight.
Information publications have informed that DeSantis has told donors he may try to avoid a confrontation with Trump by waiting until 2028 instead.
But DeSantis’ measure of success Tuesday, combined with Republican Sen. Marco Rubio’s easy victory over his Democratic opponent, congressman and former Orlando Police Chief Val Demings, may have changed the equation.
In Tampa, DeSantis nodded to stunning gains in previously solidly Democratic districts, particularly Miami-Dade County, when he said, “Thanks to the overwhelming support of the people of Florida, we not only won the election, we rewrote the political map. Thank you for honoring us with a victory for the ages.”
He also gave a nod to politics that have proven controversial but beneficial, especially regarding Covid and the fight to teach LGBTQ+ issues and racial history in America.
“We accepted freedom,” he said. “We maintained law and order. We have protected the rights of parents. We respected our taxpayers and reject the awakened ideology.”
The speech had the sound of a politician who has one eye on the national, and therefore on the world stage. Given conservative Americans’ longstanding reverence for Winston Churchill, it is perhaps no surprise that DeSantis echoed the British wartime prime minister in a speech delivered with marked confidence.
In his speech, which was largely devoted to shouting at the American left, DeSantis repeated Churchill’s famous promise from 1940, when he said Britain would fight “on the beaches … on the landing grounds … in the fields and in the streets.”
“We’re fighting an awakening in the Legislature,” DeSantis said to steady applause. “We are fighting wakes in schools, we are fighting wakes in corporations. We will never surrender to the awakened crowd. Florida is a wake-up-to-die place.”
