Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who did well in Tuesday’s midterm elections, may be the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.
16:45•Updated 16:46
US Republicans fared worse than expected in the congressional midterm elections. Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis however, won the crushing reading and immediately rose to the top of the presidential speculations.
These four things tell you from which settings DeSantis could start to seek the office of president in the 2024 elections.
1. Trump senses danger in DeSantis
Former President Donald Trump has started to bully DeSantis, who threatens his presidential dreams.
Ron DeSantis is the second most popular potential presidential candidate among Republicans Donald Trump’s after.
If the primaries were held now, one in three or four Republicans would vote for DeSantis, while about half would vote for Trump, pollster The fivethirtyeight website tells. (you switch to another service)
Trump hinted menacingly on Tuesday that he knows things about DeSantis that no one knows except perhaps his wife. In the past, he has called DeSantis by the mocking name DeSanctimonius, meaning hypocrite.
Neither politician has yet registered for the race. According to media reports, Trump plans to announce his candidacy next week.
Primary elections will be held in early 2024 and presidential elections in November 2024.
2. DeSantis is a fringe Republican
DeSantis appears more restrained than Trump, but their politics are much the same.
DeSantis is vehemently opposed to the conscious Democratic left, which he calls the woke crowd.
Florida, under DeSantis’ leadership, has banned teachers from teaching about homosexuality in schools and banned hormone treatments for transgender children.
DeSantis likes to organize stunts that bring media attention, BBC says (you switch to another service). In the fall, he flew a group of Venezuelan asylum seekers from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard, an elite area favored by Democrats in Massachusetts.
DeSantis has not directly disputed the 2020 election results, as Trump has, but has ordered officials to investigate the alleged fraud.
During the pandemic, DeSantis became known as an opponent of corona measures. He dismantled the corona restrictions in Florida already in the spring of 2020, because he considered them to be against civil liberties.
3. Elite schools have grown rapidly in politics
DeSantis’ political career only began ten years ago.
44-year-old Ron DeSantis was born in Jacksonville, Florida. He studied history at Yale University and law at Harvard. Before his political career, he worked as a naval lawyer.
He was elected in 2012 as a member of the House of Representatives from Florida. In 2018, he became the governor of Florida. In the primaries, he won with the support of the more moderate Republican Donald Trump.
Ron DeSantis’ spouse is Casey DeSantis, a 42-year-old former news reporter and television host. The couple has three children.
4. Huge popularity can bring a lot of money and supporters
DeSantis won the Florida gubernatorial election in a landslide, which brings a boost.
Elections in Florida are usually very tight, as Democrats and Republicans are about equally popular.
However, DeSantis won the gubernatorial election by nearly 20 percentage points over his Democratic opponent.
On the other hand, many of the candidates supported by Trump fared poorly.
In the Republican Party, a discussion immediately began about whether DeSantis would be a better candidate than Trump in the presidential election. If DeSantis runs, he may very well get behind him some wealthy and big-name supporters.
It is still open, however, whether DeSantis wants to challenge his former patron.
Trump has defeated virtually all of his Republican challengers over the years. Many careers have ended because of Trump’s humiliation.
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Sources: AP, AFP, Reuters