There is an unpleasant truth about this nation that we must address and fix quickly.
Almost twenty years have passed since a Republican presidential candidate won the national popular vote. That race was close enough that only one state needed to flip to change the Electoral College result. George W. Bush won Ohio by a little over 118,000 votes. Democrat John Kerry nearly challenged the results, and as recently as 2018, he claimed Bush stole the election from him. Bush had extremely positive support, while Kerry voters were largely driven by anti-Bush sentiment. Frankly, this was a race that shouldn’t even have been close.
The 2016 Electoral College result was, in many respects, a stroke of luck. Donald Trump won the Electoral College but lost the popular vote, and many believe that Hillary Clinton’s failure to campaign in key swing states made his victory possible. Her undeniable unpopularity certainly helped as well, but we’ve seen how consequential one election can be. Joe Biden has nearly run this country into the ground, and the GOP’s failure to win more House races or get control of the Senate could have negative consequences for years to come. For one thing, Biden will continue to nominate radical left-wing judges to the courts. It’s conceivable he may even get another Supreme Court pick.
The truth is that we have to grow our party to win more elections. We need to accept this fact and act.
How does the GOP turn things around? How do we win and grow the party? Well, Gov. Ron DeSantis has an answer: Look to Florida.
“Florida really is showing a way out of this morass and this mess, but you got to be willing to do it and you got to be successful in implementing it and in times like these, there is no substitute for victory,” DeSantis said Saturday night at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership meeting in Las Vegas.
According to DeSantis, the GOP should look to Florida as a model for other states that want to move on from the woke, progressive policies that have been imposed under Biden.
“When you stand up for what’s right, when you show people you’re willing to fight for them, they will walk over broken glass barefoot to come vote for you,” DeSantis said. “We’ve got a lot more to do, and I have only begun to fight.”
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The Florida governor has hardly been one to shy away from a fight. He pushed for and signed the Parental Rights in Education law, which critics falsely dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. He also took on woke Disney for pushing its radical LGBTQ agenda on kids. And despite taking on these controversial fights, DeSantis won reelection against Charlie Christ by nearly 20 points.
In his speech, DeSantis also urged Republicans to play by the same rules as Democrats and said they should engage in “ballot harvesting” in states where it is legal. “You can’t just let them do it. … Whatever the rules are, take advantage of it.”
This is the unfortunate reality that Republicans have to accept. We don’t like mail-in voting, but we can’t cede a strategic advantage to the Democrats for the sake of a moral victory. We will continue to be outmaneuvered by the left if we don’t play by the same rules they’re using. DeSantis realizes this, and we need to listen to him.
