Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) called Tuesday’s midterm election blowout “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans” during a morning-after press conference in Tallahassee on Wednesday.
DeSantis, a longtime ally of President Donald Trump, wasn’t sugarcoating the GOP’s resounding losses, telling party faithful, “To call it a wave would, I don’t think, would be fully accurate. It’s the political equivalent of a meteor strike.”
The 2024 GOP presidential candidate said Democrats’ success in Texas was a particularly devastating blow, noting, “Over my lifetime, Texas has been the crown jewel of Republican politics.”
“No one holds a candle on the Republican side to the Lone Star State,” DeSantis said of Texas, where Democrat James Talarico was elected to the U.S. Senate and GOP governor Greg Abbott was ousted by Gina Hinojosa on Tuesday.
“If the Republican Party doesn’t have Texas as an anchor, we won’t be viable nationally going forward,” he said.
Reflecting on Republicans’ heavy losses in the Senate, DeSantis noted that the 56 Democrats projected to take the upper chamber are essentially guaranteed to block any of Trump’s Supreme Court nominations and any Cabinet picks with “strong conservative credentials.”
DeSantis did recognize that his own state was able to “hold the line” for Republicans, with wins by Governor-elect Byron Donalds and Sen. Ashley Moody. “We’ve built up a record of achievement. We’ve earned trust from a number of our voters,” he said, “even in the worst situation that you can imagine politically.”
Despite Democrats’ resounding victories on election night, DeSantis claimed the party was still unpopular and insisted Democrats had not earned “a mandate to indulge all their left-wing fantasies.”
“They’re going to be in there governing, and we’ll see what ends up happening, but this was not a positive view of the Democrats,” he said. “This was a rejection of Republicans in Washington, and Democrats just happened to be the beneficiary.”