Editorial: Voters made their voices clear -- Florida is deep-red and DeSantis' instincts were right

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was not on the Tuesday ballot, but on the same night that Donald Trump swept Florida and Miami-Dade to win the White House, DeSantis consolidated his power in the state with his own big wins.

The governor forcefully campaigned against two high-profile ballot amendments to protect abortion rights and legalize adult use of recreational marijuana. Both measures failed even though they received a majority of voters — just not enough to clear the 60% approval threshold.

The abortion-rights Amendment 4 still got 57.15% support, based on unofficial results, and performed well in Miami-Dade and several red counties. That should be a message to DeSantis and the Legislature that most voters see the state’s six-week ban as too extreme. We encourage the amendment sponsors to launch another campaign to get a similar measure on the ballot in future elections. Women’s lives and health are at stake.

But, at least for now, Florida’s abortion ban remains in place — and that is a victory for DeSantis, who made the bet that a state that was once seen as purple was conservative enough to support his policies.

DeSantis took Florida from a state where he defeated a progressive Democrat by a razor-thin margin in 2018 to one Trump carried by a 13-point margin. In 2022, DeSantis became the first Republican to win Miami-Dade in decades during his reelection, a feat Trump repeated on Tuesday.

As Florida moves deeper into one-party rule by the GOP after Tuesday, the results will likely be hyper-partisanship in state government and lack of reaching across the aisle. DeSantis has proven that he can find ways to govern with few checks from the legislative branch. His use of taxpayer resources and dollars to campaign against Amendments 3 and 4 shows that he knows how to use the state as an arm of his political machinery — even though it may cross the line between governing and the weaponization of government.

Neither DeSantis nor the Republican Party have felt repercussions at the polls — on the contrary, they expanded their electoral power — so it’s clear that Florida voters, for the most part, like DeSantis’ political brand. His loss to Trump in the GOP presidential primary was embarrassing, but the young governor’s aspirations are far from over.

As the Herald reported, Republicans are already saying that Tuesday’s election results help set up DeSantis for another presidential run in 2028. It’s impossible to tell what could happen in four years and whether DeSantis will still have a national standing — and donors to support him.

For now, it seems apparent that DeSantis will continue to reshape Florida as he’s done in the past few years. As state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, R-Spring Hill, told the Herald: “He is still the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to politics in the state of Florida.”

It was because of DeSantis that the Legislature passed several laws that helped establish him as a fighter against what he calls “woke” indoctrination in schools — such as the infamous parental rights bill critics call “Don’t say gay.” He also pushed lawmakers to pass a 15-week, then a six-week, abortion ban; and he got them to fund flights of migrants from the southern border to blue East Coast states.

With his term ending in 2026, DeSantis will be even more focused on establishing his legacy over future legislative sessions — the next one begins in March, in the middle of the crucial first 100 days of Trump in the White House.

More of the same is what Floridians overwhelmingly want. Those who oppose more conservative GOP policies have even fewer avenues to oppose Trump’s and DeSantis’ influence in state and South Florida politics. In this election, as America turned to MAGA, Florida also turned more into DeSantis-land.

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