Jesse Scheckner
Republicans nationally had a lackluster Midterm cycle in 2022, flipping just nine seats in the U.S. House while failing to secure a majority in the Senate. The party has to recalibrate if it wants to turn things around by the 2024 Presidential Election, and Gov. Ron DeSantis has recommendations for what needs to be done.
In an interview that aired Thursday on The Charlie Kirk Show, DeSantis detailed three changes he’d like to see.
Stop rewarding ‘the consultant class’
First, he said, the Republican Party must stop “lining the pockets of so many (political) consultants” and instead use much of the money it pays them to instead support strong GOP candidates. Republican campaigns paid more than $186.2 million to consultants during the 2022 election cycle, while Democrats paid consultants $90.6 million — 8.7% and 4.8% of the total spent by each party, respectively, according to OpenSecrets.
Despite paying consultants twice as much as their opponents, Republicans fared only slightly better. That’s evidence a different tack is needed, DeSantis said, citing his landslide re-election victory in November as an example.
“When we ran our election, we had our digital in-house, we’ve got a great fundraising team, we have all this, but we’re not giving commissions to people. We pay them a salary. You do a good job, I want to pay you. I want you to do well,” he said.
“But you can’t have incentives to where the campaigns and the operations are run with an eye to putting more money in the pocket of the consultant class. And obviously, they’re very powerful in D.C., so I think if we (should) get away from that, have more transparency.”
Win back the trust of the GOP voter base
DeSantis, who voiced support Thursday for former Donald Trump adviser Harmeet Dhillon to supplant Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel, said the GOP must work to regain the faith of its voter base.
He pointed to his success in building fervent support among his base in Florida since 2018, when he won by a razor-thin, 32,463-vote margin. Just over four years later, he’s one of the front-runners for the Republican nomination for President in 2024 (though he hasn’t yet announced plans to run).
“One of the reasons why we did well (in Florida) is because our base voters knew, ‘Governor’s going to do the right thing. I trust that he’s got our back.’ There’s not a lot of trust between the grassroots and the RNC up in D.C.,” he said.
That lack of organizational trust is evident during fundraising, he continued.
“(When) I’d raise money for the Republican Party of Florida, we would do good. But if I did a fundraising for me instead of for the party, we’d raise much more money because they trust the people that they see doing the job.
“When you start talking about Republican Party apparatus, a lot of our voters are like, ‘Yeah, I don’t know about that.’ So, we need to restore that trust, because ultimately you want to have an organization that’s going to be able to help in a lot of these key races.”
Play the game by the rules that exist, not the ones you wish existed
If Republicans nationwide want to win like Republicans in Florida, DeSantis said, they’ve got to pass laws to crack down on disadvantageous election tactics.
That means eliminating things like “ballot harvesting” — where one person or group collects and delivers absentee ballots for others — and massive out-of-state contributions he calls “Zuckerbucks,” a reference to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s donation of $419 million in grants to help fund cash-strained election departments across the country during the pandemic.
Both are now illegal in the Sunshine State thanks to sweeping new election restrictions lawmakers passed last year. Republicans in every other state should push for the same, DeSantis said. But if it’s still legal and Democrats are doing it, Republicans need to take advantage of the lax rules as well.
“You’ve got to exploit the rules as they exist. So in Nevada, if it’s legal, Republicans need to have a ballot-harvesting operation in these rural counties. I would do Zuckerbucks in these places. I think Zuckerbucks is corrupt as hell, but if it’s legal and the Democrats are doing it, why aren’t we doing it?” he said.
“Fight for whatever election reforms you think matter — and I would say ban ballot harvesting; do all that — but if it’s not banned, you need to do it, because otherwise we’re fighting with one hand tied behind our back.”
20 comments
Dr. Franklin Waters
January 26, 2023 at 8:40 pm
1) Stop being racists
2) Stop being homophobes
3) Stop being fascists
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Joe Corsin
January 26, 2023 at 8:44 pm
Florida is a far right police state. Every crime will be a felony in ten years. Do not pass the county jail…no bond for $200. Straight to prison.. now infamous for gross human rights violations. There will be a cop for every ten people in 20 years thanks to Mini Hitler.
DeSantis/Youngkin2024
January 26, 2023 at 8:57 pm
Based DeSantis, fucc democrats, I hope these marxist lose big in 2024.
