Reacting to the re-election of Ron DeSantis as governor of Florida by a stunning million-plus -- and growing -- votes, CNN's election night panel unanimously agreed that one of the big losers of the night was Donald Trump and his hopes of being the 2024 Republican Party presidential nominee.
Long after the state was called for the controversial Florida governor, two Republicans on the panel enthusiastically stated that the GOP rank and file will likely see DeSantis as their best chance to win in 2024.
Addressing the panel, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) adviser Scott Jennings claimed the huge margin of victory, combined with the broad coalition of voters who propelled him to victory, shows that DeSantis is the candidate who can do what the former president can't.
"Oh, the message that DeSantis sent this night," Jennings enthused. "This district got called early, and Florida counts their votes quickly, so we will not be talking about it as we watch these other nail-biter's. The message that Ron DeSantis sent to the Republican party tonight about what he is capable of; crushing up and down the state among the counties, where they have a lot of Hispanic votes, suburban voters, rural voters."
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'When you talk about building a coalition to run a presidential campaign that could win, that is the message that DeSantis sent tonight," he elaborated. "So, that, to me, for 2024 implications, this crushed. Think about the political message that sends about what should this party do now?"
Former Trump adviser David Urban agreed.
"Sitting across the state at Mar-a-Lago ..." Urban interjected and then laughed. "I think former President Trump has to be watching, looking at the margins."
"Governor DeSantis, won the last election by 33,000 votes -- barely winning," he continued. "He won by 1.6 million right about now, so, it could still grow a little bit, but a huge market. And to Scott's point, the coalition of voters he has put together is something completely impressive that he would need to put together to run nationwide. He has done it here, they can replicate it again."
"The other huge number he put together was money, and he is still got $90 million left to start his presidential race," Democratic strategist David Axelrod offered.
"This is as close to a mandate as governor DeSantis is going to get," former Trump wh White House official Alyssa Farah Griffin added. "And I imagine every elected Republican is gonna be calling him saying you need to be the nominee."
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CNN 11 08 2022 22 21 06youtu.be
