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DeSantis Wins Florida Re-election in a Rout
Ron DeSantis won a second term as Florida’s governor in a rout on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, cementing Republicans’ grip on power in a state that was once a premier battleground and his own reputation as a top contender for the presidency.Mr. DeSantis became governor four years ago in a contest so narrowly decided, by a mere 32,463 votes, that it required a recount. This time, he clobbered Charlie Crist, a Democratic former representative and governor with wide name recognition in the state. The Associated Press called the race right after the polls closed, a rarity in recent election cycles in Florida, a swing state that has shifted to the right.Unlike past statewide candidates, who moderated their positions to appeal to the center of a divided electorate, Mr. DeSantis campaigned as an unapologetic culture warrior willing to fight the “woke left” and as a brash executive eager to defy public health experts during the coronavirus pandemic.So confident was he of victory that he spent part of the past few weeks traveling out of state to attend political events for other Republican candidates.His political ascent over the past decade from a backbencher in Congress to a presidential hopeful has placed Mr. DeSantis increasingly at odds with former President Donald J. Trump, whose endorsement secured Mr. DeSantis the Republican nomination for governor in 2018. The two men did not campaign together in the days before the election, and Mr. Trump, a Florida resident, tested out a derisive nickname against the governor: “Ron DeSanctimonious.”Mr. DeSantis’s ability to position himself as Mr. Trump’s heir without his baggage has turned him into a darling of Republican donors hedging their bets against the former president, or looking for an alternative. Mr. DeSantis raised some $200 million for the governor’s race, a staggering amount that he did not come close to spending and that could seed a presidential run. More
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Don’t Believe Lee Zeldin When He Says He Can’t Touch Abortion Access in New York
I called Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, on Monday morning to see how worried he was about New York’s governor’s race. Levine, a Democrat who’d just come from campaigning with Gov. Kathy Hochul, was pretty worried. Yes, polls have shown Hochul consistently ahead of the Trumpist Republican congressman Lee Zeldin, but Levine thought the race could go either way.“I don’t think we know how accurate polls are in New York State,” Levine told me, noting how long it’s been since New York has had a competitive statewide general election. “And there’s no doubt that Zeldin has used the crime issue to whip up energy on his side.”There are many reasons to be aghast at the idea of a gun-loving election denier taking power in a state that’s been as reliably liberal as New York. One of them is what Zeldin might do to New York’s status as a haven for abortion access.Though Zeldin is a co-sponsor in the House of the Life at Conception Act, which would bestow full personhood rights on embryos, he’s tried to neutralize abortion as a campaign issue by insisting that he couldn’t change New York’s abortion law even if he wanted to.There’s something bizarre about this argument: As Assemblywoman Deborah Glick pointed out to me, Zeldin is telling pro-choice New Yorkers that we can rely on the Legislature to protect us from him. And while it’s true that Zeldin wouldn’t be able to ban abortion anytime soon, there are many things, short of making abortions illegal, that a governor can do to make them harder to get.Zeldin’s strategy is similar to the one that Christine Drazan, the anti-abortion Republican with a decent chance of becoming governor of Oregon, is employing in her race. Both are trying to use Democrats’ success in passing state-level abortion protections against them, by arguing that these laws make their personal opposition to abortion moot.“I will not change and could not change New York’s abortion law,” Zeldin said in one ad, while Drazan told Oregon Public Broadcasting that “Roe is codified into Oregon law. Regardless of my personal opinions on abortion, as governor, I will follow the law.” But when it comes to reproductive rights, the letter of the law isn’t the only thing that matters.New York, for example, recently passed a statute that, among other things, prohibits law enforcement from cooperating with out-of-state prosecutors on most abortion cases. But whether a Governor Zeldin would be totally constrained by the law is unclear. He has promised to remove Manhattan’s district attorney, Alvin Bragg, from office, even though Bragg was elected last year with 84 percent of the vote, suggesting a willingness to push the limit of his authority. Oregon, meanwhile, has no such law, only a written commitment from the governor, the Democrat Kate Brown, to resist out-of-state legal actions over abortion.In both Oregon and New York, there are lots of administrative levers governors could pull to stymie reproductive health care. Zeldin has said it would be a “great idea” to appoint an anti-abortion health commissioner, a position with a lot of power in the state. Shortly after the draft of the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe was leaked in May, Hochul created the $25 million Abortion Provider Support Fund to help New York providers care for an expected influx of out-of-state patients, and allocated $10 million more to help clinics beef up their security. Zeldin would almost certainly do away with grants like these. Drazan has criticized a similar grant program in Oregon, referring derisively to the funding of “abortion tourism.”New York’s governor “controls the purse strings, because he controls the division of the budget,” said Glick, who led the fight to pass the 2019 Reproductive Health Act, which codified Roe and expanded the number of health professionals who can legally perform abortions in the state. As governor, she said, Zeldin could withhold money from Planned Parenthood and restrict Medicaid funding for abortion. “You can slowly starve some