DeSantis: I’ve only just begun

FLORIDA governor Ron DeSantis was last night hailed as the ‘future’ of the Republican Party after winning re-election by a landslide.

The ultra-conservative populist beat Democrat Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points for the state’s governorship, 15 points more than Donald Trump won the state in 2020.

During his victory speech Mr DeSantis said that he had ‘only begun the fight’ in a clear reference to his White House aspirations.

His supporters cheered: ‘Two more years! Two more years!’ in reference to the 2024 US presidential election. Mr DeSantis’ victory at Tuesday’s midterms sets him up as a rival to Mr Trump’s bid for the Republican candidacy in 2024 – and the two already have a testy relationship. Mr Trump only endorsed Mr DeSantis at the last minute, yet in his victory speech Mr DeSantis made no reference to the former president.

In his speech Mr DeSantis said that he had turned Florida into ‘promised land’ with his refusal to bow to liberal ideas.

He said: ‘Thank you for honouring us with a win for the ages.

‘We have embraced freedom, we have maintained law and order, we have protected the rights of parents, we have respected our taxpayers and we reject woke ideology.

‘We’ve got so much more to do and I have only begun to fight’. At 44, Mr DeSantis is far younger than Mr Trump, who is 76 and would be nearly 80 by the time he took office for a second time.

And unlike Mr Trump, Mr DeSantis now has a near-perfect electoral record.

As the mid-term results came in, Sarah Matthews, a former Trump deputy press secretary, called Mr DeSantis the ‘future’ of the Republican Party who would be a ‘formidable opponent’ for Joe Biden.

Mark McKinnon, a former senior adviser to George W Bush, told CNN ‘a lot of Republicans’ were admiring Mr DeSantis, adding: ‘A lot of people are saying it’s time to put Trump in the rear view mirror’.