Even before his election night romp, Ron DeSantis was feeling confident. The Florida governor’s boldness was evident in a campaign ad suggesting that he was chosen by God to “take the arrows” in defense of freedom. Following his nearly twenty-point victory over Charlie Crist, some dubbed him the winner of the midterms — a Republican who vastly outperformed his peers in other states. Chatter about a DeSantis presidential run quickly reached a fever pitch, as polling showed him surpassing Donald Trump in the eyes of GOP primary voters.

Christopher Rufo, the self-styled architect of the war on wokeness who continues to assist DeSantis, declared that the governor’s “culture war as public policy” approach is responsible for his latest victory. DeSantis won so decisively, in other words, because he heeded Rufo’s advice to “lay siege to the institutions,” prosecuting wokeness in corporations, universities, and above all K-12 schools. Indeed, DeSantis has focused numerous rhetorical and legislative efforts around the false notion that devious educators are indoctrinating students with “radical ideologies.” And in step with Rufo and his Koch-funded cohort’s free-market fundamentalist agenda, DeSantis has pursued every opportunity to privatize (and Christianize) public schools.

The New York Times, which for two years has parroted Rufo’s insistence that anti-woke rhetoric is the Right’s most potent mobilization tool, quoted the Manhattan Institute fellow saying that DeSantis’s midterm win proves Republicans should be “leaning in” to culture war issues.