Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blamed President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans for the party’s midterm defeats, accusing GOP lawmakers of failing to deliver on promises that might have kept their voters from staying home.
“This midterm, no question, was a rebuke of the president and the Congress by Democrats, independents and some Republicans that crossed over,” DeSantis told Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
But the governor argued that opposition to Republicans was only part of the problem. He maintained that frustrated conservatives had also declined to vote after watching their party control Washington without accomplishing enough.
“But a lot of our voters who stayed home, they stayed home because they were frustrated with the lack of productivity from Republicans in the House and Senate,” he continued. “That’s just a fact. They were promised big things, and they didn’t deliver it.”
Democrats captured both chambers of Congress and won major races in Republican strongholds including Texas, Kansas and South Carolina. DeSantis described the scale of the losses as far more severe than the Republican setbacks in 2006 or 2018.
“I’ve never seen in a year that was worse for Republicans across the board in a midterm since I’ve been on God’s green earth, and that’s just the reality of it,” he remarked at a Wednesday news conference.
He also warned that the results had consequences beyond Trump’s remaining term. The Democratic victories would restrict the president’s legislative agenda and could leave his Republican successor facing a hostile Congress, DeSantis argued.
The governor reserved some of his harshest criticism for Vivek Ramaswamy, who lost Ohio’s gubernatorial race to Democrat Amy Acton by 7.9 percentage points.
🎓Support Defending Education’s mission to expose political agendas in America’s classrooms and restore quality education for all! 🎓 Help protect students and strengthen education nationwide ➡️➡️➡️ DONATE TODAY!!! 🇺🇸
DeSantis questioned why Republicans had chosen the biotechnology entrepreneur to represent a state he characterized as deeply working class.
“I don’t know why they would have pushed him to be the candidate there.” DeSantis made the remark during a podcast appearance, noting his mother’s family ties to Youngstown. He characterized Ramaswamy as a technology businessman who struggled to connect with blue-collar voters.
Ramaswamy’s preference for a merit-based H-1B visa system came under particular criticism. The failed candidate had called for replacing the existing lottery system, but DeSantis argued that supporting visas for foreign workers was unlikely to win over the Ohio voters Republicans needed.
“He wants to bring in foreign workers on visas. That is not the type of person that’s going to sell.” DeSantis argued that the position put Ramaswamy at odds with working-class voters.
He also said Ramaswamy had damaged his own campaign and that a candidate better aligned with Ohio’s working-class electorate could have performed more strongly.
Weeks before the vote, Ramaswamy’s campaign drew criticism from both parties over an advertisement featuring Acton’s estranged mother, who challenged the Democrat’s account of childhood poverty and homelessness.
DeSantis linked the national results to what he considered congressional Republicans’ failure to turn Trump’s executive orders into permanent law. He described the party as being on the defensive after voters delivered what he viewed as an unmistakable message to Washington.
That criticism did not translate into an announcement about his own future. Asked about running in 2028, DeSantis rejected the idea of seeking office simply to occupy a position.
“The only way that I would run for any office is if you can actually deliver big results,” he explained. “I don’t want to just be a timepiece where I just sit there like a potted plant.”
Although Democrats gained ground in Florida and defeated some Republican congressional candidates, DeSantis pointed to the state’s statewide results as evidence that his party had avoided the worst of the national shift. He said Republicans retained the governorship, Senate seat and other statewide offices while losing only one state Senate seat.
Florida was not immune to the backlash, he acknowledged. DeSantis described a state where Trump had carried the vote by 13 points in 2024, but Republican Sen. Moody’s margin was about three points and the governor’s race was decided by roughly one point.
He said he had warned Florida candidates to subtract at least 10 points from Trump’s previous district-level margins when planning their campaigns. Those warnings reflected his belief that voters who wanted to punish Washington Republicans could do so in races far removed from the capital.
Texas offered his clearest example. DeSantis highlighted James Talarico’s Senate victory and Gov. Greg Abbott’s defeat, along with Democratic gains in other statewide contests, as evidence of a dramatic reversal in a state long controlled by Republicans.
He characterized the shifts in Texas and Ohio as reaching roughly 20 points from red to blue, compared with a smaller movement in Florida. DeSantis credited his state’s performance partly to voters supporting Amendment Three, which increased the homestead exemption.
“We effectively swept because if you have a once in 100 year negative wave, to only lose one state Senate seat, that’s a win in that situation.” DeSantis characterized the outcome as a qualified victory.
The governor emphasized that even Florida’s narrower swing carried a warning for future Republican candidates. He said voters determined to send Washington a message could affect legislative, county and statewide contests in the same election.
“We are the only state I think that was able to get through this with having all of our statewides intact,” DeSantis said. “That’s something that you’re only going to keep that if you continue to deliver results for people.”
