Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis said any underperformance by Republicans in Tuesday's special elections should not be taken as a "referendum" on President Donald Trump.
Instead, blame the candidate, DeSantis said.
Voters were taking to the polls in Florida's 1st and 6th Congressional Districts on Tuesday to replace former Rep. Matt Gaetz and congressman-turned-national security adviser Mike Waltz, respectively.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, a Republican, is expected to win handily in Florida's 1st District, the most conservative in the state. However, Trump-backed Florida state Sen. Randy Fine is in a dogfight against Democrat Josh Weil to replace Waltz in the 6th, also a deep conservative district and one that Trump won by 30 points in November.
"If there's an underperformance, [political media] is going to say, 'See it shows the voters are rejecting [Trump].' It has nothing to do with that," DeSantis told reporters.
"This is a rejection of a specific candidate amongst some voters who either choose not to vote, maybe even vote third party," he continued. "I don't know how many Republicans would cross over and vote for a lunatic Democrat."
DeSantis instead directed the spotlight at the candidate, Fine, whom the governor said "lives like 150 miles" from the 6th District.
"You can quibble with Trump endorsing or not, but that's a separate question from why are voters reacting the way they do if there's an underperformance, and I think it's going to be more of a local reason. I think it's going to be more of a candidate-specific reason. I don't think that if there's an underperformance, that that's a referendum on the president," DeSantis said.
"If the president were on the ballot, I think he'd win by 30 again," he said.
Fine, a political adversary of DeSantis', chalked up turnout to "differences in intensity of support."
"Democrats are angry. There aren't many of them, but they'll walk through fire to vote, whereas Republicans feel like everything's good. Trump won. We need Republicans to have the same fear of what happens if we lose that Democrats have over what's going on. If we succeed in getting that message across, we're going to win big [Tuesday night]," Fine said.