Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called Tuesday's midterm results " close to an extinction-level event for Republicans" across the country, but held up Florida's results, where Republicans won every statewide race, as proof that Florida withstood the "blue wave" or Democratic victories.
But according to Politico reporter Kimberly Leonard, DeSantis's message was more narrative-building than reality — given that Democrats broke the Republican supermajority control of the State Legislature.
" If you look a little bit closer, there were a lot of places where Democrats made huge inroads. I mean, the fact that there are so many State House members now who are Democrats, that's gonna make it a very different atmosphere... in the legislature," she told The Florida Roundup. "Democrats, at the beginning of this election season, their goal was to break the super majority. And they did that."
Those Democratic wins in the State House could mean Floridans see a legislature much more willing to compromise.
" It means that Republicans can't just fast-track all their priorities, you know? It's not just Democrats. It's a lot of these centrist Republicans who are in the State Senate, for example, who are gonna be more willing to kind of break with things. They can't just come in and quickly power their way through on all their different things that they wanna do. They're gonna have to have more compromise, and it's gonna slow things down," Leonard said.
READ MORE: 'There will be Democratic votes needed': Florida Democrats overcome supermajority in House
Even though Democrats did not win a race for statewide office, Leonard said their Senate candidate Angie Nixon put on an impressive performance against Republican Ashley Moody — significantly raising her profile.
" She became one of the most famous people in the state very, very quickly," she said.
" Rep. Nixon proved herself to be a formidable opponent, and all those conversations I've been having with the Republicans, there's not one Republican who didn't say that they were not super impressed by her," she added. "Doesn't matter how much they were criticizing her publicly. In conversations with me, they say that she ran one heck of a campaign."
DeSantis said he'd call a special session to discuss how to implement the newly passed Amendment 3.
But Leonard told The Florida Roundup that there's a disagreement over which legislature should convene to decide on how the bill is enacted. If DeSantis gets a special session, it would happen before the newly elected batch of lawmakers are sworn in.
" The fallout is going to be something that DeSantis might have a hand in kind of orchestrating, but Governor-elect Donalds is really the one who's gonna be left holding the bag," she said.
Listen above to the Nov. 06, 2026 interview with Kimberly Leonard or find The Florida Roundup wherever you get your podcasts.
