As pandemic wanes, Ron DeSantis seizes national stage

Toppling DeSantis will be a "tall order" for Democrats. Image via AP.

Florida’s population continues to boom, but many of the state’s new residents are older and come from parts of the country friendlier toward Republicans. Before last November’s presidential election, Republicans had narrowed the registration gap with Democrats to about 117,000. On Election Day four years earlier, Democrats had a 327,000 voter registration lead. Since then, Republicans have continued to gain — with the Democratic advantage now barely over 100,000.

Both sides will try to nationalize the race, partly to draw support from big-money donors from outside the state. For DeSantis, it’s also about raising his national profile.

That of course, probably will become a line of attack for Crist and Fried, who accuse DeSantis of being more interested in pursuing his political ambitions than in tackling the concerns of Floridians.

“Just like our former president, he always takes credit but never takes responsibility,” Crist said when he announced his bid for Governor. In a video hinting at her possible entry into the race, Fried called DeSantis an “authoritarian dictator.”

Appealing to Trump supporters might be smart as the Republican Party deepens its allegiance to the former president, whose shadow will no doubt loom over high-profile races like the one about to unfold in Florida.

During his Pittsburgh visit, DeSantis applauded Trump for recognizing the military and economic threats posed by China and sympathized with him over his battles against social media companies such as Twitter, which banned him from its platform.

The governor is “definitely made efforts to to appeal to the Trump base. The disadvantage to that, of course, is that the former president is so polarizing,” said Kevin Wagner, a political scientist at Florida Atlantic University. ”But in the state of Florida, where the former president did really well, appealing to his base of voters seems like a pretty prudent move.”

DeSantis’ ambitions could become muddled if Trump runs in 2024. That would force DeSantis and other hopefuls to wait it out or begin redefining themselves beyond Trump’s shadow.

Democrats thought the pandemic would be a strong line of attack against DeSantis.

In November, Floridians were about evenly divided about the governor’s handling of the pandemic, with 49% approving and 50% disapproving, according to AP VoteCast. In that same poll, 48% had a favorable opinion of DeSantis while 45% viewed him unfavorably.

But with about 18 months before the November 2022 election, it remains to be seen how the pandemic might play out in the campaign. The pandemic has become a key talking point against what DeSantis called “the militant left.”

“We’ve saved millions of livelihoods from the brunt of lockdowns,” he said in Pittsburgh. “All I can say to any state that has not followed suit: Open your state, open your schools, take off these mask mandates, let people live and thrive.”

While he spent his first years as Florida governor casting himself as a defender of the environment, including the state’s cherished Everglades and imperiled coastlines, and even as a booster for his state’s underpaid teachers, DeSantis has more recently taken a sharper turn to the right.

During Florida’s just-completed legislative session, DeSantis successfully pushed for an “anti-riot” law that countered the Black Lives Matter movement. He won legislation that excoriated social media companies that, the governor charged, censor conservative thought.

On a recent appearance on Fox News — one of many — DeSantis showcased a freshly signed law that tightens voting rules amid unproven claims among Trump followers that Trump was denied a second term because of election irregularities.

“The Governor’s priorities certainly got through, and that can only be good for him,” said Susie Wiles, a Republican strategist who helped Trump win Florida last year and continues to work for him. “What is good for him has proven to be good for the state, which in turn makes his fortunes good going into reelection next year.”