The Republican Party has essentially belonged to Donald Trump for the last five years. Very few saw this coming. There were many who tried to stop Donald’s unlikely rise to the presidency- including a slew of longtime politicians from his own side of the aisle. Despite all those forces arrayed against him- including a psychotically hostile corporate media establishment, Donald J. Trump managed to become the 45th president of the United States.
Starting in 2016 and for three years, there was so much momentum behind Trump, it seemed certain to his supporters that he would be president for two terms. His Make America Great Again (MAGA) slogan appeared destined to dominate the world of conservative politics for generations to come, in a spiritual shift of Republicanism not seen since the 1980’s with the rise of Ronald Reagan.
Then, the COVID pandemic hit in 2020. Trump lost reelection. Joe Biden is now President, and the GOP faithful are still reeling from Democrats gaining unified control of the legislative and executive branches. Currently, there’s frustration about the lack of effective Republican opposition. Nobody is quite sure whether Donald Trump has the desire or the physical stamina to run again in 2024.
There’s a wild card to add into this: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. No American politician has had as much political momentum since Trump himself in 2016. Earlier this month, DeSantis beat Trump in the Western Conservative Summit straw poll, 74% to 71%. Increasingly, proponents of DeSantis are saying that he is all the upside of Trumpism, without the unpredictability of Trump.
He also gets results. DeSantis has become a household name across the country because of his deft, courageous handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. While other governors were worshipping at the altar of Fauciism and pretending to “listen to the science” with insane, arbitrary and counterproductive lockdowns, DeSantis managed to keep Florida largely open. He did this despite endless attacks from Democrats and their corporate media lackeys.
As a result, Florida has been a beacon of freedom in America for the past year. Huge numbers of residents from states like New York, New Jersey, and California- all Democrat strongholds that embraced lockdowns- have moved to Florida. A strong case could be made that DeSantis’s success in standing up to the lockdown-and-mask mania is a major reason why America isn’t still suffering through absurd COVID regulations and politically driven mandates.
Apart from becoming the single best governor in America during lockdowns, DeSantis has a resume that reads like something a GOP political consultant would dream up. Of Italian heritage, he’s a Catholic who grew up in a middle-class household in northern Florida. He became a baseball star at a young age, attended Yale University (where he was captain of the baseball team) and then Harvard Law School. After getting his J.D., DeSantis served in the Navy as a Judge Advocate Generals (JAG) officer and deployed to Guantanamo Bay and Iraq.
When he finished serving in the military, he ran for Congress in 2012 in an area around Jacksonville, Florida, the 6th District. He wont several terms in that office, briefly ran for Senate in 2015 (he withdrew when Marco Rubio decided to run again) and then won a very tight margin Governor’s race in 2018 against Andrew Gillum. He star has only risen since.
All along, DeSantis has been rock solid on issues of conservatism. He gets an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association for being a defender of the 2nd Amendment. DeSantis is opposed to sanctuary cities and is ardently pro-life. There is no area of his conservative bona fides that has ever been in serious doubt. Whether it’s taking on big tech censorship, standing up for medical privacy in the face of demands for vaccine passports, or pushing back on the indoctrination of Critical Race Theory, DeSantis continues to rack up victories for Republican policies.
Will Trump decide to be kingmaker for Ron, or will he ask the (much) younger governor to wait four more years so Donald can take one last shot at the White House? This remains the single biggest question in Republican politics. Insiders in both camps generally say that Trump-DeSantis relations are warm, and Ron maintains a deep respect for the 45th president.
But increasingly, it appears to millions of conservatives that DeSantis is becoming the de facto leader of the GOP, and that recognition is likely to grow in the months ahead.
Buck Sexton is co-hosting the “Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” on Premiere Radio Networks. The program airs on hundreds of stations across America in the coveted 12-3PM slot that Rush Limbaugh built into an absolute powerhouse.
Buck Sexton