Ron DeSantis: Florida Is the ‘Blueprint’ Moving Forward

TAMPA, FL - NOVEMBER 08: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis gives a victory speech after defeating
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Hannah Knudsen

Florida should be viewed as the political “blueprint” moving forward, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said on Tuesday after highlighting some of the major victories seen for the Sunshine State after last week’s midterm election, noting that his administration was “bold throughout this whole four years” and the results speak for themselves.

DeSantis avoided attacking former President Donald Trump during the presser, even after facing questions on the former president’s upcoming announcement and “less than flattering” remarks about the governor. Instead, DeSantis said “incoming fire” is just the nature of the job and pointed to the mass Republican victories experienced in Florida last week outside of his own race, where he defeated Democrat Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL) by double digits.

DeSantis deemed the night “the greatest Republican victory in the history of the state of Florida.”

“And it wasn’t just the best governor victory, of course, it was that, but we swept in. We swept in super majorities in the Florida Legislature. We have 85 Republicans out of 120 in our state house, we’ve never had that many before,” he said, noting that the state now has 28 senators out of 40 that are Republicans.

“Never had that many,” he said, praising school board victories as well as congressional gains, as Republicans went from 16 GOP members of the U.S. House from Florida to 20.

While he said there were some successes nationwide, there were also “a lot of disappointments.”

“I think that’s just the reality. It was a hugely underwhelming disappointing performance, especially given that Biden’s policies are overwhelmingly unpopular. People think the country is going in the wrong direction,” he said, contending that people can look to Florida as the blueprint moving forward.

“The one place I think that people can look to as a blueprint is Florida, because what have we done? I mean, you know, we came in at a very close election. In fact, before I became governor, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, all the major races governor and presidential were one point or less for that time,” he said, noting he won his 2018 race by less than a percentage point, coming into a “very, very large diverse swing state.”

“And we led and we were on offense, and we didn’t shy away from big issues. We took on those issues, and we won victory after victory for the people,” he said, noting that it became even more evident after the Chinese coronavirus, as the governor stood against the “Faucian dystopia.”

“We were bold throughout this whole four years, “he said, adding that he won over “people to vote for us who may not be in our party.”

“And that’s really what you need to do. You don’t build, you don’t win by a million and a half votes if you only get your own party. And so what we were able to do, yes, obviously, we got a lot of Republicans turning out because they were supportive, and we appreciate that,” he said, noting that they also won independents by between 15 and 20 points and Hispanics by about 60 percent statewide.

DeSantis also pointed to the historic victory in blue Miami-Dade,

“Miami Dade County,” he said, describing it as the “biggest most urban county in Florida, 70 percent Latino.”

“And not only did we win it for the first time in 20 years, we won by 11 percent. It was a landslide down in Miami-Dade. Not only that, we won Palm Beach County, which has not been won by a Republican governor in almost 40 years, and we were able to win Palm Beach, which people didn’t think was necessarily possible,” DeSantis continued, pointing to victories in Osceola County as well.

“I think that what Florida showed is that, you know, the good policies and the good leadership can reverberate just beyond your little silo, the people that agree with you on everything, you know, we have people coming out to vote for us who may not have voted for Republicans in the past,” DeSantis said. “I think that ultimately is the way forward.”

“I think the other governors who were successful had similar programs. I think some of the others around the country, you had situations where these independent voters aren’t voting for our candidates, even with Biden in the White House and the failures that we’re seeing. That’s the that’s a problem,” he said, identifying Florida, again, as a “blueprint” moving forward.

“And so Florida, I think, really shows the blueprint of what you can do to not only win, but really fundamentally change the overall political terrain in a very strong pro-freedom direction,” he added.

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