DeSantis strategizes for his future while Trump obsesses over his election loss

But successful candidates position themselves well ahead of time to take advantage of future openings. All a potential GOP presidential hopeful can do now is prepare for a post-Trump era, if it happens. And DeSantis is using his flair for leveraging his official role as governor and his reelection race to pick fights on issues that matter to Trump voters, to saturate conservative media and to emerge as the dominant potential 2024 Republican not named Trump. If the ex-President stumbles, decides not to run or becomes embroiled in his own legal troubles, DeSantis is already presenting himself as an alternative. And in some ways, their shadow boxing is offering the first sign of a fork in the road for the Republican Party.

With Trump, activists can get a relitigation of an election that would then be four years in the past and the promise to use a second term to wreak havoc on the political, legal and foreign policy elites that thwarted him in his first term. There are few signs of new policies or approaches that might look to the future.

DeSantis, however, offers all the ideological and culture war ammunition that Trump would bring without the bellyaching about 2020, although he has proposed Trump-inspired ideas about voting restrictions and an election police. He’d be a lightning conductor for conservative fury over undocumented migrants, the teaching of race in schools, transgender athletes playing on sports teams and the perceived crushing of freedoms by Covid-19 restrictions. And he’d have a governing record on all of them.

Trump retains fierce support in the heartland — the number of signs bearing his name alongside major highways and homes remains remarkable testimony to the connection forged by the former…

Read More: DeSantis strategizes for his future while Trump obsesses over his election loss