With Covid’s death count coverage consuming New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and a pandemic recall effort haunting California Governor Gavin Newsom, Republicans are embracing DeSantis as an example of the red state, pointing to rates of Covid’s deaths, vaccinations and unemployment in the most populous blue states.
“Ron DeSantis is having a moment with conservatives,” said Josh Holmes, one of the top advisers to Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell. “Part of it is that the liberals tried to launch it in the yin-and-yang comparison with Cuomo … It is political and it is partly stylistic, the way he deals with the news media and his workers’ appeal.”
Early in the pandemic, Newsom and Cuomo won national acclaim for their treatment of the pandemic, while DeSantis was criticized for their more focused approach to the economy and laissez-faire – an approach closely aligned with Donald Trump’s response to the Covid-19 crisis. Conservatives are now enjoying the contrast and presenting DeSantis as an example of effective governance.
But it is the struggle at DeSantis that has cheered conservatives, said Holmes, pointing to a recent press conference that DeSantis held to announce a proposal to crack down on Big Tech where, when accusing the media of having double standards, he told a reporter in a point that “you can buzz on my leg, but don’t tell me it’s raining”.
“A Republican saying this at a news conference is like an injection of adrenaline to conservative bases,” said Holmes. “The reaction was ‘Wow!’ He really said that! “
DeSantis is still relatively unknown among the broad base of Republican voters, according to the first nationwide primary polls of the 2024 Republican race shared privately with Politico. In a hypothetical race against a crowded field, DeSantis is in the middle of single digits, well behind Texas Senator Ted Cruz and former Vice President Mike Pence, who has received about a third of the primary vote now.
In Florida, recent polls of Republicans show that he has favorable net ratings higher than Donald Trump – remarkable discoveries in a populous battle state where the former president has just won by the most margin of any presidential candidate since 2004 These figures also suggest that DeSantis is more popular than the state’s two senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, both with presidential ambitions as well.
“He flies by instinct, not by instrument. He’s a natural, ”said Ryan Tyson, a leading Republican researcher whose recent research for a private client, shared with POLITICO, showed DeSantis outperforming Trump in popularity among Florida Republicans.
A loner with few close allies – and who doesn’t have the style of patting a retail politician on the back – DeSantis doesn’t have a paid researcher or political adviser.
For a Republican Party base that wants Republicans to fight the media, face liberals and challenge scientific experts, DeSantis is setting the pace, according to one of the country’s top Republican researchers, Tony Fabrizio, who worked for Trump and DeSantis in 2020 and 2016, respectively.
“Any serious handicapper would have to put DeSantis on the first level for 2024. And the first level is not that big,” he said. Fabrice places the governor in the same category as Pence and Cruz, although they are much better known at the moment.
But Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), A former governor who is considering whether to run against DeSantis, said the governor needs to answer for hiding Covid data to align with Trump’s White House version.
“The fact is, 30,000 of our Florida colleagues have died and that is nothing to brag about,” said Crist.
The DeSantis government recently refused to release data on a new Covid strain that is at the center of a travel restriction dispute with the White House.
In response to his critics, DeSantis counter-accused them of elevating the work of a “conspiracy theorist” who publishes false information on the number of deaths in Florida. He struggled with reporters over the state’s mask use and vaccination efforts. And he also notes that his resistance to shutting down beaches was not the disaster predicted by critics, the predictions of crowded hospitals never happened across the state, and schools have operated without dissemination across the community (although a teachers union sued him for opening schools ), and he boasts that he was one of the first governors to reserve vaccines for people over 65.
DeSantis is also quick to note that Florida’s death rate is 27, below all major blue states except California, where deaths have been increasing at a faster rate in recent weeks, according to the CDC.
“What we show in Florida is that you need to lead. I have a lot of strokes. A lot of that was BS, frankly, ”DeSantis told POLITICO after a recent event in Miami. “We lead schools. We started putting people back to work. We wouldn’t have had a Super Bowl [in Tampa] if it weren’t for me. “
DeSantis attacked “the national media and all these people who call themselves ‘experts’ … Everyone said that Florida would be the worst. But Covid’s mortality is lower than the national average per capita. “
“Our economy is better than the national average,” he said, referring to Florida’s unemployment rate, a booming housing market and higher-than-expected tax revenues.
Asked whether negative press coverage fueled his popularity among Republicans because so many conservatives are wary of the media, DeSantis responded with certainty.
“100 percent,” he replied with a sly laugh. “100 percent.”
DeSantis brought criticism about a photo of him without a mask while talking to someone in a box at the Tampa stadium during the Super Bowl. “How the hell am I going to get a beer with a mask on? Come on, ”DeSantis joked with POLITICO. “I had to watch the Bucs win.”
DeSantis’ appeal was evident at a recent Republican rally in the Houston area, where the the mere mention of DeSantis’ name generated applause while the crowd was essentially silent at the mention of their own Republican governor, Greg Abbott. None of the governors were at the event.
“If they are not saying Trump in 2024, they are saying DeSantis. And more and more are saying DeSantis, ”said a Republican Texas official, who did not want to be on record playing a potential rival to Abbott.
JoAnn Fleming, a Texas conservative and executive director of the Grassroots America group, said Abbott’s policies were too harsh with “family stores, but leave Big Box stores open … that irritates Texans.”
As a result, she said, Republicans are turning more to potential candidates like DeSantis and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.
In Ohio, Senate candidate and former state treasurer Josh Mandel last week praised DeSantis instead of his state’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, whose heavier hand managing Covid has angered many Republicans about him. And in New York, as the scandal engulfs Cuomo, veteran Republican strategist Jessica Proud said she also raised DeSantis further.
“Republicans have observed how he has behaved with the media and have an effective and intelligent way to react,” she said. “It is not so much Trump’s boldness in terms of tweeting and personal attacks. But it is strong and is on the attack. “
At the Iowa nation’s first, Republican Party chairman Jeff Kaufmann said he saw an increase in unrest over DeSantis – so did former South Carolina Republican Party chairman Matt Moore in his home state. Moore said that while former governor Nikki Haley is still one of the first clear favorites to win the southern primaries, DeSantis’ rise is unmistakable.
“Republicans seem to want Trump to be done with attention to detail and a real political agenda,” said Moore.
And they want the more open economy too, said Jim Brulte, a former California Republican Party president and state senator.
“Disneyland is not open here. But Disney World is open in Florida. I went to Florida. I went to Disney and didn’t buy Covid, ”said Brulte.
“Whenever the mainstream media attacks someone on our side unfairly, you know that he or she can be a threat,” said Brulte. “DeSantis didn’t croak people like the New York governor did with his policies, but you wouldn’t know about it in the national media.”