Gov. Ron DeSantis may seem like an unlikely exponent of Chinese philosophy. Yet during a Q&A, the second-term Republican leaned on some of its central concepts in explaining why Democrats gained yet again in off-year elections held this week.
“There’s just a yin and a yang with some of this stuff, but Republicans are going to have to contend with that,” DeSantis said at Good Greek Moving & Storage West Palm Beach.
According to DeSantis, the issue in part is that Democrats are more motivated than Republicans.
“I will just say as someone that studies history, when the party’s out of power, they typically turn out better, and the party in power’s voters tend to get more complacent. That’s why we have these Midterm effects,” DeSantis said.
Asked about the Democratic flip of the Miami mayoral race, in which he endorsed losing candidate Emilio Gonzalez early, DeSantis distanced himself from the outcome.
“I did an endorsement in the original scrum, and then once it advanced to the runoff, it just wasn’t something I was involved in. So I don’t know what the issues were or any of that,” DeSantis said, professing a surprising ignorance of local concerns in the state’s most important city before suggesting that Democrats may be well-positioned in upcoming cycles.
“One side is energized to come out, and that’s going to be something that’s likely to get to continue through the Midterms and potentially even beyond from the Midterms.”
DeSantis has previously warned that GOP voters could be “complacent” amid scant accomplishments from the Republican-controlled federal government, with off-year elections presenting a “big warning sign” nationally and in Florida, where he could see his party losing its House supermajority.
