Florida Gov. Ron Desantis won re-election by a landslide margin of 1,5 million votes, fueling further speculation that the Republican could run for president in two years.
Considered a "big winner" elections for the US Congress and governors of some US states held on Tuesday in the United States and is widely seen as a possible challenger to Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Desantis is a relative newcomer to politics, but gained national prominence after becoming Florida's governor in 2019.
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Just hours before Tuesday's midterm elections, Donald Trump warned Desantis not to run for president in 2024, saying it would hurt the Republican Party.
"I think he would make a mistake. I don't think the party would like that," the former president told Fox News.
His strong stances on controversial issues such as gender, the teaching of racial issues in schools and abortion appear to have resonated with voters, as he has reportedly increased his voter base in nearly every demographic.
From Yale to the governor's office
At 44, Desantis is still relatively fresh in American politics, having been first elected to the House of Representatives in 2012.
Just six years later, in 2018, after a short-lived attempt to become a senator, he was elected governor.
Born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1978, Desantis went on to study history at Yale University, where he captained the baseball team, and soon after at Harvard Law School.
During his sophomore year at Harvard, he was commissioned as an officer in the US Navy and assigned to its legal branch, the Advocate General's Corps (JAG).
His service as a JAG officer included working with detainees at Guantanamo Bay, as well as legal counsel for the elite US Navy SEAL unit deployed to Iraq.
Desantis was honorably discharged from the military in 2010, although he continues to serve in the US Navy Reserve.
Around that time, he met his wife Casey, a local TV news reporter and cancer survivor who helped raise funds for those affected by Hurricane Ian in 2022.
The New Yorker magazine later described the couple and their children as "campaign brochure-ready," and quoted a Desantis colleague as saying they "look like they're straight out of prime casting."
After completing active duty, Desantis became a federal prosecutor.
Then, in 2012, he entered the race for a seat in Florida's Sixth Congressional District, one of the most conservative in the state.
During this initial foray into Florida politics, Desantis campaigned largely on a platform of "small government" and reduced taxes — as well as vocal opposition to the Obama administration.
He condemned, in his opinion, the tendency of the government to intervene on "practically any issue, from the circumference of children's waists to the temperature of the earth".
"My mission was mainly to stop Barack Obama," he recalled in a February speech at a conservative conference in Texas.
"Those were good fights. Important fights."
In 2018, after five years on Capitol Hill, where he helped found the "Freedom Caucus" of far-right conservatives, Desantis announced his intention to run for governor, with the full support of then-President Donald Trump.
He was sworn in as governor in January 2019.
The governor and the corona virus pandemic
Desantis' first major challenge as governor came in 2020, amid the covid-19 pandemic.
By April, he had ordered a nationwide shutdown, set up hundreds of testing centers and ordered millions of masks - which he publicly said "could stave off infections for the most vulnerable".
However, by April 2020, Desantis had begun to lift state restrictions and by July, despite a spike in cases and sharp criticism, he had ordered schools to reopen.
"Covid is really what he got his name from, because he was someone who was fighting the national wisdom at the time," Sarah Longwell, a Republican strategist and founder of the group Republican Voters Against Trump, told the BBC.
"There are a lot of people in the state who appreciate his position."
At the same time, via national television Fox News, he attacked President Joseph Biden after he was sworn into the White House in January 2021.
The things he has "done" since then have brought him to the position of one of the most recognizable Republican figures in the country.
In March 2022, for example, he signed a law, dubbed "Don't Talk Gay" by activists, banning discussions about sexual orientation or gender identity in elementary schools.
He also established the "Electoral Crimes and Security Office" in 2022 to investigate alleged election malpractices.
Some people with prior felony convictions were arrested for alleged voter fraud, but expressed confusion, saying local officials told them they were eligible to vote and sent them registration cards.
After the US Supreme Court struck down the constitutional right to abortion, Desantis said the "prayers of millions" had been answered.
Since then, he has been less vocal on the issue, which some speculated was a political calculation aimed at balancing pressure from conservative elements in the Republican Party with the views of Florida voters, most of whom are pro-choice on abortion.
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A law signed by the governor banning abortions after 15 weeks has sparked legal challenges and is now being heard by the state Supreme Court.
Critics recently accused Desantis of "weaponizing" migrants as part of a political ploy when he arranged for a group of mostly Venezuelan asylum seekers to be transferred from Texas to Martha's Vineyard, a liberal enclave in Massachusetts.
"He's again very proactively drawn into the culture war through migrants," said former Republican National Committee spokesman Doug Hay.
"He is ready to play the role of chief culture warrior."
Longwell said Desantis' battles with the media over his more controversial policies could ultimately be what catapults him to political stardom.
"People put a lot into who Ron Desantis is going to hate, but one of his biggest strengths is who hates him," she said.
"The media thinks he's terrible, and he loves it. That's another thing he learned from Trump.
"If you piss off the media, they talk about you a lot, and that gets your name mentioned and helps you with your fans."
Heir?
So far, Desantis has not announced any intention to run for president in 2024 and has said he is focused only on the 2022 Florida race.
Some polls show Desantis now ahead of Trump in Florida polls about a potential showdown in 2024 and in a tight race with him nationally.
Just before the final congressional elections, the potential rivalry came to light when Trump reportedly snubbed Desantis by not inviting him to a rally in Florida for Sen. Marco Rubio.
The meeting was held on the same day when Desantis was supposed to hold a series of rallies.
At a separate event in Pennsylvania, Trump referred to him as "Ron Desanctimonius," prompting an outcry from conservatives.
A day later, however, Trump acknowledged that Desantis was likely to win, even if he did not explicitly endorse him.
Longwell, who frequently conducts focus groups with Trump 2020 voters, said Desantis is "the number one name that comes up" when participants are asked who they would like to see run if Trump is not in the race.
While she believes he is "positioning himself" for that possibility in that scenario, it "remains unclear" whether he will succeed in beating Trump for the nomination.
"I'm not sure if Desantis has the secret potion or the ability to take on Trump one-on-one," she said.
"A lot of people are talking about him as the future of the Republican Party. But it's too early to predict - we've never seen this guy perform on the national stage."
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