After millions of Americans went to vote in the mid-term elections in the USA, the counting of votes continues in the second largest democracy in the world. While according to all predictions, the Republican Party should have obtained a significant majority in the House of Representatives, it now seems that the “red wave” will become only a narrow majority. Thus, the Democrats continue to remain optimistic, hoping that the majority they have had so far in the Senate will continue. However, there is one Republican candidate who can come away satisfied from this night, and that is the governor of Florida, Ron De Santiswho won a second consecutive term, and received overwhelming support to become the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
According to the Florida vote count, De Santis defeated the Democratic candidate, Charlie Crist, in the race for the position of governor with 59.4% of the votes, compared to only 40% received by his democratic opponent and with a huge gap of more than one and a half million votes. Despite his great popularity, in order to be the Republican presidential candidate, he would first have to defeat the last Republican president, Donald Trump. The 44-year-old politician, who began his career in 2012, when he was elected to the House of Representatives, managed to establish his state as the second most populous Republican stronghold in the United States.
De Santis used the landslide election victory to declare himself the “Champion of Liberty.” In his victory speech Tuesday night, he declared that “Florida was a haven of sanity when the world went mad. We were a bastion of freedom for the people of this state and for the world. We faced attacks, we took blows, we faced storms, but we stood firm. We had the ability to guide ourselves and the courage to lead.”
Now, many analysts and many members of the Republican Party, see him as a potential candidate for the presidency of the United States. With the publication of the results, the idea became significantly stronger, so much so that the former president, Trump, addressed it and sent a warning in the direction of de Santis. In an interview he conducted with the American Fox network, he said Trump said that “I don’t think the base of voters will like it,” and warned that he would release damaging information about the Florida governor.
gaining popularity
De Santis’ first major challenge as governor came in 2020, amid the outbreak of the Corona epidemic. In April of that year, he ordered a shutdown of the country, established hundreds of testing centers and ordered millions of masks for citizens. De Santis then publicly declared that “they can prevent infections for the risk population”. However, a year later, the country’s restrictions began to be lifted.
In July of that year, against the background of the increase in the number of infected, he ordered the reopening of the schools. The actions he did then made him one of the most popular figures in the Republican Party. Last March, he even signed a law prohibiting discussions dealing with sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary schools.
Florida Governor Ron de Santis (Photo: REUTERS/Marco Bello)De Santis continued his tenure on the conservative line, and after the United States Supreme Court overturned the right to abortion, he said that “the prayers of millions have been answered.” Since then he has decided to speak less publicly, and some speculate that this is his political calculation designed to balance pressure from conservative elements in the Republican Party, and the opinions of the voters in Florida, most of whom are in favor of the right to abortion.
The next president?
So far the governor of Florida has shown no intention of running for president in 2024, stating several times that he is solely focused on governing Florida. Despite this, various polls show that de Santis is ahead of Trump in a possible runoff in 2024. The two came to blows, with Trump working to disinvite de Santis from a rally for Sen. Marco Rubio. At another event in Pennsylvania, Trump referred to De Santis as “Ron DeSanctimoniou,” a play on the governor’s last name and the word “hypocrite.”
the republican strategist, Sarah Longwell, said that “De Santis is undoubtedly the name that comes up when the Republican public is asked who they want to be the presidential candidate, if Trump is not a candidate.” Longwell added that “although I believe that he is positioning himself as the anti-Trump candidate, it is not clear whether he can win the nomination within the party. I am not sure that de Santis has the ability to face Trump face to face.”