LAST UPDATE | 9 Nov 2022

FLORIDA GOVERNOR RON DeSantis, who has been tipped as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024, has been handsomely re-elected in the Sunshine State. 

DeSantis returns to Governor’s Mansion in Tallahassee with 59% of the vote after seeing off the Democratic challenger Charlie Crist, according to results from the New York Times.

The incumbent’s most impressive feat was winning Miami-Dade County by a margin of 11%, which Hillary Clinton won by 30 points in the 2016 presidential election. 

DeSantis is the first Republican candidate for governor to win the liberal county in two decades.

The governor’s biggest margin of victory was 80% in Lafayette County, although this is the second least populous county in the state.

In an impressive night for Republicans in Florida Marco Rubio was also re-elected, getting 57.7% of votes in the race for the Senate.

Earlier this morning DeSantis gave a victory speech, saying that “the people have delivered their verdict.”

“Freedom is here to stay,” he continued.

“We reject woke ideology, we fight the woke in the legislature, we fight the woke in the schools, we fight the woke in the corporations. We will never ever surre der to the woke mo. Florida is where woke goes to die.”

While DeSantis’ win was widely expected, returns suggested the margin was greater than had been anticipated.

DeSantis has built his profile around culture war issues and in many ways has been seen as Trump’s heir apparent. 

DeSantis has spent months criticising gender transition treatments for adolescents.

During a televised debate last month, DeSantis claimed that “a lot of the dysphoria resolves itself by the time they become adults” and compared gender treatments to “chemically castrating” teenagers.

DeSantis also signed a 15-week abortion ban into law earlier this year, joining a nationwide push by conservatives to restrict reproductive rights.

In another appeal to hardline conservative politics, he sent dozens of undocumented migrants to wealthy Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts — a move that sparked a class action lawsuit against him in the Democratic-led state.

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While DeSantis has not declared his candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, he is clearly keeping his options open, refusing to commit to serving out his full second term as governor.

Trump has criticised DeSantis during recent appearances, labelling him as “Ron DeSanctimonious” during a weekend campaign stop. 

Before the results came in Trump upped the ante against DeSantis further, suggesting that he would release information about the governor should be choose to run. 

“I think he would be making a mistake. I think the base would not like it,” Trump told reporters, adding

“If he did run, I will tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering. I know more about him than anybody other than perhaps his wife, who is really running his campaign.”

- With reporting by © – AFP 2022