Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was a GOP golden boy -- until coronavirus tanked his poll numbers: op-ed

Writing for Yahoo News this Monday, Alexander Nazaryan chronicles the rise of Florida governor Ron DeSantis and his impending fall from grace as the fallout grows over his response to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Long before the coronavirus outbreak turned him into one of the least popular governors in the nation, Gov. DeSantis of Florida was something of a conservative golden boy," Nazaryan writes, adding that he was originally praised by both Democrats and Republicans for his ideological independence.

"Two years and two months later, DeSantis is not drawing much praise from anyone," writes Nazaryan. "Of the 15 governors whose approval ratings were recently tracked by polling site FiveThirtyEight, DeSantis was last. He was also the only governor of those 15 to see his popularity decrease because of the coronavirus. DeSantis’s approval rating dropped 7 percentage points, while California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rose by 41 points."

All that was before DeSantis rushed to reopen beaches and other parts of his state -- an effort that appeared to be guided less by scientific thinking than a desire to please Trump, according to Nazaryan.

"Florida has so far avoided the epidemiological disaster some worried was coming, but that appears to have happened despite DeSantis, not because of him," Nazaryan continues. "In fact, a 50-state survey by researchers at Northeastern, Harvard and Rutgers found that only 60 percent of Floridians approved of his pandemic response, 12 points below the national average."

Read the full op-ed over at Yahoo News.