It may seem hard to believe right now, but this time last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the rest of Florida's Republican Party were being heralded as the post-Donald Trump future for the GOP. Republicans had underperformed in the 2022 midterms in most parts of the country — except in Florida. DeSantis won re-election that November by a whopping 20 points, which was especially impressive considering his 2018 margin of victory was less than half a percentage point. Desperate for some sign that there was hope for their party after Trump, Republican elites decided DeSantis had discovered a magic formula with his aggressive culture war politics that involved book-banning, dropping the word "woke" every few seconds, and waging war on Disney.
"Ron DeSantis shows he’s future of the GOP," declared a New York Post headline on November 9, 2022.