programs by simply not providing resources in a timely fashion.”Of course, the people who care deeply about the nuances of reproductive health policy are probably already voting for Democrats, which is why pointing out all the ways right-wing governors could erode abortion access feels so dispiriting. Politically, the anti-abortion movement has often been at its strongest when it’s fighting for regulations that strangle providers with red tape or cut off public funding, because most people aren’t going to get far enough into the weeds to get outraged.While Roe still stood, the anti-abortion movement used a strategy of regulatory siege to chip away at abortion rights in red states. With anti-abortion governors, a similar strategy could be deployed in blue ones. Speaking to New York Right to Life in April, Zeldin promised an open-door policy. “Come on in to the second floor of the New York State Capitol,” he said. “It’s been a while, but you come right on in.”The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More
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Trump-DeSantis Rift Grows, With Dueling Rallies and Name-Calling
The Republican Party’s top two stars are campaigning, separately, in the midterms’ last days.SUN CITY CENTER, Fla. — Former President Donald J. Trump hasn’t endorsed Gov. Ron DeSantis this year because, as he has explained, his fellow Floridian never asked. Mr. DeSantis didn’t attend the Trump rally on Sunday in Miami, his allies said, because he wasn’t personally invited.Bruised egos are commonplace in politics. But rarely has a rift at the top of a party spilled so fully into view at such a pivotal moment. At a rally on Saturday night in Latrobe, Pa., Mr. Trump bestowed one of his signature nicknames on Mr. DeSantis: Ron DeSanctimonious.Their escalating tensions took center stage on Sunday, with dueling campaign rallies in Florida just two days before voting concludes in the 2022 midterm elections. Mr. Trump campaigned in South Florida with Senator Marco Rubio and other Florida Republicans, while Mr. DeSantis made his case for re-election during a set of events along the state’s west coast.Mr. Trump didn’t repeat the taunt on Sunday, and Mr. DeSantis didn’t mention the former president at his events, but the collateral damage from their impasse looms as a distraction for their party in the final days of the midterms and could threaten deeper divisions among Republicans as they aim to recapture the White House in 2024.“Nothing like trashing a Republican Governor 4 days before Election Day when his name is on the ballot. #team,” Josh Holmes, a Republican strategist and former campaign manager for Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader, wrote on Twitter.Mr. Trump has been telling supporters, both publicly and privately, that he will announce another presidential bid soon. Mr. DeSantis is widely viewed as the leading alternative for the Republican nomination, speculation fueled by his raising a staggering $200 million to support his re-election bid (including about $90 million unspent) and running a nationalized campaign in which he attacks President Biden more often than his Democratic challenger, former Representative Charlie Crist.Mr. Trump and Mr. DeSantis are the most popular politicians in the refashioned Republican Party: the 76-year-old former host of “The Apprentice” and the 44-year-old lawyer who has positioned himself to take over as master.The former president has long claimed a kind of ownership stake in the rise of Mr. DeSantis, who was a relatively anonymous backbencher for six years in Congress when his underdog campaign for governor in 2018 was lifted by Mr. Trump’s endorsement.But Mr. Trump’s generosity carries a price, and he has repeatedly expressed bewilderment that Mr. DeSantis hasn’t displayed a satisfactory amount of loyalty, according to people close to the former president.Mr. Trump has been particularly irritated by the separation Mr. DeSantis has created between them, from criticizing the Covid-19 vaccines developed during the Trump administration to endorsing Joe O’Dea, the Republican Senate candidate in Colorado, just days after the former president criticized him.A sculpture of Gov. Ron DeSantis was a draw on Friday in Coconut Creek, Fla.Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesMr. Trump has been privately testing derisive nicknames for Mr. DeSantis with his friends and advisers, including the put-down he used on Saturday. Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, appeared to test-drive the nickname for the former president on Oct. 27 when he used it in a post on Mr. Trump’s social media website, Truth Social.Mr. Trump has expressed reluctance over criticizing the Florida governor too aggressively before the midterms. But some people close to him said the decision to cast Mr. DeSantis as hypocritically pious solidified itself after the governor’s team released a video Friday aimed at infusing his candidacy with a sense of the divine.The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsElection Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.House Democrats: Several moderates elected in 2018 in conservative-leaning districts are at risk of being swept out. That could cost the Democrats their House majority.A Key Constituency: A caricature of the suburban female voter looms large in American politics. But in battleground regions, many voters don’t fit the stereotype.Crime: In the final stretch of the campaigns, politicians are vowing to crack down on crime. But the offices they are running for generally have little power to make a difference.Abortion: The fall of Roe v. Wade seemed to offer Democrats a way of energizing voters and holding ground. Now, many worry that focusing on abortion won’t be enough to carry them to victory.The 96-second black-and-white video, which invokes God 10 times, was fashioned after a famous “So God Made a Farmer” speech in the 1970s by the radio broadcaster Paul Harvey.The original speech, which Ram Trucks reused in a Super Bowl commercial in 2013, was aimed at highlighting the importance of farming. Mr. DeSantis’s version, posted by his wife, Casey, promotes his political brand.