Trump has gone on the attack because many people blame him for the poor performance of the Republican Party in the midterm elections.
Two days after the polls opened on November 8, the GOP still hasn’t won enough races to get a majority in the House, but it’s still expected to pass the 218-seat mark.
The GOP could also lose control of the Senate. The December run-off election in Georgia between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker could once again decide which party controls the upper chamber.
After the GOP did poorly, many conservatives, media outlets, and even GOP members pointed the finger at the former president.
Trump had backed a lot of candidates in the midterm elections. Many of them supported his “Make America Great Again” agenda and the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged.
As some of these Trump-backed candidates lost their elections, it was suggested that the 76-year-old is no longer the real leader of the GOP and that the party is now ready to fully embrace Florida Governor Ron DeSantis before the 2024 election.
Big gain in Washoe for CCM, slices Laxalt’s lead by 4,500 votes, now just 9,000 statewide.
She again received more than 60 percent of the vote. https://t.co/U6g9A5GtVM
— Jon Ralston (@RalstonReports) November 11, 2022
Trump used to think that DeSantis was a key ally in the GOP. But in recent months, he has turned against the Florida Governor and publicly shot down any claims that he would beat him in a hypothetical GOP primary for the next presidential candidate.
On November 7, the day before the election, Trump also said that DeSantis should not win “If the Governor ran against him for the presidency in 2024, he told Fox News, “I think the base would not like it.” It wouldn’t be good for the party, in my opinion.”
The Claim
Trump continued to say that DeSantis shouldn’t be the one to lead the GOP, but he did point out that he got more votes in Florida than the governor.
READ MORE: When Can I Expect to Get My November 2022 Food Stamps Payment?
Trump wrote on November 9 in Truth Social, “Now that the election in Florida is over and everything went well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 million more votes in Florida than Ron D did this year, 5.7 million to 4.6 million?”
The Facts
In 2020, Trump won in Florida, which was one of the states where he beat Joe Biden. However, Trump lost the election as a whole.
The New York Times says that Trump got 5,668,731 votes in the 2020 election, which is 51.2%. Biden came in second with 5,297,045 votes (47.9 percent.)
In the midterm election of 2022, Charlie Christ, a Democrat, ran against DeSantis. Christ was nearly 20 percentage points behind DeSantis.
According to the counts from The Times and The Washington Post, DeSantis has 4,609,110 votes and Crist has 3,102,136, which is more than 1.5 million votes behind.
What do u call passing laws changing vote by mail/curtailing Early Voting?
What do u call creating an unnecessary Election Police and making sure some Black voters got arrested for cockamamie voting charges later dismissed in Court?
What do u call redistricting FL to benefit GOP? https://t.co/baouVPTO5q— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) November 10, 2022
This means that the total number of votes between Trump’s 2020 count in Florida and DeSantis’ midterm count in 2022 is 1,059,621, which is technically a little less than what Trump says.
READ MORE: Delays in IRS Tax Refunds: if You’ve Been Waiting for a Check, There Is Finally Some Good News
When you round up to two digits, you get 5.7 million for Trump and 4.6 million for DeSantis. This gives Trump the 1.1 million advantage he has been talking about.
One important difference, though, is that more people usually vote in presidential elections than in midterm elections. The Center for Politics at the University of Virginia says that the last time midterm turnout was higher than the previous presidential election was in 1838.
I remember when FL GOP ❤️’ed Jeb!
Florida was “Bush Country”. In Miami, we called him, “Jebito”. He was one of us. They dropped him for Trump.They also ❤️’ed Rubio. In Miami, Hispanics call him, “Marquito”. They dropped him for Trump.
Now, base ❤️’s Ron.
I’ve seen this movie. pic.twitter.com/m1axGNuAy3— Ana Navarro-Cárdenas (@ananavarro) November 10, 2022
In Florida’s 2014 gubernatorial election, only about half of the people who were eligible to vote did, and in 2018, only about 62% did. Even though votes are still being counted in these midterm elections, which could make the gap Trump talked about smaller, the current estimate is that around 60 percent of eligible voters cast ballots.
In contrast, 77 percent of Floridians voted for president in 2020, and about 75 percent did so four years earlier.
The Ruling
True.
Even though Trump rounded up his 2020 number to the nearest hundred thousand and DeSantis rounded down his 2022 number, it is safe to say that the former president beat the Florida governor by about 1.1 million when both numbers are rounded to two digits.
To be fair, though, it’s important to note that voter turnout in midterm elections has almost always been lower than in presidential elections.
