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With coverage of the number of Covid deaths consuming New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a pandemic-related recall effort haunting California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Republicans are embracing DeSantis as an example of the red state, pointing to rates deaths, vaccinations and unemployment from Covid in the most populous blue states.
“Ron DeSantis is spending time with the Conservatives,” said Josh Holmes, a top advisor to Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell. “Part of that is that the Liberals tried to present this in the yin-yang comparison with Cuomo … It’s a policy and it’s partly stylistic, the way he handles the news media and his call of blue collar workers.
At the onset of the pandemic, Newsom and Cuomo both received national praise for their handling of the pandemic, while DeSantis was criticized for its more economy-oriented, laissez-faire approach – an approach closely aligned with the Donald Trump’s response to the Covid-19 crisis. Today, the Conservatives appreciate the contrast and see DeSantis as an example of effective governance.
But it was the fight at DeSantis that animated the Tories, Holmes said, referring to a recent press conference hosted by DeSantis to announce a proposal to crack down on Big Tech where, by accusing the media of double standards. , he told a reporter at one point out that “you can whistle on my leg but don’t tell me it’s raining.”
“A Republican saying at a press conference it’s like a rush of adrenaline for the Conservative base,” Holmes said. “The reaction was ‘Wow!’ He really said it!
DeSantis is still relatively unknown among the large GOP voter base, according to the first Republican race national primary polls of 2024 shared privately with Politico. In a hypothetical race against an overcrowded field, DeSantis is in the mid single-digit, well behind Texas Senator Ted Cruz and former Vice President Mike Pence, who has received around a third of the primary votes at present .
In Florida, recent polls of Republicans show him with higher favorable net odds than Donald Trump – notable results in a populated battlefield state where the former president just won by the biggest margin of any candidate. in the presidential election since 2004. These figures also suggest that DeSantis is more popular. than the two state senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, both of whom have presidential ambitions.
“He flies by instinct, not by instrument. It’s only natural, ”said Ryan Tyson, a top Republican pollster whose recent private client poll, shared with POLITICO, showed DeSantis was growing in popularity among Florida Republicans.
Lonely with few close allies – and one who doesn’t have the backward style of a retail politician – DeSantis doesn’t have a paid pollster or political consultant.
For a GOP base that wants Republicans to fight the news media, face liberals and challenge science experts, DeSantis is achieving its goal, according to one of the nation’s top Republican pollsters, Tony Fabrizio, who worked for Trump and DeSantis in 2020 and 2016, respectively.
“Any serious handicapper should place DeSantis number one for 2024. And level one isn’t big,” he said. Fabrizio puts the governor in the same class as Pence and Cruz, although they are much better known at the moment.
But Rep. Charlie Crist (D-Fla.), A former governor who is considering whether to run against DeSantis, said the governor must answer for the Covid data cover-up to align with the House spin White Trump.
“The point is 30,000 of our fellow Floridians have died and that is nothing to brag about,” Crist said.
Recently, the DeSantis administration refused to release data on a new strain of Covid that is at the center of a travel restriction dispute with the White House.
In response to his criticisms, DeSantis counter-accused them of elevating the work of a “conspiracy theorist” who publishes false information on Florida death numbers. He fought with reporters over the wearing of masks and the state’s vaccination efforts. And he also notes that his resistance to beach closures was not what critics of the disaster predicted, forecasts of overwhelmed hospitals never happened statewide, and schools operated without the spread of community (even though a teachers’ union sued him for opening schools), and he boasts that he was among the first governors to set aside vaccines for those over 65.
DeSantis also quickly notes that Florida’s death rate is 27th, below all of the big blue states except California, where deaths have been rising at a faster rate in recent weeks, according to the CDC.
“What we’ve shown in Florida is that you have to lead. I had a lot of reflux. A lot of it was BS, quite frankly, ”DeSantis told POLITICO after a recent event in Miami. “We ran the schools. We got people back to work. We wouldn’t have had a Super Bowl [in Tampa] if it wasn’t for me.
DeSantis swept “the national media and all those people who are self-proclaimed ‘experts’ … They all said Florida would be the worst. But Covid mortality is lower than the national average per capita. “
“Our economy is better than the national average,” he said, referring to Florida’s unemployment rate, a booming real estate market and higher than expected tax revenues.
When asked if negative media coverage fueled his popularity among Republicans because so many conservatives mistrust the media, DeSantis replied with certainty.
“100 percent,” he replied with a knowing laugh. “100 per cent.”
DeSantis slammed a photo of him not wearing a mask as he spoke to someone in a Tampa stadium skybox during the Super Bowl. “How the hell am I going to drink a beer with a mask on?” Come on, ”DeSantis joked to POLITICO. “I had to watch the Bucs win.”
DeSantis’ appeal was evident at a recent Republican rally in the Houston area where the the mere mention of DeSantis’ name drew cheers while the crowd was essentially silent at the mention of their own GOP Governor Greg Abbott. Neither governor was present at the event.
“If they don’t say Trump in 2024, they say DeSantis. And more and more are saying DeSantis, ”said a Republican official from Texas, who did not want to be recorded playing a potential rival to Abbott.
JoAnn Fleming, Texas curator and executive director of Grassroots America, said Abbott’s policies were too tough on “mom and pop stores, but let Big Box stores stay open … which rubs Texans in. the wrong way.
As a result, she said, Republicans are turning more to potential candidates like DeSantis and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.
In Ohio, Senate candidate and former state treasurer Josh Mandel last week praised DeSantis instead of the Republican governor of his state, Mike DeWine, whose heavier hand in managing Covid has soured many Republicans on him. And in New York City, as the scandal engulfed Cuomo, veteran GOP strategist Jessica Proud said he also raised DeSantis.
“Republicans have watched how he behaves with the media, and he has a way of pushing back what is efficient and smart,” she said. “It’s not so much Trump’s brutality in terms of tweets and personal attacks. But it’s strong and offensive.
In Iowa, first in the country, GOP Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said he had noticed an increase in buzz about DeSantis – as did former South Carolina GOP Chairman Matt Moore in his State of origin. Moore said that while former Gov. Nikki Haley is still an early and clear favorite to win the South’s first primary, DeSantis’ rise is undeniable.
“Republicans seem to want Trumpism done with attention to detail and a real political agenda,” Moore said.
And they also want a more open economy, said Jim Brulte, former California GOP chairman and state senator.
“Disneyland is not open here. But Disney World is open in Florida. I went to Florida. I went to Disney and I didn’t have Covid, ”Brulte said.
“Anytime the mainstream news media unfairly attacks someone on our side, you know he or she can be a threat,” Brulte said. “DeSantis didn’t croak people like the New York governor did with his policies, but you wouldn’t have known it from the national media.
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