Florida governor Ron DeSantis’s greatest political success was the product of taking a risk. After initially going along with the “flatten the curve” Covid strategy advocated by Anthony Fauci and the Trump administration, DeSantis in late April 2020 announced that his state would begin to reopen. After about six weeks of doing the politically safe thing and deferring to public-health officials, he made the basic calculation that the benefits of continued lockdowns were negligible at best, while the policies’ destructive effects on businesses and children were very real.
We knew very little about Covid at the time, and his actions theoretically could have led to an explosion in new cases and deaths, which not only would have weighed on his conscience but would have ended his political career. But he took a gamble, and it paid off — both for residents of his state and for his political prospects. It catapulted him into position as the most formidable rival to Donald Trump and as the clear front-runner in a race without Trump.
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