I think the difference between Scott Walker and Ron DeSantis is that DeSantis actually did all this trolly stuff that the base loves.
DeSantis can get up on stage and talk about "banning the woke agenda from our schools" and "sending illegal immigrants to blue states" or "stopping Dr. Fauci from telling us how to live our lives" and people will cheer and applaud.
Meanwhile Walker was known for making life miserable for unions and rejecting Obamacare funds, neither of which are issues that resonate with the base. They resonate with the billionaire donor class and writers for The Federalist which is how he got so much hype. And then nobody cared once he actually got on stage.
This is why I think that a lot of the hype around DeSantis as some god-tier general election candidate is very odd. Most of his major 'accomplishments' are just culture war nonsense that only appeals to the GOP base. Normal people and swing voters don't care about that stuff. I'm not convinced why DeSantis whining about Disney being too woke is any less embarrassing than most of the stuff Trump does.
DeSantis/Kemp/Abbott all did very well despite being pretty conservative. It was clear that wasn’t the issue in this election but rather the Trump factor and the terrible candidates we nominated were
This argument doesn't hold since trumpy candidates also performed well and establishment candidates performed poorly and lost. Blaming trump because you want to move on from trump doesn't make your argument correct
Uh the most prominent Republican candidates who were Trumpy this cycle were : Doug Mastriano , Kari Lake , Blake Masters , Dr Oz , Joe Kent , Hershel Walker and guess what the 5 of them lost and the 6th will likely lose as well . While you could cite JD Vance the fact is he underperformed 2020 GOP numbers in a year when the republicans won the popular vote nationally so he was basically saved by the state’s partisan lean .
It’s clear DeSantis is the way the party should go , just like in 1979 it was clear the party needed to choose Reagan and while you may not like Reagan he was undeniably was the most successful conservative president in the modern era and DeSantis has that potential as well . We already tried it with Trump and guess what he failed .
You guys are better off running Youngkin if you want to truly distance yourselves from Trumpism. DeSantis is much closer to Trump than he is to Youngkin.
Youngkin and DeSantis aren’t that different imo and he is my number 2 candidate for 2024 as well . It’s just that he hasn’t been governor long enough yet imo which is why I give DeSantis the edge .
Politics is more about vibes than anything else, and IMO Youngkin would have a far easier time convincing swing voters that his extremist policies are actually moderate. Youngkin is a mild-mannered guy in a sweater, DeSantis is a bombastic, nasally-voiced bully who sounds like he's trying to do an impression of Trump.
The problem is that Youngkin could easily be another Romney. Romney did extremely well with republicans and independents. From what I remember he got a better % of republicans than Obama did with democrats and also won independents comfortably, by something like 4 or 5 points. But still lost because of critical turnout issues. He just didn't excite his base like Obama did and so lost.
In modern American politics, you need to turn out the base. Youngkin certainly will appear more moderate, respectable and "presidential" to general election voters but he wouldn't be capable of exciting the republican base. Whereas Desantis obviously will excite the base due to the reasons General McArthur stated. Hell, even Abbott would honestly do better. Youngkin would win 94% of republicans but with a 70% turnout whereas Desantis would win something like 92% of republicans with an 80% turnout. The latter is better.
