Gov. Ron DeSantis ought to appoint himself to the U.S. Senate, and the reason has a little something to do with a former foe: ex-Republican Gov.-turned independent U.S. Senate candidate-turned Democratic U.S. Rep.-turned failed Democratic candidate for Governor Charlie Crist.
If only Crist owned Doc Brown’s DeLorean.
Of course, the stainless steel sports car featuring gull wing doors was a souped-up DeLorean in which Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, sent Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly traveling through time in the “Back to the Future” trilogy.
Whereas Marty had to travel back to the moment when his would-be parents became lovers in order to save the McFly family, there is little doubt in my mind that Crist would drive that DeLorean straight to the Whataburger two blocks from the Governor’s Mansion. During a late-night meeting at the fast-food joint in 2009, George LeMieux persuaded Crist’s then-Chief of Staff Erik Eikenberg that LeMieux deserved an interview to be considered for the U.S. Senate post to which he was ultimately appointed.
The Senate seat was a highly coveted job during Crist’s tenure, prompted by Mel Martinez’s announcement in late 2008 that he would not seek a second term. That, in turn, sparked Crist and eventual winner Marco Rubio to run for the seat. But when Martinez resigned in 2009, it was up to Crist to pick the person who would serve the final 16 months of the term. It was a rare opportunity for him to pick someone who would not challenge him in the 2010 election. In hindsight, Crist flubbed it.
Instead of agreeing to consider LeMieux, Crist should have done donut wheels in the parking lot until Eikenberg, LeMieux and everyone else knew the only candidate he was considering for the seat was himself.
Such a decision would have changed the course of Florida politics, if not the nation’s, with a butterfly effect that would have impacted all of the big names currently leading Republican machinations, such as DeSantis and Rubio.
Unfortunately for Crist, the only place you’ll see that time-traveling DeLorean is Broadway, where the story of the McFly clan is now a popular musical.
As anyone who is reading this column knows, Crist would lose the Senate seat to Rubio, launching a rightward shift in the Sunshine State that has made Florida the center of Donald Trump’s MAGA brand of politics.
Of course, history repeats itself and now DeSantis finds himself in a similar situation, with the same exact Senate seat. Rubio is heading to Washington, where he will serve — assuming he is confirmed — as Trump’s Secretary of State. That means Rubio’s seat will be vacant, and it will be DeSantis’ job to name Rubio’s replacement until the next election.
There are plenty of contenders within DeSantis’ own pool of political allies, such as Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, Attorney General Ashley Moody, former House Speaker José Oliva and DeSantis’ Chief of Staff, James Uthmeier. And those in Trumpworld had been pushing for DeSantis to appoint the President-elect’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, but she removed herself from consideration before Christmas.
DeSantis has been mum so far on whether he has any favorites, but he offered some clues in a post shortly after Trump announced his intention to appoint Rubio as Secretary of State.
“Florida deserves a senator who will help President Trump deliver on his election mandate, be strong on immigration and border security, take on the entrenched bureaucracy and administrative state, reverse the nation’s fiscal decline, be animated by conservative principles, and has a proven record of results,” he wrote.
Lara Trump certainly would have been that, and any of those in DeSantis’ circle no doubt would be standard-bearers of the Trump brand, too. But that description could just as easily be applied to DeSantis himself.
I imagine DeSantis still wants to be President and he likely believes he is the front-runner for when Trump is term-limited from running again in 2028.
But four years is an eternity in politics.
No one in Florida would be upset if DeSantis appointed himself, especially with Lara Trump out of contention. GOP voters certainly know and support DeSantis more than Moody. It’s more than likely that few even know who Nuñez, Oliva or Uthmeier are.
And while DeSantis’ star had been rising in recent years within GOP politics writ large, it has withered within the MAGAverse, where his strong contingent of vocal and powerful allies will no doubt do whatever they can between now and the next Presidential Election cycle to keep DeSantis small. Look no further than teasing DeSantis for Trump’s Secretary of Defense nomination, for what would have been a replacement nod following the massive blowback against a far more controversial choice in Fox News personality Pete Hegseth.
If I know the operatives in Mar-a-Lago as well as I think I do, I suspect they’ll be wearing pins reading “ABR” — Anybody But Ron — in 2027-28.
But a U.S. Sen. DeSantis would be his own base of power. Far be it from DeSantis needing Trump, it would be Trump who needs DeSantis. And Florida’s Governor, branded not so long ago as “America’s Governor,” could be the ideological MAGA leader in the Sunshine State.
Such a post would guarantee that DeSantis would remain in the limelight once he’s out of the Governor’s Office. And that importance cannot be overstated — just ask Jeb Bush how hard it is to run for President as an ex-anything (“please clap“).
Does DeSantis really want to spend the next two years repairing whatever bridge is destroyed by the inevitable next hurricane? Does he look forward to wrangling the most recent class of state lawmakers, a group that has already shown it’s willing to be difficult for the executive branch, unlike the last class that fell in line behind a leader with a rising national profile?
It’s not like a DeSantis run for U.S. Senate would be a shocking aspiration — he already ran briefly for the job in 2016.
At this point, what does DeSantis have to lose?
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Material from the Associated Press was used in this post.
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