Ron DeSantis has hit the first bump on the glory road he has been traveling since being elected governor, and it’s a doozy: a deadly pandemic. His response to the challenge so far has not received rave reviews.

From the moment DeSantis entered the public’s consciousness from stage far right, he has been something of an anomaly. The word vacuous might have been invented to describe his gubernatorial campaign. In the Republican primary, he was Donald Trump’s most devout worshiper. That was it, the entire primary campaign, soup to nuts. In the general election, he promised to be the diligent curator of 20 years of Republican policies in Tallahassee, offering nothing more than more of the same. Careful and cautious to the point of banality.

But there had to be more to Ron DeSantis than his campaign hologram suggested. The man is a Yale graduate and a Harvard law school alum. He was a Navy JAG officer. He practiced law in the private sector. And he was three times elected to Congress, where he served creditably if without particular distinction other than his ubiquitous presence on Fox News, which attracted Trump’s attention and eventual endorsement.

Thankfully, Candidate DeSantis was in fact a dumbed down pose, the result being that Governor DeSantis has benefited from expectations low enough to make it difficult not to exceed them. And exceed them he has. Whether proposing higher teacher salaries or supporting major environmental initiatives, he has surprised friends and delighted foes. And his communication skills, while not Churchillian, are a marked improvement over those of the man he succeeded, Rick Scott, thus enabling him to easily clear another low bar.

The fact is, DeSantis has been shooting fish in a barrel until now, what with a sponsor in the White House and both houses of the Florida Legislature controlled by Republican allies. But the true measure of a governor is taken not when the living is easy, but when he or she must contend with powerful forces beyond their control, such as a hostile Legislature, an economic downturn or a natural disaster. For the past three decades, the defining moments for governors in Florida have usually been hurricanes or recessions, and most of them performed well enough under pressure, from Lawton Chiles’ aggressive response to Hurricane Andrew to Rick Scott’s jobs, jobs, jobs monomania during the Great Recession.

Now it is DeSantis’ turn to be tested. To be sure, his test is of a wholly different order of magnitude than those faced by his recent predecessors, combining a lethal and insidious disease with statewide economic carnage that could be of depression proportions before all is said and done.

But it is a test that can be passed. New York is the vortex of the virus, yet Gov. Andrew Cuomo is justly lauded for his leadership, and that leadership has sent his approval ratings soaring. Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan, Mike DeWine in Ohio, Gavin Newsome in California and Larry Hogan in Maryland, Democrats and Republicans, have all earned good marks in navigating this crisis.

Ron DeSantis? Not so much. He has reacted to events rather than trying to shape them, and those reactions have been judged by his numerous critics to be half-hearted half-measures, too little too late. And his in-person communications to an anxious public have been reasonably frequent but frequently muddled. As a result, Florida’s response to the virus has suffered, as has DeSantis’ standing with voters, if recent polls are to be believed. And much of the bloom has gone from the rose of his national reputation.

Perhaps his high profile fealty to Trump, who has resisted anticipatory, bold responses to the spread of the virus from the beginning, tied DeSantis’ hands politically. Perhaps his executive branch inexperience accounts in part for his timidity. Perhaps the man we saw in the general election campaign is who he is after all.

But as the saying goes, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, and this pandemic throw-down ain’t over by a long shot. The governor will have more opportunities to demonstrate that he has the right stuff. Let us hope he seizes them.

Mac Stipanovich was chief of staff to former Gov. Bob Martinez and a long-time Republican strategist and lobbyist. He has since registered as no party affiliation and as a Democrat, and his voter registration now varies with the election cycle.