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Prior to the midterm elections, the discussion revolved around the size and power of the so-called “red wave”. However, on November 8, it did not reach the U.S. as a country, but only impacted the coast of Florida. There, both Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio won by huge margins. The governor recently explained why this political phenomenon did not materialize.
At a press conference, the Sunshine State governor was asked about the GOP’s performance in the midterms. Far from dodging the question, he jumped right into the issue and asserted that the main reason was that not all Republicans used the same campaign strategy.
“You know, we assumed we were going to end up with like, 245 House members, we’re at 222 it looks like, which is a huge underperformance. And so, you know, the question is, is, you know, why did that happen? Because the way these midterms work, someone gets elected to the White House, and then there’s a reaction the other way,” he said.
“Especially when people are pessimistic about the direction of the country, they have a negative view on Biden, usually those voters are going to want to vote for people that are offering an alternative. And yet some of those voters throughout the country, not in Florida, but throughout the country, even though they disapproved of Biden, even though they disapproved of the direction of the country. They still didn’t want to vote for some of our candidates,” DeSantis added.
The governor, who recently announced the release of his autobiography, said that many Republicans did not use his strategy in Florida, which focused on leadership, not kowtowing, being willing to fight politically uncomfortable battles, in short, focused on “producing results.”
According to DeSantis, if you’re able to have that kind of thing on your record, it “ends up attracting more people to want to be on your team and so that was not something that was happening throughout the rest of the country.”
The “red wave” did reach DeSantis’ Florida
On Tuesday night, November 8, Republicans opened up with the victories of Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio in Florida, leading to the erroneous assumption that these results were going to spread across the country.
Polls in the Senate race showed Rubio winning comfortably by just over 8%. However, his win stretched to 16.4 %, an even larger margin than the Democrats had in Illinois.
DeSantis further stretched the GOP’s lead in Florida, winning by 19.4% in the governor’s race, which was the closest result in such a race in 40 years, when Democrat Bob Graham beat Skip Bafalis by nearly 30%.
Joaquín Núñez es licenciado en comunicación periodística por la Universidad Católica Argentina. Se especializa en el escenario internacional y en la política nacional norteamericana. Confeso hincha de Racing Club de Avellaneda. Contacto: [email protected] // Joaquín Núñez has a degree in journalistic communication from the Universidad Católica Argentina. He specializes in the international scene and national American politics. Confessed fan of Racing Club of Avellaneda. Contact: [email protected]