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Tonight’s election results in Florida were downright amazing. Ron DeSantis squashed Charlie Crist, and Marco Rubio easily cruised to victory over Val Demings. So… why didn’t that red hurricane in Florida trigger a red wave everywhere else?
Sadly, a lot of the races that were looking competitive for Republicans to actually pick up seats in the Senate are either too close to call, or broke for the Democrat. Maggie Hassan won her race easily in New Hampshire. Michael Bennett was declared the winner of the Colorado race within minutes of the polls closing. Republicans tried breaking into blue areas in the House, and came close in a couple of cases, but fell short right at the end.
The red hurricane in Florida was decisive and huge. Ron DeSantis won triumphantly, especially as compared to his 2018 win.
And DeSantis was absolutely the top of the tidal wave. It was an absolute disaster for the Democrats in Florida.
MSNBC's Alex Wagner on early Flordia results: "What is the lesson you are drawing here in terms of the Hispanic vote? How alarmed should Democrats be?"
David Plouffe: Well, In Florida, it's catastrophic…The Obama coalition in Florida is gone. pic.twitter.com/VPDbzisvwf
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) November 9, 2022
So, what the hell happened across the rest of the country? Florida was supposed to be a bellwether for the rest of the country. There have been some good moments, like watching Beto O’Rourke and Stacey Abrams lose in Texas and Georgia. But Kathy Hochul and Gretchen Whitmer have won in their states, and New York and Michigan get to reap the consequences of that.
The difference between Florida and the rest of the country? Florida had better candidates who ran better campaigns. There were good candidates in other states, but too many of them carried too much baggage, but so many of them were handpicked by… Donald Trump. And this is the major problem. Trump loves the attention and the campaigning, and he wants the credit for winning, but not the blame for the losses. And don’t take my word for it.
with a completely straight face https://t.co/M2jfNZb4yH
— Matt Wilstein (@mattwilstein) November 8, 2022
And it’s particularly telling – and galling – that the first message that Trump put up on Truth Social is this one.
Trump’s first post on the election is celebrating a Republican Senate loss. https://t.co/67PyRRhVYb
— AG (@AGHamilton29) November 9, 2022
Joe O’Dea was not his chosen candidate in Colorado, and so he’s going to gloat about his loss? Why does this feel like the Georgia runoff all over again?
Now, the election is not over, and there are lots of votes to still count. But Trump, who as the former president could have been a real kingmaker by choosing the best candidates instead of the ones who just groveled the most, is looking weak. Does that mean Trump is simply too radioactive for 2024? The question is now out there, and tonight is not looking like a convincing argument for Trump 2024.
Trump has 0 shot at 2024 general. After tonight, this isn’t up for debate. I was around in 2015 when he had “no chance,” and accurately said he’d win. Threw biggest inauguration event in 2017.
Times change or he changed or whatever.
DeSantis in 2024 or accept total defeat.
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) November 9, 2022
Now, the GOP has at least a full year before considering actual candidates for 2024. Has Trump taken himself out of the conversation? Not by a long shot, because he won’t be willing to go away quietly. But after winning 2016, the winning did not continue. The Republicans can complain all day long about the media bias, about voting machine shenanigans, and about voter turnout, but unless we actually produce candidates that can win, and then get out the voters to cast their ballots, we will be stuck. And stuck as losers.
There will be a lot of virtual ink spilled over the next week or so about what went wrong, and how the polls are basically useless now. This election was supposed to be about how Biden had failed the country. And while that is still true, the conversation seems to have shifted to how Trump hurt the midterms. And shifting the conversation away from the failures of Biden cost the Republicans.
We can’t all live in Florida, but we are going to have to look at the wins there and figure out how to spread them out across the country.
Featured image: Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, official portrait, public domain
Scott says: Trumps comments were definitely unfortunate, but O’Dae was a terrible candidate, and a Never Trumper, so not surprising that Trumps ego was involved..
Cameron says: The ego is kind of the problem. Honestly, he’s earned the attitude but he really needs to learn when to change his tone.
Kevin says: Here’s what excites me about DeSantis … TFG (the f*@king genius) is going to eviscerate him in the next year and a sizeable portion of the MAGA base will blindly go along with TFG’s pathetic, immature, mentally unstable attempt to remain relevant and that’s going to rip the republican party apart and that will be a joy to watch. I wonder what TFG has on “DeSanctimonious?” Why did McCarthy crawl into bed with TFG after the January 6th insurrection? To hang on TFG’s base. The republican party will need to make a decision in the next year … follow TFG to his grave all the while he’s destroying this nation AND the republican party OR wake up and realize they’ve been following a narcissistic mad man and discard him with yesterday’s trash. Here’s the winner last night … Joe Biden.
Kim Hirsch says: Dream on. But take your meds first.
Scott says: You really are celebrating the destruction of the nation aren’t you kevin?? Are you paid by soros, or just a worthless POS that wants to destroy the one (once) bright light of a republic in the world?
A reader says: First of all, Florida has been trending red for a while. And gerrymandering and voter suppression efforts helped with that. It’s not the big harbinger or victory you think it is.
This isn’t simply a candidate problem. It’s a systemic party problem with the Republican Party. Because it’s clearer to the average voter what they’re against than what they’re for. They’re for voter suppression. They’re for election denialism. They’re pro-insurrection and pro-Fascism. (Dictator Victor Orban was after all a special guest at CPAC.) They don’t believe in teaching factual history in all its messiness— nor do most of the writers here even bother really learning it. They believe that women should suffer and have to jump through insane hoops to get treatment when pregnancies go sideways because they have zero understanding that abortion is more than the slutty 20-something boogeywomen that don’t exist using it for birth control. They have zero respect for virtually anyone with expertise save for a few notable and questionable exceptions. They showed next to zero empathy and compassion during Covid, many pretending that the deaths weren’t real and the virus was either a hoax or not so bad. I could go on. While not all of this applies to the writers and readers here, it is in general the position of the Republican Party as a whole. McCarthy literally said they would cut Social Security and Medicare if Republicans gained power. Why on earth would any sane person vote for people who are “for” all that?!
Democracy is messy and imperfect. But I far prefer it to fascism and Christian Nationalism. And it appears that many other people do too. So maybe stop going so far toward extreme and dangerous ideologies and culture war ridiculousness and get back to discussing policies and what you’re for. Give people a reason to see your party as reasonable and not bats—t crazy and undemocratic. Then maybe you’d win. Just a thought.
Scott says: Dude, that must be some good shit you’re smoking! Not a single thing you said was factual, or even close to accurate.. How much did Soros pay you for that pile of bovine excrement?
John in Indy says: I am usually pessimistic on the edge of paranoid, and I keep failing to imagine the depths of depravity that the Uniparty sinks to. McTurtle Dammit !!!
I suspect that asuch as Florida has actually turned Red, that the DemonRats actually suppressed the steal there, as they were likely to lose anyway.
It was a D female who outed the retail theft / purchase of ballots in Orlando, taking attention from the wholesale machine and absentee ballot thefts in other States.
DeSantis took a very large donation from one of the GOPe megadonors, and having kissed the ring, he is now the club with which to hammer Trump.
DeSantis is a good R, and a good Governor, but I am not sure that he is as willing to turn over the tabkes of the moneychangers as Trump would be.
To me it looks like the Uniparty is selecting DeSantis to replace McConnell as the control mechanism to keep the R branch of the Uniparty in the ineffective minority.
But hey, what do I know. I’m just another schmuck on the internet.
John in Indy
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