Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is seizing on Florida‘s resistance to Tuesday’s Democratic wave to pitch his record as a model for a battered Republican Party, even as narrower GOP victories at home raise questions about the strength of that model.
As Democrats dominated statewide in traditional Republican strongholds, including Texas, South Carolina, Kansas, even Mississippi, they did not break through in Florida.
“The blue wave hit,” Florida Republican strategist Ford O’Connell told the Washington Examiner. “Florida didn’t flinch.”
In the aftermath, DeSantis has underscored his political playbook in the hope Republicans across the country can learn from its pages.
“Let’s just be clear about what happened last night: This is as close to an extinction-level event for Republicans in many parts of the country probably as we have seen in the last 100 years,” DeSantis told reporters during a press conference in Tallahassee on Wednesday. “Out of the 10 largest states in this union, only one state will have Republican control of their state, the state of Florida.”
DeSantis’s leadership has captured the attention of Republicans, including conservative commentator Meghan McCain, but also some Democrats, such as party stalwart James Carville.
“The big thing about DeSantis for me is when shit really goes down and I’m panicking — he is always a light in the storm,” McCain posted on X. “He is a beacon of calm and clarity which is truly lacking right now throughout the entire party.”
“The Republican winner last night was Ron DeSantis,” Carville added on his Politics War Room podcast. “But Ron DeSantis can say we did better in — you know, ‘We want to win? Look at what we did in Florida.’”
But Florida’s results were hardly the resounding victories Republicans enjoyed during the 2022 midterm re.
Gov.-elect Byron Donalds (R-FL) defeated Democrat David Jolly by just over 1 percentage point, compared with DeSantis’s nearly 20-point reelection victory four years earlier.
Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL), whom DeSantis appointed in 2025 to replace Secretary of State Marco Rubio, defeated Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon by fewer than 3 points. Rubio won reelection in 2022 by more than 16 points.
Democrats also made significant gains in Florida’s state legislature, breaking the Republican supermajority in the state House, although the GOP retained control of both chambers.
The results have fueled skepticism that DeSantis’s approach offers a solution to the Republican Party’s national problems.
“DeSantis is not the GOP savior,” former Trump White House communications director Alyssa Farah posted on X. “We squandered the Latino vote with overly aggressive immigration enforcement tactics. The guy who oversaw Alligator Alcatraz is not the answer.”
Florida Republican strategist Angie Wong placed DeSantis’s reemergence in the context of his failed primary challenge to President Donald Trump in 2024.
“He’s been largely sidelined by the MAGA crowds, right? And this dates back to when he won the first time, he won his governor’s race and Susie Wiles was his senior adviser, and those two had a big blowout after they won,” Wong told the Washington Examiner. “It’s the perfect time for Ron DeSantis to come out, not only because he has been unscathed by the MAGA world, because he’s not part of it, but more importantly, we don’t have a leader right now.”
“But understand, this is all on the backs of him trying to run in 2028,” she continued. “If this was a Machiavellian move, he actually did a really good job.”
Ahead of the blue wave, DeSantis did what he could to help Republicans avert disaster by pushing the Florida state legislature to redraw its congressional map mid-decade. The move netted on paper four new GOP-leaning seats. But on election night, three of these seats stayed in Democratic control, while the last one remains too close to call.
“In 2024 Florida voters sent 20 Republicans and 8 Democrats to the US House,” the governor posted on X. “In April 2026, Florida enacted a revised map to unwind an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Last night, Florida voters likely elected 20 Republicans and 8 Democrats to the US House. Had the old map been in effect, it would have been 18 Republicans and 10 Democrats.”
O’Connell, the strategist, emphasized that “Republicans held every one of their 20 House seats.”
“That’s not a loss — that’s a fortress,” he said.
For O’Connell, redistricting “locked in a new map through 2030,” with more seats poised to be in “play for Republicans in a presidential election year with conservative voters fired up.”
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A second Florida source also defended the mid-decade redistricting, telling the Washington Examiner “that redistricting ended up being the most expensive mid-term election in Florida history.”
“Dems spent a lot of money,” that person said.