Ron DeSantis, 44-year-old Trump-led Florida governor, may succeed him
There are rumors. For months, it has been speculated that Ron DeSantis, the 44-year-old governor of Florida who owes his start to Donald Trump, might come to usurp his power.
And on Wednesday, his drive to overtake the former president for the right to become the Republican nominee in next year's presidential election was one step closer after the official announcement of his candidacy.
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While Mr. Trump currently has a huge lead in Republican primary polls, Mr. DeSantis has been spoken of as his biggest challenger since last November's midterms. In anticipation of this, the Washington political class was obsessed with whether the gloomy forecasts of the Democrats would turn into blows at the ballot box. They didn't, and there was one person to blame: Donald Trump. Many candidates supported by Trump did not receive the approval of voters.
DeSantis, however, vastly outscored his Democratic challenger by 20 points compared to the three-point lead Trump secured over Joe Biden in a vital swing state in 2020. The swing state is no more. By wresting Latin American support for the Democrats, Mr. DeSantis tugged Florida—a vital prize on the road to the White House in the presidential election—bringing it decisively and finally into the Republican camp.
Nevertheless, if Mr. DeSantis owes the 76-year-old Trump his career, stifled one or two policies, and assumed his mantle of the «awake» hammer, these two men in many respects could hardly be more different.
It's not just their age. Where Mr. Trump was born into wealth and privilege, Mr. DeSantis grew up in a humble working-class family, with his father a television engineer and his mother a nurse. His ascent—to Yale and Harvard—then to the army and up the ranks in the Republican Party as a congressman seemed to epitomize the hard-working-anywhere attitude at the heart of the American dream. Even today, his net worth is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, not the billions Trump boasts about.
Trump and DeSantis during a homecoming rally in Florida in 2019. Photo: SOPA Images
The irony, of course, is that when it came to brawling in the 2018 race to become the Republican nominee for governor of Florida, it was connections, not elbow grease, that ensured Mr. DeSantis' success. Against all odds, he won, beating a strong favorite to earn the nomination. There is little doubt that it was all about the President's single message, which DeSantis tirelessly defended on Fox News: «Congressman Ron DeSantis is a brilliant young leader, Yale Law School and then Harvard Law School, who could have made a GREAT governor of Florida.» Trump said. tweeted. «He loves our Country and a real FIGHTER!»
However, after coming to power, differences began to appear again. The governor has gone to great lengths to reach out to moderates, pardoning four blacks in a 70-year-old wrongful rape case, raising teachers' salaries and legalizing marijuana for medical use. Then came the pandemic.
Covid has been a game-changer as Governor Mr. DeSantis. Like Mr. Trump, he has come to the conclusion that this is a heavy burden for a free society, where mitigation measures — lockdowns, masks in schools — are every bit as good as the disease itself.
However, unlike Mr. Trump, Mr. DeSantis — a diligent, lawyer, almost reclusive man with a few friends — arrived at this position after relentlessly poring over reports and data. As other parts of the country, like liberal New York, closed down, Florida opened up. While direct comparisons are never easy, when Covid began to ease, not only did Florida prosper more, its death toll was lower than in the Big Apple. Mr. DeSantis, who made the biggest challenge of his career, affecting millions of lives, was acquitted.
The success took him to the national stage and his name was first linked to the 2024 White House race. At first he was silent about the proposal. But his policies have become more overtly center-right, perhaps in recognition that in order to stand a chance at the presidency, he had to reach out to Trump's voters.
DeSantis at the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year. Photo: John Rau
Today, he boldly speaks about his Catholic faith — his family has Italian roots — and in the most uncompromising terms about immigration. Last September, he famously sent 50 Venezuelan migrants to that East Coast cradle of privilege, Martha's Vineyard, to see how well-meaning liberals would feel in the face of the realities of soft border politics. Naturally, the outrage only increased his popularity at home, even among Florida's Hispanic population, who had fled the Cuban regime in decades past.
