Trump has a better chance than DeSantis
Published:Tuesday | January 3, 2023 | 12:13 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
Ron DeSantis had a massive victory in Florida; Marco Rubio also won by a big margin. But, I believe that Governor Ron DeSantis is being hyped by the media.
You can’t compare midterm elections to presidential elections, but let’s go there. Donald Trump, in both of his elections, received more votes than DeSantis. He got 4.617 million and 5.668 million votes, in 2016 and 2020, respectively, DeSantis received 4.076 million and 4.614 million votes in 2018 and 2022, respectively,.
Senate incumbent Rubio received 4.835 million votes in 2016 to defeat challenger Patrick Murphy by 713,000 votes. Senate candidate challenger Rick Scott received 4.099 million votes in 2018 to defeat incumbent Bill Nelson by over 10,000. Because Rubio received more votes than Trump in 2016, that meant he would have been able to defeat Hillary Clinton in a presidential election? Many will argue that Trump caused DeSantis and Scott to win their races in 2018.
In 2020, Trump, as an incumbent, increased his votes to 1.05 million votes, while DeSantis, then also an incumbent, increased his numbers to 538,000 votes in 2022. President Joe Biden, who was Trump’s opponent in 2020, increased his party’s votes to 792, 000, while Charlie Crist got 937,000 fewer votes.
Trump defeated Clinton and Biden by 112,000 votes and 371,000 votes in 2016 and 2020, respectively. DeSantis defeated Andrew Gillum and Crist by 32,000 votes and 1.5 million votes in 2018 and 2022, respectively.
It is clear that Democrat voters never turned out in Florida for Crist. In a presidential election they will likely do so. Republicans in 2024 won’t win that state by over a million votes, or over 10 per cent; that’s the reality. It is Trump who made Florida vote for Republicans, not DeSantis.
DeSantis has a better chance than Trump to win the popular vote in a presidential election, but Trump has a better chance of winning the electoral college. Trump is more solid in the Rust Belt battleground states (Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin), while DeSantis is more solid in the Sun Belt battleground states (Georgia, Arizona and Nevada) .
TEDDYLEE GRAY
Ocho Rios, St Ann