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The former Republican president hoped to ride the red “wave” towards a new candidacy in 2024 after the mid-term elections in the United States, but with limited gains and an outstanding result from his main rival within the party, the former president seems to be left in the bank.
The “wave” that Trump expected did not have the momentum that he expected. Even the other most relevant fact for him is the victory of the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, who consolidated his presidential project for 2024.
Before the count, the former White House tenant (2017-2021) hinted that he will announce his new presidential candidacy on November 15. Yet his plans appear to be clouded: Several of the candidates he handpicked did not fare well at the polls on Tuesday, some even losing seats held by Republicans to Democrats.
Trump tried to impose his own reading of the elections from his own platform.
“While yesterday’s election was somewhat disappointing in some ways, from my personal perspective it was a great victory,” he wrote on Truth Social.
Meanwhile, the figure of DeSantis is growing among Republicans. A conservative-leaning Fox News editorial called Florida’s re-elected governor “the new leader of the Republican Party,” while the New York Post’s front page dubbed him “DeFuture.”
The end of the “kingmaker”?
Trump could expect to be favored with the traditional setback that presidents suffer in mid-term elections. The announced Republican “wave” not only fell short, but the “Trump approved” stamp did not work as he expected.
“Many of the candidates that (Trump) endorsed underperformed and cost their party the opportunity to win seats they should have been able to win,” said Jon Rogowski, a political scientist at the University of Chicago.
And “other Republican candidates who were publicly feuded with easily won their seats,” he added.
Brian Kemp, for example, whom Trump criticized for his role in certifying Biden’s 2020 electoral victory, was re-elected as governor of Georgia.
Geoff Duncan, the lieutenant governor of Georgia and a longtime critic of the former president, told , “It’s really a turning point for the Republican Party.” And he added, “It’s time to move on.”
In view of the results, the former president may have lost his aura as a “kingmaker”. The famous surgeon Mehmet Oz, supported by Trump, did not keep a key seat in the Senate for the Republicans from the disputed state of Pennsylvania.
Also in that state, the ultra-conservative and anti-abortion candidate Doug Mastriano, present at the January 6 assault on the Capitol by Trump supporters, also lost the governorship.
However, there were some exceptions: Trumpist JD Vance was elected senator in Ohio, and more than 100 Republican candidates who challenged the results of the 2020 presidential election scored wins in local and national offices, according to US media projections.
It remains to be seen what will happen on Mars. That same November 15, another Trump rival, his former Vice President Mike Pence, will publish his memoirs, the best pages of which will appear in due time on Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal. There, Pence recounts the pressures suffered to annul the results of the 2020 presidential elections.
