On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) cruised to a second term in office, just as he was widely expected to do. DeSantis defeated Democrat Charlie Crist by nearly 20 points, thereby solidifying Florida’s status as a reliably red state.
After the election results were in, Crist gave a concession speech, wished DeSantis well, and vowed to never stop fighting. The Florida governor’s victory over his Democratic rival comes after months of his critics rooting for Crist.
One of these critics just so happened to be political commentator Geraldo Rivera. Though, Rivera’s prediction of how the Florida governor’s race would pan out was dead wrong.
A Reality Check For Rivera
On Saturday, Rivera boldly proclaimed via Twitter that DeSantis would “feel the wrath” of the Latino community in Florida. According to Rivera, this so-called “wrath” would follow the governor’s decision to have illegal immigrants transported to Martha’s Vineyard.
This is something Rivera called “exploitation.”
This Tweet did not age well. https://t.co/LaMWKmwCAd
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) November 9, 2022
Come Tuesday evening, Rivera was forced to admit he was wrong. DeSantis earned reelection by a historic margin in Florida, one that is far greater than his victory in 2018. Furthermore, the Florida governor actually won the support of the Latino community.
In response to this news, Rivera admitted on Twitter that his prediction of the Florida governor’s election did not “age well.” Many of DeSantis’ supporters on social media were all too happy to agree with Rivera on this point.
The Bigger Picture
DeSantis’ win in Florida comes despite Democrats unleashing all ammunition against him, lying about his policies, and trying to fearmonger.
Throughout the governor’s election, Crist repeatedly talked about making DeSantis a one-term officeholder. In doing this, the Florida Democrat claimed DeSantis’ narrow win in 2018 was a clear sign he would be easy to defeat.
HISTORIC win in the FREE state of Florida thanks to @RonDeSantisFL’s freedom-first policies.💪🏻🐊🔥 pic.twitter.com/5U55YUoNJG
— Team DeSantis 🐊 (@teamrondesantis) November 10, 2022
A huge factor in DeSantis winning by such a huge margin this time around is all the new Florida transplants who moved to the state in the wake of COVID-19.
New arrivals in Florida are why Democrats went from having a voter registration advantage over Republicans to now being behind GOP voters to the tune of roughly 300,000.
DeSantis’ win on Tuesday was a victory for not just himself, but also for the conservative movement as a whole.
