How DeSantis-endorsed candidates fared nationally

Former President Donald Trump has been receiving national attention — and blame — for Republicans’ weaker-than-expected election night performance.

Thanks in large part to poor showings from some Trump-backed candidates, Republicans failed to flip the Senate and had smaller gains in the House than expected as Democrats pulled off historic midterm wins.

Meanwhile, in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis — seen as a likely primary contender to Trump for the presidency in 2024 — has been lauded for the large numbers of Florida-based candidates he backed for school board, Legislature and congressional seats winning their races.

But on the national stage, including in the recently called races for Arizona governor and Nevada’s U.S. Senate seat, DeSantis-backed candidates were not so fortunate.

DeSantis’ national endorsements overlapped heavily with Trump’s, with a few notable exceptions of candidates who have backed away from full-throated support of the former president.

That includes former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, who was seeking his old job back. LePage, famous for being bombastic and often offensive, once called himself “Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular.” But in his 2022 campaign, he shied away from the former president, who did not endorse him. LePage lost to incumbent Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.

LePage also has direct ties to Florida: he and his wife have owned two homes in Ormond Beach. The New York Times raised questions about those houses when it revealed that LePage received homestead exemptions in Florida while living in the Maine governor’s mansion, even though such exemptions are supposed to be for permanent state residents.

Joe O’Dea, who ran for one of Colorado’s U.S. Senate seats but lost, was also one of DeSantis’ picks. O’Dea had said he didn’t want Trump to run for president again, prompting Trump to express outrage online when DeSantis recorded a robocall in support of O’Dea.

Then there’s Don Bolduc of New Hampshire, who also ran for U.S. Senate. He did so with endorsements from both DeSantis and Trump — but after he lost, Trump gloated on social media that it was because Bolduc had softened his previous hardline stance that the 2020 election had been stolen.

As the Trump-DeSantis rivalry has burst into the public eye, those politicians, had they won, could have been helpful to DeSantis in the months ahead.

DeSantis’ total number of out-of-state endorsements was vastly smaller than Trump’s, who backed more than 200 candidates in various races, including those far down the ballot, like for state Legislature or even the Miami-Dade County Commission. In a video that Trump’s spokesperson posted to Twitter the day after the election, his team touted 219 victories of Trump-backed candidates compared to 16 losses, asserting the former president had “huge wins.” According to a tally by Ballotpedia, though, the number of losing candidates he endorsed is actually much higher.

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DeSantis has largely avoided meddling in the closely watched politics of Georgia, despite it being Florida’s closest neighbor and Trump having strong opinions about its top candidates.

DeSantis has not extended his support to highly controversial Senate candidate Herschel Walker, whom Trump has backed and whose campaign has been dogged by allegations about Walker’s personal life that contradict his staunch anti-abortion political positions. Walker faces Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in a runoff election on Dec. 6.

DeSantis was also mostly quiet about the Georgia governor’s race, in which Republican incumbent and Trump nemesis Brian Kemp skated to reelection over liberal darling Stacey Abrams. Last year, Trump said at a rally that it would be “OK with (him)” if Abrams beat Kemp, who crossed the former president by refusing to overturn his own state’s legitimate votes for President Joe Biden in 2020.

At a pre-election rally in Hillsborough County, DeSantis stopped short of backing or even naming Kemp, but bashed Abrams, to cheers from the crowd.

“We have this Georgia governor’s race where (the) Georgia governor is running … against Stacey Abrams,” DeSantis said, pausing for “boos” from the audience. “Here’s the truth: He’s going to win, but if by some chance Stacey Abrams got elected governor of Georgia, it would absolutely spark refugees flowing from Georgia and coming to Florida.”

Winning candidates both Trump and DeSantis endorsed include: Senate candidates JD Vance from Ohio, Ron Johnson from Wisconsin and Mike Lee from Utah, plus gubernatorial candidates Kevin Stitt from Oklahoma and Sarah Huckabee Sanders from Arkansas.

Losing candidates both Trump and DeSantis endorsed include: Senate candidates Blake Masters from Arizona, Mehmet Oz of Pennsylvania and Adam Laxalt of Nevada, plus gubernatorial candidates Kari Lake of Arizona, Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania, Lee Zeldin of New York, Tim Michels of Wisconsin, Mark Ronchetti of New Mexico and Derek Schmidt of Kansas.