Outgoing Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis warned that the 2026 midterms left Republicans in dire straits nationwide and blamed Washington lawmakers for the party's devastating electoral losses.
Republicans suffered sweeping defeats across the country, with DeSantis warning that the party could remain out of power in Washington for years and lose its national viability without presence in longtime strongholds like Texas. The governor described the election as a rejection of Washington Republicans rather than an endorsement of Democrats, criticizing GOP lawmakers over congressional stock trading, voting against releasing the Epstein files and campaign messaging that failed to resonate with voters in a Wednesday speech.
"This is close to an extinction level event for Republicans in many parts of the country as we have seen probably in the last hundred years," DeSantis stated bluntly.
Like many, the governor suspected that the distance between establishment neoconservative ideals and the plight of the everyday American would lead to a loss of confidence in the Republican Party.
"We knew it could be worse, but I don't think most of us thought it would be quite this bad…this is probably the political worst case scenario for a midterm election," he added.
DeSantis correlated the midterms results with growing disenchantment towards D.C. Republicans — not a growing affinity for liberalism. (RELATED: JD Vance Carves His Own Path With Blunt Assessment On Disastrous Midterms)
DeSantis: Let’s just be clear about what happened last night. This is close to an EXTINCTION-LEVEL event for Republicans in many parts of the country, as we have seen probably in the last hundred years. In January, when everyone in office leaves who are either term-limited or got… pic.twitter.com/QXfVwuhiZO
— Chris Nelson 🏝️🇺🇸 (@ReOpenChris) November 4, 2026
"We ran as Republicans on saying we need to do that. And then you actually have people in the Congress voting against release when the Attorney General said she had all this horrific stuff on her desk and that people were gonna be held accountable," he reflected on broken promises regarding the release of the Epstein Files and accountability for those implicated.
"My view was, how do you have no investment acumen and then all of a sudden get elected to Congress and then you're outperforming Warren Buffett? How does that work?" he asked, touching upon the pattern of politicians growing wealthy from insider trading.
"Mortgage rates are over 7%. Gas is $4 a gallon. Grocery prices have gone up and all these. And so, I think it was more kitchen table issues and bread and butter issues than that," he added.
DeSantis also discussed the quality of the candidates the GOP ran.
"They didn't have a great positive case for themselves. They were flatfooted. They were trying to explain this or explain that in ways that weren't landing with voters," he said candidly.
"So this is really going to have an impact two years, four years, six years, maybe even longer before Republicans could exercise unified control in Washington again like we've enjoyed over the last two years," the governor warned.
However, he emphasized that the situation for his party is not hopeless.
"Now it's going to take a lot of time and effort to rebuild. It will not happen in just one election cycle, but Florida shows how you can build a coalition," DeSantis argued.
Source link
