With a number of Covid deaths disguising New York government consumer Andrew Cuomo and a recall effort related to the pandemic haunting the California government, Gavin Newsom, embraces Republican DeSantis as a example of a red state, and indicates the number of deaths, vaccinations, and unemployment in Covid the most populous blue states.
“Ron DeSantis has a moment with conservatives,” said Josh Holmes, a top adviser to Senate leader Mitch McConnell. ” Part of this is liberals who tried to throw it out in the yin-and-yang comparison with Cuomo … It’s policy and partly stylish, the way he handles the news media and his blue collar. ‘
Early in the pandemic, Newsom and Cuomo received national praise for their handling of the pandemic, while DeSantis was praised for its more economical and laissez-faire approach – one that now joins Donald Trump’s response to the Covid-19 crisis. Conservatives now enjoy the contrast and cite DeSantis as an example of effective government.
But it is the struggle in DeSantis that has fueled conservatives, Holmes said, pointing out at a recent press conference that DeSantis held to announce a proposal to cage Big Tech, where he accused the news media of double standards. points out that “you can whistle on my leg, but do not tell me it’s raining.”
“A Republican who says that during a press conference it’s like a shot of adrenaline for the conservative grassroots level,” Holmes said. ‘The response was’ Wow! “He actually said it! ‘
According to early nationwide primary polls of the Republican race in 2024, DeSantis is still relatively unknown among the broad base of IDP voters. In a hypothetical race against an overcrowded field, DeSantis is in the mid-singles, far behind Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Vice President Mike Pence, who currently receive about a third of the primary vote. .
In Florida, recent Republican polls show him with a higher net favorable rating than Donald Trump – striking findings in a populated battlefield where the former president has just won by the largest margin of any presidential candidate since 2004. The numbers also indicate that DeSantis is more popular. as the state’s two senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, who both also have presidential ambitions.
“He flies by instinct, not by instrument. He is a natural, “said Ryan Tyson, a leading Republican pollster. The recent survey for a private client, shared with POLITICO, showed that DeSantis showed Trump’s popularity among Republicans in Florida.
A loner with a few close allies – and the lack of backlash from a retail politician – DeSantis does not have a poll or paid political consultant.
For a GOP base that wants Republicans to fight the news media, confront liberals and defy scientific experts, DeSantis is beating its progress, according to one of the country’s leading Republican polls, Tony Fabrizio, who in 2020 for both Trump and DeSantis worked. and 2016 respectively.
“Any serious handicapper should place DeSantis in the first one for 2024. And the first one is not big,” he said. Fabrizio places the governor in the same class as Pence and Cruz, although they are currently much better known.
But Representative Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), A former governor considering whether he wants to run against DeSantis, said the governor should respond to hide Covid data to match the Trump White House.
“The fact is, 30,000 of our fellow Floridians have died, and that’s nothing to brag about,” Crist said.
Recently, DeSantis’ administration refused to release information about a new Covid tribe that is at the center of a travel restrictions dispute with the White House.
In response to his critics, DeSantis accused them of elevating the work of a “conspiracy theorist” who publishes. false information about Florida’s mortality rates. He fought with reporters over wearing a mask and vaccinating the state. And he also notes that his resistance to beach closures was not the disaster critics predicted; the predictions of overwhelming hospitals never occurred across the country and schools operate without community distribution (although a teachers’ union sued him for opening schools), and he boasts that he was one of the first governors to provide vaccines for older than 65 years old.
DeSantis also quickly notes that Florida’s death rate is 27th, among every major blue state except California, where deaths have been rising faster in recent weeks, according to the CDC.
“What we’re shown in Florida is that you have to lead. I got a lot of setbacks. A lot of it was BS, to be honest, “DeSantis told POLITICO after a recent meeting in Miami. “We led schools. We led to putting our people back to work. We would not have had a Super Bowl [in Tampa] if it were not for me. ”
DeSantis has washed out ‘the national media and all these people who are self-anointed’ experts’ … They all said Florida would be the worst. But Covid mortality rate is less than the national average per capita. ”
“Our economy is better than the national average,” he said, referring to Florida’s unemployment rate, a booming real estate market and higher-than-expected tax revenues.
Asked if the negative press coverage fueled his popularity among Republicans because so many conservatives distrust the media, DeSantis responded with certainty.
“100 percent,” he replied laughing. “100 percent.”
DeSantis has criticized a photo of him not wearing a mask while chatting with someone in a skybox at Tampa Stadium during the Super Bowl. “How the hell would I be able to drink a beer with a mask? Come on, ”DeSantis joked with POLITICO. “I had to watch the Bucs win.”
DeSantis’ appeal appears at a recent Republican rally in Houston where the mere mention of DeSantis’ name led to cheers while the crowd was essentially silent at the mention of their own GOP governor, Greg Abbott. No governor was present at the event.
“If they do not say Trump in 2024, they will say DeSantis. And more and more, DeSantis says, “said a Texas Republican, who did not want to be on record to play a potential Abbott rival.
JoAnn Fleming, a conservative and executive director of the Grassroots America group in Texas, said Abbott’s policies are too harsh for ‘mom and pop stores, but leave the Big Box stores open … it’s rubbing Texans wrong. ‘
As a result, she said, Republicans are pushing more for potential candidates like DeSantis and the South Dakota government, Kristi Noem.
In Ohio, Senate candidate and former state treasurer Josh Mandel said last week praised DeSantis instead of the Republican governor of his state, Mike DeWine, whose heavier administration of Covid has soured many Republicans on him. And in New York, as Cuomo engulfed the scandal, veteran GOP strategist Jessica Proud said it further heightened DeSantis.
“Republicans have looked at how he has dealt with the media, and he has a way of pushing back effectively and intelligently,” she said. “It’s not so much Trump’s brutality in terms of tweets and personal attacks. But it is strong and goes offensive. ”
In the first-in-the-country Iowa, GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann said he noticed an increase in buzz about DeSantis – as did former South Carolina GOP chairman Matt Moore in his homeland. Moore said although former Gov. Nikki Haley is still an early and clear favorite to win the first-in-the-South primary series, DeSantis’ march is unmistakable.
“Republicans apparently want Trumpism done with attention to detail and a real policy agenda,” Moore said.
And they also want the economy to be more open, said Jim Brulte, a former GOP chairman and state senator.
Disneyland is not open here. But Disney World is open in Florida. I’m going to Florida. I went to Disney and did not find Covid, “said Brulte.
“When the mainstream media unfairly attacks someone on our side, you know he or she can be a threat,” Brulte said. “DeSantis did not crow people like the governor of New York did with his policy, but you would not have known it in the national media.”