DeSantis Dominates in Winning Second Term
TAMPA --- Gov. Ron DeSantis easily won a second term Tuesday and further cemented his conservative imprint on the state, amid growing speculation that he will run for the White House in two years.
His 20-point victory margin was the largest in the governor's race since Bob Graham won re-election in 1982.
With First Lady Casey DeSantis at his side, DeSantis appeared before a boisterous crowd at the Tampa Convention Center and said, “I have fought the good fight,” while touting Florida’s stance against federal directives.
“And so today, after four years, the people have delivered their verdict: Freedom is here to stay,” DeSantis said to a roar of cheers.
DeSantis. who ran for re-election with Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nunez, said “we reject woke ideology” and that “while our country flounders due to failed leadership in Washington, Florida is on the right track.”
“I believe that the survival of the American experiment requires a revival of true American principles. Florida has proved that it can be done,” DeSantis said. “We offer a ray of hope that better days still lie ahead.”
Democratic challenger Charlie Crist gave a roughly two-minute concession speech to a small crowd of supporters at the Carillon Park Hotel in his hometown of St. Petersburg.
“We were the underdog from the minute I entered this race 18 months ago. I knew we would be outspent. I knew we would not have as many television ads. But you know me. I am an optimist. I love Florida,” Crist, a former Republican governor who later was elected as a Democrat to Congress, said in a prepared statement. “Together, we stood up for our democracy and our freedoms, and we treated everyone with dignity and respect. I am very proud of that --- and you should be too.”
Lisa Straehley, executive director of the Sawgrass Progressives political-action committee, said Democrats need to “try something a little bit different” to motivate voters.
“I’m definitely disappointed. Obviously, we would have liked tonight to have gone better,” Straehley, who was at Crist’s election-night party, said. “But we knew months and months ago that this was going to be a tough year.”
-- Jim Turner and Ryan Dailey, News Service of Florida
Rubio Routs Demings in U.S. Senate Race
MIAMI --- Cruising to re-election on Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio defeated challenger Val Demings in a statewide “red” wave as Republicans bulldozed Democrats up and down the ballot.
Addressing a packed room of supporters Tuesday evening at the Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon, Rubio said Democrats were unable to connect with working- and middle-class voters.
“The people who make this country great have been forgotten and have been left behind," Rubio said.
"After tonight, the Republican Party will never be the same, and that's a great thing for America, because this is a party made up of people from every color, every race, every ethnicity, men, women --- yes men and women, that exists,” Rubio said, making a reference to transgender people. “You know what we call people who are Black, white, Hispanic, Asian, men, women, come from other countries? You know what we call them in Florida? We call them Americans."
Demings, conceding the race at an election-watch party in Orlando, said that, while “the election may be over, there are dreams that are still alive.”
“So, Florida, I tell you tonight that I am not tired, I am not afraid,” she said. “I believe in you, and in our ability to change the world. And though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, together we are going to fight for our democracy and for the American dream.”
n his first term in Washington, Rubio’s emphasis on policy contributed to his inclusion in a bipartisan group of senators known as the “Gang of Eight” who crafted a comprehensive immigration bill in 2013. The measure failed to gain traction.
But Rubio has pivoted to the right since his re-election in 2016, after he bowed out of a race for president.
During the presidential campaign, Rubio pilloried then-candidate Donald Trump as “reckless” and dangerous and warned that he would “do damage to America” if elected.
As he vied for a third term in Washington this year, however, Rubio embraced the former president. Trump held a rally for Rubio in the closing days of the campaign.
“You’re going to re-elect the wonderful, the great friend of mine Marco Rubio … to the United States Senate and you are going to re-elect Ron DeSantis as your governor,” Trump told supporters at the Miami-Dade County fairgrounds on Sunday.
Demings, who was elected to the U.S. House 2016, tried to gain traction with voters by emphasizing her 27-year law-enforcement career, pushing back against a “defund the police” label that Republicans stamped on Democrats over the past few years.
The Senate opponents clashed on the issue during their sole debate of the campaign, with Rubio painting Demings as an “extremist” on abortion rights.
Demings, 65, couldn’t overcome a plethora of issues to defeat Rubio, whose political clout could be ascending if Republicans take control of the Senate. But perhaps an even bigger obstacle for Demings was that she’s a member of the party in power in a midterm election, when “the sitting president usually gets the credit or the blame, whether it’s their fault or not,” Florida Atlantic University political science professor Kevin Wagner told The News Service of Florida recently.
Demings “out-campaigned Marco Rubio every day of this race,” Diaz said.
“As the daughter of a maid and a janitor who rose to lead the Orlando police department and represent her community in Congress, Chief Demings has never shied away from a tough fight. She has spent her entire career working to make Florida a better place and we're counting on her to keep fighting,” Diaz said.
-- Dara Kam and Tristan Wood, News Service of Florida
