Ron DeSantis vows to keep restaurants open during COVID-19 at a news conference on December 15, 2020, at Okeechobee Steakhouse in West Palm Beach, Florida. - Michael Laughlin/South Florida Sun Sentinel/TNS
As governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis reopened his state quickly after COVID-19, limited economic damage and managed to reopen schools by the fall of 2020, reducing learning loss. Florida also had an impressive vaccination rate and a lower age-adjusted COVID-19 death rate than most American states. Debates over COVID-19 policies and their consequences will continue for decades, but a growing number of nonpartisan historians are arguing that DeSantis was far more right than wrong. His environmental record, including protection of the Everglades, is better than many Democratic strongholds, he rai...
