How Ron DeSantis transformed swing-state Florida into the GOPs best hope

Tuesday’s blue tsunami upturned the political order nationwide, even in unlikely places like Texas — but Florida somehow held a solid red line.Gov.-elect Byron Donalds, US Sen.Ashley Moody, Attorney General James Uthmeier and state CFO Blaise Ingoglia, Republicans all, won their races in a year that was otherwise a widespread disaster for their party.How did Florida — for decades, the nation’s quintessential swing state — do it?Credit the man who made it happen: Gov.

Ron DeSantis.I’ve seen his strategy firsthand.When my family first moved to Florida almost five years ago, we joined an influx of blue-state escapees fleeing terrible pandemic policies, rising crime and crushing taxes.Floridians then were concerned, and rightly so, that many of these newcomers would settle into their then-purple state and go right back to their Team Blue voting habits, tipping the balance permanently.That didn’t happen.In fact, the new arrivals made the state far redder than it had ever been: President Donald Trump won Florida by a single percentage point in 2016; in 2024, he took it by over 13.DeSantis engineered that shift, and not just by governing as a common-sense conservative — but by asking us directly to join the Sunshine State’s Republican revolution.He frequently addressed new arrivals in his public comments, welcoming us to the “Free State of Florida.”And soon after we arrived, we got a friendly notice in our mailbox from the state GOP, urging us to register Republican.“Gov.DeSantis welcomes you home,” it read, beneath a cheery photo of bright orange flip-flops on a humble welcome mat.But the message was also blunt about what was expected of us: “Gov.

Ron DeSantis and Republican leaders are doing their part to protect our state.Will you do yours?”It was a potent reminder that we’d come to be a part of something — and I think it had an impact.We weren’t in Florida for the weather or the low taxes, although these were very nice bonuses.We ...