Elliott Offen
January 27, 2023 at 9:32 am
He will lose nationally. You will be jailed by your own far right police state. Enjoy idiot.
Hope
January 27, 2023 at 4:57 pm
Older generation won’t be the majority of voters in 24. Younger generations will.
I hope they beat your party up like they got cuaght in an alleyway lol
Mr. Haney
January 30, 2023 at 12:24 pm
You’ll still be a white trash loser.
G. Fardella
January 26, 2023 at 11:05 pm
The more I hear from Governor DeSantis, the more I like him.
Mr. Haney
January 30, 2023 at 12:25 pm
You can’t fix stupid.
Martin Arauxo
January 27, 2023 at 12:50 am
Law and Order, Screw New York and liberal crime waves!!
No
January 27, 2023 at 4:57 pm
Screw Florina gods room waiting room lol
Mr. Haney
January 30, 2023 at 12:26 pm
There is far more crime in Florida than there is in NY comrade.
tom palmer
January 27, 2023 at 1:01 am
The GOP harvested ballots from nursing homes for decades. It only became an issue when Democrats used the strategy for other voting groups. Out of state political donations? Are you kidding? Look at DeSantis slush fund if you can find it since Citizens United secrecy kicked in.
Brenda L Rose
January 27, 2023 at 5:01 am
Where do you get off changing what people can learn I’m not a child and I don’t want my grandchildren to be told what they can learn about history. Like it or not, it’s history and I want my children and grandchildren to learn from history so please don’t take that away to make children feel that life is so wonderful. Then the real world hits in and these caterered children are lost. Teach history as history is, like it or not, that’s what our history is. What are you thinking? If we make everything where everyone is comfortable, then all is fine? No!!! Don’t forget, those that choose to forget history will tend to repeat it!! Do you not understand this? Do not be the authoritarian about what we can do because that throws democracy right out the window. Think about what you’re doing and not the power you are hoping to possess.
Elliott Offen
January 27, 2023 at 9:35 am
Yeah he got got up there with Ashli “Fentanyl Halloween Candy” Moody n tried to scare everyone into voting neo nazi. Far right Kabuki Theatre at it’s finest. Enjoy the misery that these pukes bring your children and the State of Florida over the next 20 years. Also downward economic mobility.
Walt
January 27, 2023 at 9:53 am
A black AP class is not the end of the world
The circular(sp) needs to be approved by the state ed department. Then schools need to post it and the lesson plans online . Then a parent needs to be in the classroom
Why all this you ask..
Because our education system is corrupt and for a large part is woke and racist.
History is generally viewed from the eye of the beholder so frequently is not objectively
taught
Whatever
January 27, 2023 at 4:59 pm
You say woke so much it’s lost it’s meaning coming from you lol
Elliott Offen
January 27, 2023 at 8:36 pm
👆On Fentanyl Halloween candy.
It’s them
January 29, 2023 at 4:45 pm
You know after the crack epidemic in the 80s no one cared. Now I watch all these Republicans die from from fentanyl and I realize something.
I don’t either lol
nail
January 30, 2023 at 7:47 pm
A recent survveyt of 13 Desantis disciples. Funny, not one of them answered correctly. All thought it was something bad and worst, when Desamtis ‘ attorney under other answered the Judges question “what is WOKE” :Ryan Newman, responded that the term means “the belief there are systemic injustices in American society and the need to address them.”
The Judge “why would anyone not want to be woke”
Only the MAGAts that do not know that every law in FL comes from the Authoritarian From Hungary Victor Orban. Desantis cannot produce a law, Orbsn does. Desantis spies and pastes each and every law that Victor Orban does.
Plenty of info and even a interview withe Desantis registered Russian press person who said: “About the Don’t Say Gay law, it was in fact modeled in part on what Hungary did last summer,” Rod Dreher, a senior editor at the American Conservative magazine, said during a panel interview in Budapest. “I was told this by a conservative reporter who … said he talked to the press secretary Christine Pushaw of Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida and she said, ‘Oh yeah, we were watching the Hungarians, so yay Hungary.’”
(When I asked DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw about a possible connection, she initially denied knowing of Hungarian inspiration for Florida’s law. After I showed her the quote from Dreher, she did not respond further.
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