Among the ashes of the Republican Party’s disappointment in the midterm elections in November 2022, a flame of hope was fanned. While most of the candidates supported by Donald Trump lost their respective elections, missing the opportunity to recover the Senate, Ron DeSantis achieved his re-election as governor of Florida with an overwhelming victory, with 59.4% of the votes.
The party’s reaction was immediate: for the first time in a long time, congressmen, advisors and donors began to openly criticize the former president, attributing to him such poor results, the worst for an opposition party in decades. They began to see in DeSantis a viable alternative to the mud, controversy and despotism of the New York magnate. It seemed like the beginning of the end of the Trumpist page.
His ultra-conservative ideas, his anti-establishment speech and his calmer and more familiar appearance made him the favorite of those who sympathize with Trump’s policies, but are fed up with his controversies. A year later, the balloon has been punctured and the governor is not even assured of second place in the presidential race.
It was an open secret for months, but he didn’t file his candidacy until May of last year, after publishing his memoir (The Courage to Be Free) and earning a nickname coined by Trump, Ron DeSanctimonious – a play on the word “prude.” “, in English–, an honor that the former president only grants to his declared enemies. His campaign began in the worst possible way: he made the expected announcement through the defunct Twitter, in a failed voice conversation with its owner, Elon Musk, marred by technical failures on the platform.
His cover letter: four years of anti-abortion, anti-woke, anti-immigration, anti-China, anti-gay, anti-trans and pro-gun policies from his conservative cabinet in the southern state. His age, 45 years old, and his short political career, barely a decade long – six years in the House of Representatives and four as governor of Florida – distance him from the traditional profile of a presidential candidate. But what really limits his options is the inability to distance himself from Trump, his political father, and the absence of charisma and oratory, of which the former president has plenty.
DeSantis sells himself as a family-oriented and successful man, from humble origins and self-made. On his campaign website, he tells his story as the embodiment of the American dream: “Born in Florida and with blue-collar roots, Ron grew up in Dunedin with his mother, a nurse, and his father, a wiring installer. He studied at the University of Yale, where he was captain of the university baseball team. He also graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he was commissioned as an officer in the US Navy JAG.”
An enviable resume, which he completed serving in the army in Iraq for eight months. Shortly after returning to the United States, he made the leap into politics: he won a seat in the House of Representatives in the 2012 legislative elections and revalidated it in the next two electoral cycles, in 2014 and 2016. At that stage , became one of the founding members of the Freedom Caucus, the most conservative Republican group in Congress, the same one that last October organized a boycott to oust the president of the Lower House, Kevin McCarthy.
Supported and elevated by Trump, in 2018 he ran for governor of Florida and won with a speech aligned with the then president. In a campaign ad, he appeared teaching his children to say “let’s build the wall” and “make America great again,” Trump’s signature slogans.
From the beginning, DeSantis declared war on progressivism and implemented controversial measures against what he calls the “woke agenda.” But his real media breakthrough came with the pandemic, when he turned Florida into a “faucism-free” state, in reference to the American epidemiologist in charge of dealing with the coronavirus, Anthony Fauci. Theirs was one of the last states to impose restrictions and one of the first to lift them, just as the virus hit Florida the hardest.
The US Navy veteran has established himself as a captain general of the so-called culture wars over the last two years. From its state watchtower, it has prohibited the participation of trans women in women’s sports and discussion in classrooms – up to the age of nine – on issues of sexual orientation, it has persecuted the teaching of critical race theory in schools, eliminating books anti-racism of its bookstores, and has signed a law that prohibits abortion after six weeks of gestation and another that allows carrying concealed weapons without a license.
When Disney, one of Florida’s largest companies, criticized such measures, DeSantis launched a legal battle against its self-governance at the giant Orlando theme park. His message is clear: “Florida is where the woke come to die” was his motto in his re-election campaign; “Make America Florida” is his proposal for next November’s elections.
