The dust has not yet settled in the 2022 midterm elections, but it’s not too early to draw some conclusions about the proceedings so far. It has been, as predicted, a good night for Republicans – although how good remains to be seen. But it’s clear at this point that there’s already one big winner.
Ron DeSantis
Four years ago, Ron DeSantis won the governorship of Florida by a fraction of a percent over Democrat Andrew Gillum. After four years of his conservative leadership, where he leaned into hot-button cultural issues like transgender rights and “critical race theory”, railed against coronavirus pandemic restrictions, and became a fixture on conservative news outlets, he has won re-election in a walk.
How he did it is particularly remarkable.
In 2018, he lost the Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade county by 20%. This year, he is on track to be the first Republican governor candidate to win in the majority-Hispanic area since Jeb Bush in 2002. He may even do so by a double-digit percentage.
Mr DeSantis’s move to overrule his state legislature and redraw the state’s congressional district lines to heavily favour Republican candidates has also paid national dividends. It has netted his party at least two of the five seats they need to win control of the House of Representatives.
These successes will go a long way toward providing the Florida governor with a springboard from which to launch a presidential campaign, if he so chooses.
As if to emphasise this, the crowd at Mr DeSantis’s victory rally on Tuesday night chanted “two more years” – a tacit acknowledgement that if their man decided to run for president he’d have to resign as governor halfway through his four-year term.
Of course, if Mr DeSantis wants to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, he may have to go through his state’s most prominent Republican resident – former President Donald Trump – to do so.
This is a developing story with more to come.
