Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Nov. 15 responded to former President Donald Trump, saying that he’s focused on leading his state.
“One of the things I’ve learned in this job is when you’re leading, when you’re getting things done, you take incoming fire, that’s just the nature of it,” DeSantis said at an unrelated press conference when asked about Trump.
“And yet I think what you learn is, all that’s just noise. And really what matters is, are you leading, are you getting in front of issues, are you delivering results for people, and are you standing up for folks. And if you do that, then none of that stuff matters,” DeSantis said.
“At the end of the day, I would just tell people to go check out the scoreboard from last Tuesday night,” he added later, drawing applause. “The fact of the matter is, it was the greatest Republican victory in the history of the state of Florida.”
Republicans earned strong victories in the gubernatorial race and many other races on the state and federal level in the midterm elections in Florida, with DeSantis, who won by just 0.4 percent in 2018, beating former Rep. Charlie Crist (R-Fla.) by nearly 20 percent.
“At the end of the day, I think people respond to the leadership, they respond to the results,” DeSantis said. “What matters to people is: are you standing up for them, are you leading, and are you getting things done? And we are.”
Both Trump and DeSantis are rumored 2024 presidential contenders. Trump is expected to formally announce his bid on Tuesday night. And the two Republicans supported different candidates in some states, including Colorado, where the anti-Trump Republican Senate candidate Joe O'Dea, backed by DeSantis, lost to Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
Support for DeSantis has grown in the wake of the midterms, which saw Republicans underperform expectations across the country outside of several states like Florida and New York. Some Republicans blame Trump, though a number of others noted he was not on the ballot. Some said DeSantis’s big win portended a strong result if he runs in 2024.
Asked about the midterms, DeSantis said during the briefing that it was, overall, a “hugely underwhelming, disappointing performance,” especially in light of the low approval ratings President Joe Biden has.
DeSantis said Florida can serve as a blueprint, pointing out he barely won in 2018 and that it was known as a swing state for many years.
“We came into a very, very large diverse swing state and we led. We were on offense. We didn’t shy away from big issues, and we won victory after victory for the people of Florida,” DeSantis said.
He noted that he won the vote from independents, women, and Hispanics in large numbers, and secured more votes in traditionally blue counties such as Miami-Dade County.
“What Florida showed is that the good policies and the good leadership can reverberate beyond your little silo of people who agree with you on everything. We had people coming out who may not have voted for Republicans in the past,” he said. “And I think that ultimately is the way forward, and 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 are not voting for our candidates, even with Biden in the White House and the failures we’re seeing.”
