Veteran Democratic strategist James Carville singled out the one Republican he believes walked away from the GOP's election night drubbing stronger than before.
Speaking in a Wednesday episode of "Politics War Room," Carville named Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the GOP's surprise winner after Republicans narrowly held Florida while Texas flipped from red to blue.
"The Republican winner last night was Ron DeSantis," Carville said.
The longtime Democratic operative made clear he is no fan of the Florida governor, but he argued that DeSantis can now tell fellow Republicans to look at his home state if they want to win. Carville stressed that "everybody had dismissed him" before the midterms and predicted the GOP's image would sink after its losses, while DeSantis can point to having backed many of Trump's policies without ever becoming part of his orbit.
"Whatever chance he had last night is doubled in the last 24 hours," Carville added.
Co-host Mark McKinnon, a veteran political strategist, agreed that "the greatest beneficiary of this election may be Ron DeSantis." McKinnon pointed out that DeSantis had already gone on the attack against former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, blaming her for much of the outcome over early ICE policies.
The picture looked far bleaker for Vice President JD Vance. McKinnon declared that Vance "is walking wounded" and predicted a reckoning in MAGA that would leave the movement splintered heading into 2028.
Aidan Kohn-Murphy, founder of the youth advocacy group Gen Z for Change, was even harsher. He called Vance "a very silly man" whose "surrogates and his campaign appearances have been pretty disastrous."
"I think he comes out of this looking pretty rough," Kohn-Murphy said, adding that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who mainly campaigned in Florida, kept "his hands clean a little bit."
Kohn-Murphy remained skeptical of DeSantis' national appeal, though, and called Democrats coming within a point and a half in Florida's governor's race and two points in the Senate race "a pretty devastating result."
Carville was unmoved, summing up his view of politics bluntly.
"The most important thing in politics is winning," he declared.