Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday that Tuesday’s midterm results were “close to an extinction-level event” for Republicans across much of the country.
Speaking at a news conference, DeSantis said Florida will be the only one of the 10 largest states under full Republican control once departing officials leave office in January, Fox News reported.
“It’s the political equivalent of a meteor strike that went all around the United States,” DeSantis said. “Blue states, red states, everything in between. And the one state that was able to hold the line and withstand that is right here.”
He argued voters did not embrace the left. “This was not a positive view of the Democrats. This was a rejection of Republicans in Washington,” DeSantis said. “And Democrats just happened to be the beneficiary.”
DeSantis singled out Texas, where Democrats swept statewide offices. “If the Republican Party doesn’t have Texas as an anchor, then we are not going to be viable nationally going forward,” he warned.
He predicted a long road back, saying Republicans will not retake the Senate in 2028 “under this current map.” Unified GOP control could be “two years, four years, six years, maybe even longer” away, he said.
‘Zero’ Chance on the Supreme Court
Late Tuesday, DeSantis warned on X that Democratic Senate gains would block Republicans from replacing Justices Clarence Thomas or Samuel Alito with conservatives, Fox News reported. The post drew nearly 4 million views.
“Chance of confirming a worthy successor to Justice Thomas and/or Alito during President Trump’s term: Zero,” he wrote. He put the odds under a Republican president from 2029 to 2033 at “probably zero.”
Conservative legal analyst Ed Whelan, a former clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia, echoed the warning. He wrote that a Republican elected in 2028 may not be able to appoint judges “until Republicans regain the Senate,” possibly not until 2033.
DeSantis credited Florida’s record, including Amendment 3, which raises the homestead property tax exemption and passed with about 62% of the vote. The measure “drew more voters to the polls,” he said, according to Fox News.
Florida did not escape untouched. Democrats won at least three of the four congressional districts DeSantis redrew this year to favor Republicans, the Daily Caller reported, citing Associated Press results.
Republican Byron Donalds won the race to succeed DeSantis, who is term-limited, by about two points, and Sen. Ashley Moody held her seat by about three points, according to the outlet.
Orlando-based pollster Doug Kaplan called the remarks an “opening salvo” by DeSantis, who has not ruled out a 2028 presidential bid, to set himself apart from the Trump-led status quo in the party.
“I think he’s found his lane if he wants to run for president in 2028,” Kaplan told Fox News Digital.
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