“And on the eighth day,” a deep-voiced narrator says in Mr. DeSantis’s video, “God looked down on his planned paradise and said: ‘I need a protector.’ So God made a fighter.”The video seemed aimed at turning Mr. DeSantis into an object of veneration, much as Mr. Trump has for some time been viewed by many Christian nationalists and other fervent supporters as an almost messianic figure.Mr. Trump, who was in Pennsylvania on Saturday to support a slate of Republican candidates, casually dropped the new epithet into his speech while pointing out his wide lead over Mr. DeSantis in early polls of a hypothetical Republican primary field.A branding magnate who has affixed his family name to everything from cuts of steak to lines of clothing, Mr. Trump used a pair of giant TV screens flanking the stage at his rally to display a half-dozen slides of poll numbers that underscored his political strength among Republicans.In Florida, Mr. DeSantis has downplayed talk about a potential presidential bid, but he pointedly refused to say during a debate with Mr. Crist whether, if re-elected, he would serve all four years.Mr. DeSantis scheduled 13 rallies across Florida between Friday and Monday, including three on Sunday, leaving some Republican candidates in the awkward position of having to choose whether to campaign with the governor or the former president. Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott were in Miami, as were seven members of Congress. Jimmy Patronis, the state’s elected chief financial officer, introduced Mr. DeSantis at the campaign stop in Sun City Center.Mr. DeSantis devoted much of his hourlong speech to about 500 people at a community hall to his response to the Covid-19 pandemic.He made sure to point out that his pandemic policies separated him from Democrats — and even some Republicans.“As a leader, I need to be more concerned about jobs for the people I represent than worrying about my own,” Mr. DeSantis said.Mr. DeSantis at a campaign event on Friday in Coconut Creek. Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesAfter the event, Mary Bishop, a 73-year-old retiree from Sun City Center, said she was upset that Mr. Trump had attacked Mr. DeSantis. She said she had voted twice for Mr. Trump but preferred Mr. DeSantis in 2024.“We need someone who can bring us together and doesn’t constantly divide the races and religions,” she said. “It’s always the same playbook with Trump.”In Miami, Mr. Trump praised at length “the wonderful” Senator Marco Rubio, calling him a friend and saying the people of Florida would re-elect him.“You’re going to re-elect Ron DeSantis as your governor,” Mr. Trump added.That was the only mention of his potential 2024 rival in his 90-minute, grievance-filled speech, during which Mr. Trump blasted Democrats as soft on crime and boasted about Hispanic voters shifting toward the Republican Party.“I will probably have to do it again,” he said about seeking the presidency in 2024, “but stay tuned.”At the Trump rally, Lainie Guthrie, 57, of Royal Palm Beach, said that Mr. DeSantis should have attended the rally with the former president. Mr. Trump, she said, should “be able to finish” what he started in his first term.“He was doing a great job for our country, whether people like him or not,” Ms. Guthrie said. “He’s entitled to run again. That’s owed to him.”In Pennsylvania on Saturday, Mr. Trump’s attack on Mr. DeSantis drew a mix of laughs and groans from the crowd. “Oh no!” shouted one woman.Jess Rhoades, a 38-year-old university employee from Blair County, Pa., left her first Trump rally on Tuesday energized by the experience but conflicted over how she would choose between her two favorite Republicans.“I don’t know what I’d do,” she said.Michael C. Bender More
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Mike Pence Visits Georgia as Gov. Brian Kemp Plays Up Early Turnout
CUMMING, Ga. — Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, flanked by former Vice President Mike Pence and several fellow state Republican candidates, stressed the importance of voter turnout Tuesday in a campaign swing through Atlanta’s northern suburbs.With a week to go until Election Day, Mr. Pence ticked through a list of Mr. Kemp’s conservative policy achievements on crime and abortion, and underscored the role that Georgia — where Democrats have made significant inroads over the last four years — will play in national politics.“We need Georgia to lead the way to a great American comeback by re-electing Gov. Brian Kemp,” Mr. Pence told a crowd of supporters at a rally near the town square in Cumming, about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta.Their joint appearance came during the final four days of early voting in Georgia. Mr. Kemp is leading his Democratic opponent, Stacey Abrams, in most polls but implored his supporters to ignore those numbers and turn out. He noted that the party had trailed Democrats in the size and scale of its field operations in recent elections — and that his campaign had helped finance a renewed effort for the 2022 midterms.He pointed to Georgia’s record early vote turnout numbers as proof of the success of that operation — and to rebut complaints from Democratic leaders and voting rights advocates who say the state’s new voting law is suppressive because of its tighter restrictions on ballot drop boxes, voting schedules and absentee ballots, among other provisions.Ms. Abrams has said repeatedly that high turnout numbers do not negate potential voter suppression, an idea that Mr. Kemp called “fuzzy Washington, D.C., math.”“We’re seeing record turnout,” he said. “I would encourage people to go vote and vote for somebody that has been truthful with you.”Mr. Pence, who also campaigned alongside Mr. Kemp last spring as the incumbent fended off a primary challenge from a candidate backed by former President Donald J. Trump, is one of several high-profile Republicans steering clear of Mr. Trump who will visit Georgia on Mr. Kemp’s behalf in the coming days. Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona will campaign alongside Mr. Kemp on Wednesday and Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, will join the bus tour on Thursday and Friday. More
