Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis Probably Didn't Turn Florida Red

The state was already changing in big ways before he was elected governor.

By Nathaniel Rakich

Sep. 11

, 2023, at 2:34 PM

ABC News Photo Illustration / Win McNamee / Getty Images

In his presidential campaign, Florida Gov.

Ron DeSantis has pitched himself as a transformational leader who has reshaped the politics of his home state. His 2022 reelection by 19 percentage points “was not just a big victory,” he has argued. “It was really a fundamental realignment of Florida from being a swing state to being a red state.” And most political analysis agrees that the Sunshine State, once known for its impossibly close elections, is now a comfortably Republican-leaning state.

But it’s unclear how much credit DeSantis himself deserves for this shift — or if it even counts as a realignment at all.

The most prominent argument in his favor, that Republicans have moved to the state thanks to his COVID-19 policies, is hard to prove.…