Ron DeSantis # Ron DeSantis Probably Didn't Turn Florida Red ## The state was already changing in big ways before he was elected governor. By Nathaniel Rakich ## Sep. 11 , 2023, at 2:34 PM ABC News Photo Illustration / Win McNamee / Getty Images In his presidential campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pitched himself as a transformational leader who has reshaped the politics of his home state. His 2022 reelection by 19 percentage points “was not just a big victory,” he has argued. “It was really a fundamental realignment of Florida from being a swing state to being a red state.” And most political analysis agrees that the Sunshine State, once known for its impossibly close elections, is now a comfortably Republican-leaning state. But it’s unclear how much credit DeSantis himself deserves for this shift — or if it even counts as a realignment at all. The most prominent argument in his favor, that Republicans have moved to the state thanks to his COVID-19 policies, is hard to prove.…