President Trump and Republicans may have lost the House, but they are beaming about keeping two of the top political jobs in the country, as Rick Scott defeated Bill Nelson for the senate and Ron DeSantis defeated Andrew Gillum for governor.
Republicans have now won every election for governor in Florida since 1998.
The GOP victories are another sign that the Sunshine State is turning a deeper shade of red.
Trump has stayed stubbornly popular, by his standards, in Florida.
DeSantis is known for airing campaign ads featuring him and his daughter building a wall on the US-Mexico border and his son wearing a “Make America Great Again” onesie. He’s also faced questions about his associations with white nationalists.
Gillum, who ran a powerful campaign to become Florida’s first black governor, conceded the race after running behind most of the night.
“We could not be prouder of the way we ran this race,” he told his supporters. “We recognize that we didn’t win this tonight.”
Scott used a huge amount of campaign cash — much of it his own — and his position as a Washington outsider to beat Nelson, a relatively popular incumbent who nevertheless failed to inspire much excitement in a campaign year when Democrats were energized in many races across the country.
Florida is regarded as key to Trump’s reelection strategy in 2020, and having a Republican in the governors office with redistricting around the corner is considered a significant achievement.
