In a clear victory against whatever conservatives consider “woke,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis won reelection last night after obliterating Democratic challenger Charlie Crist. 

The 44-year-old 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner was surrounded by his family, donors, and diehard supporters at a Tuesday evening watch party at the Tampa Convention Center.

“We have embraced freedom, we have maintained law and order, we have protected the rights of parents, we have respected our taxpayers and we reject ‘woke ideology,'” said DeSantis.

As Fox News blared on a projector, the race was declared relatively early in the evening, with DeSantis earning over 4.6 million votes, or 59.4%. 

The Florida governor’s overwhelming victory over a Democratic challenger, comes in contrast to the rest of the country’s gubernatorial races. Last night, 36 states were up for grabs and as of now, Democratic candidates held three crucial “blue wall” states and flipped two, with victories in Massachusetts and Maryland. 

Credit: Photo by Dave Decker
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Casey DeSantis at Tampa Convention Center in Tampa, Florida on Nov. 9, 2022. Credit: Photo by Dave Decker
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Ron DeSantis during his victory speech at the Tampa Convention Center on Nov. 8, 2022. Credit: Photo by Dave Decker
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Colin Wolf has been working with weekly newspapers since 2007 and has been the Digital Editor for Creative Loafing Tampa since 2019. He is also the Director of Digital Content Strategy for CL's parent...