Can Ron De Santis Ride 'Woke' To the White House?

The Florida governor’s attacks on business leaders who promote progressive values are finding traction with the Republican grassroots

- By Joshua Green

Two days before the midterm elections, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sauntered onstage at a bois-terous rally in an airplane hangar in Sarasota and, as Donald Trump likes to do, began tossing baseball caps to the crowd. The similarities with the 45th president didn’t end there. DeSantis mimicked Trump’s braggadocio, touting his own 2018 victory as “probably the most consequential governor’s election in the history of the state of Florida.” He even channeled Trump’s predilection for claiming that unnamed supporters routinely approach him weeping with gratitude for the unswerving strength of his leadership in the face of elite liberal hostility. As usual, it involved his skeptical response to the Covid-19 pandemic. “Sometimes,” DeSantis told the crowd, “people will just start crying, saying, ‘My business would just have gone under if you had not stood up for me.’ ”