Who is Florida guv Ron DeSantis, nicknamed by some as ‘Trump 2.0’?

While Donald Trump may have arguably been the biggest loser of the US midterm elections, Ron DeSantis was undoubtedly the biggest winner. The Florida governor romped to victory over challenger Charlie Crist and in the process raised his own profile ahead of the 2024 US presidential polls. But who is DeSantis, who many regard as the next Trump? Let’s take a closer look: Who is he? DeSantis was born in Florida’s Jacksonville on 14 September, 1978, to a middle-class family with Italian roots. He is a former Navy officer who graduated from Yale University, where he was the school’s baseball captain, before getting his law degree at Harvard University. DeSantis was commissioned as an officer in the US Navy and was assigned to its legal arm, the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps during his second year at Harvard, as per BBC. He worked with Guantanamo Bay detainees as a JAG officer and as a legal adviser to elite US Navy Seals deployed to Iraq. Though he was honourably discharged from the military in 2010, he continued to serve in the navy reserve. His wife Casey is a local TV reporter and cancer survivor, as per BBC. DeSantis began his career as a relative unknown. He built his profile the old fashioned way for modern Republicans – with over a 100 appearances on Fox News.

DeSantis entered politics in 2012, winning a seat in the House of Representatives, to which he was twice re-elected.

He previously ran for the US Senate in 2016 before dropping out of the race when Republican Senator Marco Rubio decided to run for re-election. Despite his previous experience, DeSantis ran the 2018 Florida race as a political outsider. In 2018, DeSantis trailed in almost every poll leading up to Election Day, but he parlayed President Donald Trump’s strong endorsements in the Republican primary and then in the general election to pull off what at the time was regarded as an upset over Democrat Andrew Gillum in one of the nation’s most-watched governor races. [caption id=“attachment_11600321” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] With his decisive win, Ron DeSantis has cemented his status as a top potential White House candidate in 2024. AFP[/caption] At the time, DeSantis was the youngest governor in decades. He was also the first to live in the governor’s mansion with young children in a half-century. ‘Trump 2.0’ While Ron DeSantis is not averse to lobbying insults in a Trumpian manner, experts and observers have praised his steady behaviour and commitment to achieving policy and political goals for conservatives. “Trump was never about policy. He was all about attitude,” former Republican National Committee spokesman Doug Heye told the BBC. “DeSantis certainly engages in Trump tactics, but there’s both political and policy goals in mind behind them.” “Ron DeSantis is Donald Trump with brains and without the drama,” the Financial Times wrote last month. “He has no great natural charisma, but that’s not his brand. His brand is more competence and toughness and he’s not bad at projecting those things,” political pundit Lincoln Mitchell told AFP.

DeSantis recently released an advertisement Trump himself might be proud of.

The ad, launched in the run-up to his re-election, showed images of the Florida governor flashing with the narration"God said, ‘I need somebody who will take the arrows, stand firm in the wake of unrelenting attacks, look a mother in the eyes and tell her that her child will be in school…’" However, the some-time Donald Trump acolyte also cuts a more balanced figure than his likely 2024 rival for the White House job, showing a political pragmatism and respect for protocol unfamiliar to the ex-president. He has, for example, shown that he can be civil when it suits him politically. He recently welcomed Biden to Florida where the president praised the governor’s response efforts to deadly Hurricane Ian – which slammed into the state in late September and killed more than 100 people and caused widespread damage – and thanked the president for sending federal aid. However, DeSantis also once referred to America’s chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci as a “little elf” and called President Joe Biden “quasi-senile” and “doddering.” [caption id=“attachment_11497021” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] US president Joe Biden. AP[/caption] The US president has returned fire by dubbed DeSantis ‘Trump incarnate’. Controversy over COVID, treatment of immigrants, combating ‘Woke Agenda’ In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic shot him to national prominence when he fiercely opposed mandatory vaccination and masks, and allowed Florida businesses and schools to reopen well before many other areas of the country. DeSantis garnered headlines and criticism for ordering Florida to fly groups of migrants from Texas to the upscale liberal enclave of Martha’s Vineyard, as a protest over the federal government’s immigration policies at the southern border. DeSantis said the move was a way to make immigration a “front-burner issue” before the midterms, with his critics questioning the legality of the flights as they accused officials of lying to the passengers. Earlier this year DeSantis signed the so-called “Don’t say gay” bill, which prohibits discussing LGBTQ topics in classrooms, and went on to revoke Disney’s special status as a local government in Orlando after the company criticized the bill.

DeSantis has also made taking on the ‘Woke Agenda’ a priority.

His win continues a rightward shift for what was formerly the nation’s largest swing state, with voters in even the once-Democratic stronghold of Miami-Dade County embracing a governor who framed his candidacy as a battle against what he characterized as the “woke agenda” of liberals. In the lead-up to the election, DeSantis harnessed the power of incumbency to assemble media, often on short notice and far outside major markets, for news conferences where he would spend significant time honing critiques of Democratic President Joe Biden, liberal policies and the mainstream media, delivered before cheering crowds. “We fight the woke in the Legislature. We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die,” DeSantis told elated supporters during his victory speech.

“I have only begun to fight,” he concluded.

His ceaseless combative posture, and ability to leverage the power of state government to his will, endeared DeSantis to major GOP donors and built him into a natural heir to former President Donald Trump in the minds of some Republican voters. His victory is certain to further speculation of a potential DeSantis presidential run. DeSantis has so far dodged questions on his possible Washington aspirations, skirting the subject repeatedly during his only gubernatorial debate with Crist in late October. Trump takes shots at DeSantis Trump, who credits himself for propelling DeSantis to a first term in the governor’s office, has teased a third presidential run and grown frustrated with DeSantis’ refusal to rule out a 2024 campaign, according to people familiar with Trump’s thinking. [caption id=“attachment_11594371” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Former US president Donald Trump has grown frustrated with Ron DeSantis’ refusal to rule out running for president in 2024. AFP[/caption] Polling consistently shows that while Trump is the prohibitive favourite to nab the 2024 Republican nomination, DeSantis could potentially emerge as a problem.

And Trump, who pays special attention to polls, knows this better than anyone.

Which is why the former commander-in-chief has put DeSantis in his crosshairs lately. On Wednesday, Trump took to Truth Social to put down DeSantis’ win. “Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million? Just asking?” Trump on Tuesday lay claim to elevating DeSantis. “He was not going to be able to even be a factor in the race, and as soon as I endorsed him, within moments the race was over,” Trump, speaking about DeSantis’ 2018 run for governor against Democrat Andrew Gillum, told NewsNation.  “I got him the nomination. He didn’t get it, I got it. Because the minute I made that endorsement, he got it. I thought that he could have been more gracious, but that’s up to him.” In a recent interview with Fox News digital, Trump claimed. “I would tell you things about him that won’t be very flattering – I know more about him than anybody – other than, perhaps, his wife.” Trump also told Fox News that DeSantis could “hurt himself badly” by running for president. Trump, remember, previously attacked the wife of Senator Ted Cruz when they were both vying for the presidency in 2016. The former US president also recently took a shot at DeSantis at a rally in Pennsylvania where he unveiled a new nickname for the governor – Ron DeSanctimonous. “If I faced him, I’d beat him like I would beat everyone else,” Trump told Yahoo Finance last October. “I think most people would drop out, I think he would drop out.” With the 2024 Republican nomination up for grabs, don’t expect Trump to play nice with DeSantis anytime soon. With inputs from agencies Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook ,  Twitter  and  Instagram .