:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/GE4DANZNGEYS2MBZKQYDAORRHA.jpg)
He is considered the “great winner” of the elections this Tuesday in the United States. A Donald Trump 2.0as some tell him, that he could win back the White House for the Republicans in 2024.
LOOK: United States Election Results 2022 LIVE | Senate, House of Representatives and Governors
Although for this he may have to first overcome Trump himself.
Ron DeSantisthe governor of Florida who jumped into the national discussion for his strong opposition to the controls imposed during the coronavirus pandemic, was re-elected this Tuesday by a wide margin.
The politician, who began his career in 2012 as a representative to Congress, has managed to consolidate the southern state as the second most populous Republican stronghold in the US.
It would seem that his strong views on controversial issues such as gender, teaching racial issues in schools, and abortion have resonated with his constituents, as he has reportedly increased his voter base in almost every demographic.
Just four years ago, DeSantis was victorious as governor by less than half a percentage point.
This Tuesday he defeated Democrat Charlie Christ with more than 59% of the vote against 40.2% and managed to increase his voters among two groups that he lost in the last election: women and Latinos.
And to add more dynamite to your momentumthe politician achieved the feat of dye miami-dade county redthe most populous in Florida, and in which it had been 20 years since a Republican dominated an election.
DeSantis has used his landslide victory to declare himself a defender of freedom and project his image as a politician of strong convictions.
“Florida was a refuge of sanity when the world went crazy. We were the citadel of freedom for the people of this country and, in fact, of the entire world,” he said during a speech in front of his co-religionists while celebrating his victory. this Tuesday.
“We faced attacks, we received blows. We weathered the storms, but we stood firm. We did not back down. We had the conviction to guide us and we had the courage to lead,” he added.
Now there are many analysts and party colleagues who identify him as a potential candidate for the presidency of the United States. With the result of this Tuesday that idea is reinforced, so much so that the former president himself Trumpwho flirts with returning to the political arena, has decided to issue a warning.
“I think I would be making a mistake. I think the voter base would not like it,” said the former president in an interview with Fox News on the same day of the election, before DeSantis’ expected victory was known.
In his particular way of expressing himself, Trump, who promised that on November 15 he will announce an important decision at his home in Mar-A-Lago, also located in Florida, said that he could disclose damaging information about the 44-year-old Florida president. .
“I don’t know if he’s going to run as a candidate. I think if he does run, he could get really hurt. I really think he could get really hurt,” Trump told Fox. “I don’t think it’s good for the party.”
Trump, who delivered a closing speech on Tuesday, praised Florida Republican politicians like Marco Rubio but made no mention of DeSantis’ significant victory.
But what does Ron DeSantis believe? Why has Donald Trump decided to attack him? Where does this politician come from that we will probably be talking about for years to come?
From Yale to the governor’s office
At 44, DeSantis is still considered a relatively new face in US politics.
He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2012. Just six years later, in 2018, after a brief run to become a senator, he became governor.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1978, he studied history at Yale University, where he was captain of the baseball team, and soon after entered Harvard Law School.
During his second year of law school, he was assigned to the legal arm of the US Navy. In that position, he worked with detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison and was also legal counsel to the elite US Navy Seals deployed to Iraq
Although he completed his military service in 2010, Casey’s husband, a local news reporter, continues to serve in the US Navy Reserves.
In 2018, after five years on Capitol Hill, where he helped found the “Freedom Caucus” of far-right conservatives, DeSantis announced his intention to run for governor with the full backing of then-President Donald Trump.
He was sworn in as governor in January 2019.
DeSantis and the pandemic
DeSantis’s first big challenge as governor came in 2020, in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic. By April, he had ordered a statewide shutdown, established hundreds of testing centers and ordered millions of masks, which he said publicly “could prevent infections for the most vulnerable.”
However, in April 2020, DeSantis began lifting the state’s restrictions, and in July, despite soaring virus cases and scathing criticism, he ordered schools to reopen.
“The Covid pandemic is really where he made a name for himself, being someone who defied national knowledge at the time,” Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist, told the BBC.
The things he has done since then have propelled him into a position as one of the most recognizable Republican figures in the country. In March 2022, for example, he signed a bill that activists dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bans discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary schools.
After the United States Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion, DeSantis declared that “the prayers of millions” had been answered.
Since then he has spoken less on the subject. Some have speculated that it is a political calculation designed to balance pressure from conservative elements in the GOP with the views of Florida voters, most of whom are pro-choice.
His critics recently accused him of playing a political trick on migrants, when he arranged to move a group of mostly Venezuelan asylum seekers from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, a liberal vacation enclave in Massachusetts.
“It’s [el caso de los inmigrantes] he was again very proactively inserting himself into a culture war,” said former Republican National Committee spokesman Doug Heye. “He’s willing to play the role of cultural warrior-in-chief.”
Longwell added, for his part, that DeSantis’s battles with the media over his most controversial policies may ultimately be what is propelling him to political stardom.
“The media finds it awful, and he loves that. That’s another thing he learned from Trump. If you get upset with the media, they talk about you a lot, and that helps get your name out there and it helps you with fans and the most loyal.
Why do they consider him Trump’s heir?
So far, DeSantis has shown no intention of running for president in 2024 and has said he is only focused on running Florida.
Still, some polls show DeSantis is now ahead of Trump, at least in Florida, over a possible 2024 showdown, and in a tight race with him nationally.
Just before Tuesday’s election, the rivalry between the two came to light when Trump snubbed DeSantis by not inviting him to a rally in Florida for Sen. Marco Rubio.
At another event in Pennsylvania, Trump referred to him as “Ron De-Sanctimonious,” drawing rebukes from his party.
A day later, however, the former president acknowledged that DeSantis was likely to win, even if he didn’t explicitly endorse it.
Longwell, who conducts focus groups with Trump voters, said DeSantis is “by far the number one name that comes up” when asked who participants would like to see run if Trump doesn’t run for the White House.
While she believes he is “positioning himself” to be a Trump challenger, it is “not clear” that he could win the nomination.
“I’m not sure if DeSantis has the ability to take on Trump head-to-head,” she said. “There are a lot of people talking about him as the future of the Republican Party. But it’s too early to predict that, we’ve never seen it operate on a national stage.”
Source: Elcomercio
I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.
:quality(75)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/elcomercio/BUNML4TQNVHSBOBMY5FC3QEM2M.jpg)
