For many Republicans, former US President Donald Trump (2017-2021) is, since the defeat of 2020 for Joe Biden, the party’s choice to try to take the presidency from the Democrats in the election of 2024.
However, in the midterm elections held in the United States on Tuesday (8), an opponent within the party, which was already gaining prominence, gained even more strength: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, from 44 years.
Re-elected to office with almost 60% of the votes, he is one of those responsible for transform the southern state, before a traditional swing state (as American states are called where it is not certain which party will win), into a “pure” republican state.
DeSantis is, alongside of Texan Greg Abbott (also re-elected on Tuesday), the big thorn in Biden’s side among Republican governors. In September, DeSantis sent about 50 immigrants by plane from Texas to the island of Martha’s Vineyard (a well-known resort for millionaires in the state of Massachusetts, where Barack Obama has a mansion ) to protest Biden’s immigration policy.
“A lot of people in Washington and New York were beating their chests when Trump was president, saying how proud they were to be sanctuary jurisdictions,” DeSantis told reporters. era. “The minute a tiny fraction of what border towns have to contend with every day is brought to their doorstep, they go nuts.”
Last year, the Florida government filed lawsuits against the Biden management to question Covid vaccination requirements 19 in companies and in the federal public administration.
In addition to these direct attacks against the president, DeSantis adopted other measures that go against the banners of the Democratic Party. In April, even before the Supreme Court overturned a 1973 ruling that barred US states from legislating abortion as they chose, the Republican governor signed a state law banning the procedure after weeks of pregnancy.
Last year, DeSantis signed a law that vetoes the participation of people who have been through gender transition in female school disputes. Last week, the Florida Board of Medicine, whose members are appointed by the governor, banned such procedures on minors under 18 years. DeSantis also vetoed the approach of sexual orientation and gender identity in early childhood education.
Another law signed by the Florida governor, dubbed the “Stop Woke Act”, prohibits training in public schools, colleges, universities and workplaces that could make someone feel guilty or ashamed of past class actions by people of their race or sex. In August, however, it was suspended by the Judiciary.
Another measure by DeSantis suspended by the Justice was a law of 2021 that imposed fines on social media companies in case of withdrawal of political candidates from the platforms.
The governor of Florida, however, will have difficulties to unseat Trump as the Republican candidate for the presidency two years from now. The former president said on Tuesday that he had voted for DeSantis to be reelected (he has a Florida residence), but in an interview with Fox News, advised him not to run in the party’s primaries.
“I think he would be making a mistake, I think the basewouldn’t like it — I don’t think it would be good for the party,” Trump alleged, who pointed out that if DeSantis ran against him, “I would say things about him that wouldn’t be very flattering, I know more about him than anyone else — except maybe his wife.”