The promise to make Florida a “brick wall against everything that wakes up” also turned out to be catnip.
But such lines are not purely or mostly Trump-style self-praise bombast. Instead, Mr. DeSantis skillfully positions himself as a voter advocate. His politics and campaign advertising portray him as a supporter of legal residents against immigrants; law-abiding against criminals; even on the side of individual conservatives against big business, like the local titan Disney, who dared to criticize his ban on discussing homosexuality with children under nine years old.
However, big business hasn't stopped funding his campaign — he's raised almost $200 million for the midterms, a record. It's easy to see why. His promise to carry out Trump's policies without Trump's bizarre behavior is increasingly intoxicating to conservatives. As Daniel McCarthy, former editor of The American Conservative, puts it: “DeSantis still represents a turn to the right for the Republican Party, but he is someone who does it very effectively, while Trump does it in a very idiosyncratic way, to say the least. «.
Key to Mr. DeSantis' appeal in the American suburbs is his family life — his three young children, Mamie, Madison, Mason, and most of all, his wife Casey. Like Melania, she is always stylish, but she is more than just a decoration of her husband's political career.
Casey DeSantis during a rally in support of her husband in 2018. Photo: Sun Sentinel
In fact, as his closest adviser — who some even call the co-governor — the two-for-one political package they are forming is closer to the team of Hillary and Bill Clinton than to the Trumps. She interviews candidates for his staff. When Hurricane Yan wreaked havoc in the state in September, they walked through the wreckage in identical outfits. To his sometimes wooden image and behavior, she adds humanity and warmth.
Last October, Mrs. DeSantis described in a campaign advertisement in a cracked voice how her husband supported her after being diagnosed with breast cancer last year, through agonizing chemotherapy and raising their children when she couldn't . It was a huge success. Now she is in remission.
Such media skills are not surprising. After being raised in middle class in Ohio and earning a university degree in economics, Mrs. DeSantis (née Black) moved to Florida to become a television personality, and her ability to tell simple, powerful stories about normal people became the foundation of the couple's family life. political strategy. These days, when Ron announces politics, she supports it on social media, describing why «mommy of 5, 4, and 2». it works for them. Without her, few would have imagined that he would become governor, let alone become a hot tip for the White House. Together they are formidable.
When Ron announces a policy, Casey supports it on social media. Photo: Icon SportswireThere is a long way to go. Trump's lead among Republican voters is colossal. But many observers believe his recent suffering, including his arrest over a 2016 silence money payment to a porn star, dealt a death blow to his chances of winning the general election (even if they may have boosted his popularity among his supporters). something that Mr. DeSantis is likely to point out to primary voters.
On top of that, the Democrats' attack on «Maga [Make America Great Again] extremists» proved highly effective, with swing voters worried, in particular, by landmark anti-abortion rulings by Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices. Suddenly, a new calculation is emerging that Trump's candidacy in next year's election will be music not to GOP strategists but to Democrats.
Mr. Trump, of course, is unlikely to give up. And, as Daniel McCarthy notes, “If anyone can create a miracle in the future, it is [Trump]. He is still the most charismatic [republican figure] and is able to gather more people across the country than any other contender. He will also be very annoying in any major fight.»
Mr. DeSantis' best strategy, according to Mr. McCarthy, is to avoid such a confrontation and let Mr. Trump speak. «If it doesn't pick up momentum and it looks like the Republicans are going to lose in 2024, DeSantis could come to the rescue.»
Mr. Trump is definitely excited. The giveaway is an insult he has begun directing at his former protégé. Previous rivals have been called «False Ted Cruz» and «Little Marco Rubio». Now he's lashing out at the man he's started calling «DeSanctimonious».
“I [could] tell you some not-so-flattering things about him,” the last president said of a man who could very well be the next president. “I know more about him than anyone else, with the possible exception of his wife.
It took only four years to go from approval to threat. But Mr. DeSantis may come to the conclusion that if he wants to get to the very top, he needs to listen to his wife more, and Mr. Trump less.
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