After Cruising to Re-Election with 1.5 Million Vote Lead, DeSantis Considered Frontrunner for 2024 GOP White House Bid

TALLAHASSEE, FL – After Ron DeSantis crushed his Democratic opponent and succeeded in his re-election bid with a massive lead of 20 points – over 1.5 million votes – during Tuesday’s election, the Florida Governor is now being hailed by many as the GOP’s frontrunner for a run for the White House in 2024, with many now siding with him even over former President Donald Trump.

The buzz surrounding DeSantis comes as the highly-anticipated “Red Wave” during this week’s midterms largely failed to materialize; while ballots nationwide are still being counted, the GOP is currently showing only a small lead in the House; in addition, Democrats are leading in the Senate – having picked up an extra seat – although five seats remain to be decided.

“Definitely not a Republican wave, that’s for darn sure,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said of the election, with The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro noting on Twitter that, “Democrats…wildly outperformed expectations, except in Florida. Republicans wildly underperformed, and heads should roll.”

Here's the basic takeaway from Election 2022 so far:
1. Democrats will not change course on anything; they wildly outperformed expectations, except in Florida.
2. Biden is their 2024 nominee unless he is fully incapacitated.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 9, 2022

While much of the blame is being heaped upon Republican leadership, Trump also drawing the ire from his own party after a slew of his hand-picked candidates failed to win their respective races. In addition, one of his party’s biggest winners this Tuesday – DeSantis – was actually attacked by Trump leading up to the election, which some interpreted as the former President perceiving the Florida Governor as a potential threat to his presumed 2024 re-election bid.

DeSantis, meanwhile, is being heralded by some conservative commentators as the new face of the GOP following his overwhelming re-election win, with The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh tweeting, “DeSantis blew the competition away while much of the rest of the Republican Party underperformed. What exactly is the argument against DeSantis 2024?”

“Make no mistake: DeSantis should now be considered the betting favorite to win the GOP nomination in ’24,” tweeted political writer Tim Alberta.

“Ron DeSantis won his last gubernatorial race by 30,000 votes,” Ben Shapiro tweeted. “He turned that into a historically large victory and along with the rest of the state GOP, turned a heretofore purple state bright red. Good things to remember for Republicans going forward.”

Ron DeSantis won his last gubernatorial race by 30,000 votes. He turned that into a historically large victory and along with the rest of the state GOP, turned a heretofore purple state bright red. Good things to remember for Republicans going forward.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) November 9, 2022

As of Wednesday morning, betting markets had DeSantis as the favorite to be the Republican Party nominee for president in 2024.