As the dust settled from Nov. 3’s midterm election, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters that it would be several years before Republicans would regain the political control they won two years ago, and they ultimately had only themselves to blame.
Out of the 10 largest states in the Union, Florida was the only one that emerged from the midterms with its GOP control intact from the governor and attorney general to the majorities in the state House and state Senate, albeit losing some seats to Democrats. The Sunshine State went into Nov. 3 with 20 out of 28 Congressional seats held by Republicans, and those 20 seats remained. Republican Ashley Moody also retained her seat in the Senate.
Elsewhere, DeSantis specifically lamented his party’s historic loss in Texas, which saw a Senate seat, the governorship, the attorney general, and four Supreme Court Justices go blue. He expressed concern about the party’s future nationally, specifically if Texas was lost as an electoral anchor.
“If you go over the whole generation, no one holds a candle on the Republican side to the Lone Star State,” he said. “Not only did they lose a very highly publicized U.S. Senate race, they lost everything.”
Ultimately, though, he said that these election results were votes against the Republicans in Washington, rather than votes for Democratic policies. He pointed out that nationwide, some conservative matters like tax cuts and voter ID measures were in demand from voters.
He criticized Republicans in Washington and Tallahassee for not capitalizing on key issues from releasing the Epstein files and forbidding elected officials from trading stocks while in office to tech issues like how to handle data centers and flock cameras. He specifically chastised state House Republicans for not passing a proposed AI Bill of Rights.
“You know, four years ago we were in the peak woke era,” he said. “It alienated a lot of people, rightfully so. It alienated me. So we were fighting back against that. Well, now the issues are different, and Republicans, it seemed like on some of the ads I was seeing with how much money they were spending, they really were fighting yesterday’s battles.”
This is a developing news story and will be updated.
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