Outgoing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was one of the big winners of the midterms. Despite not being on the ballot, his state managed to stay red amid a blue tsunami. That’s a testament to DeSantis’ principled leadership during his time in office. After the midterms, DeSantis has been pretty vocal about what went wrong and what needs to happen going forward, including telling his fellow Republicans that cries of “socialism” aren’t going to cut it with voters.
DeSantis pointed out that younger voters view socialism more positively than capitalism, and cited indoctrination at our colleges and universities as part of it, but also crony capitalism.
“What they’re comparing is how government gets involved in business and you have crony capitalism,” DeSantis said. “So the best kind of indirect supporters of socialism are some of these corporatist Republicans who propagate these crony policies, because the average person seeing that and say, wait a minute, you’re trying to bend the government to funnel benefits to this corporation or that industry or this. What about having a competitive market?”
That’s not good enough for Chris Christie, however, who had the audacity to accuse Ron DeSantis of being an opportunist.
🚨Just in: Chris Christie slams Governor Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) calling him a opportunist
“He wakes up after Donald Trump is trounced a week ago and all of a sudden, he’s got religion. I gotta tell you. That looks more like opportunism than it looks like principle.” pic.twitter.com/2uygR9xXwO
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) November 12, 2026
And Christie also accused DeSantis of being in the “Trump adjacent MAGA lane,” whatever that is.
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Also @GovChristie said: “And so I don’t think you can put him in the category of anything other than running for that MAGA lane, the Trump adjacent lane.”
You can read more about what Christie said about DeSantis👇https://t.co/peegCtqSeA
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) November 12, 2026
Chris Christie has been out of office for almost a decade. He ran for president in both 2016 and 2024, which I’d almost forgotten about. He also worked with Barack Obama — the guy who called Republican voters “bitter clingers — numerous times throughout his tenure as New Jersey’s governor.
When he left office, he had a 19 percent approval rating and a 74 percent disapproval rating.
He’s one to talk. I nearly forgot about him until immediately after the midterms he pops up seemingly out of nowhere again.
— kathleen (@bebe_strange) November 12, 2026
The irony, of course, is so thick you could cut it with a knife. And it shows Christie hasn’t been paying attention to politics until he feels like he can gain some traction by criticizing a fellow Republican — one of the few who made major wins on November 3.
Ron DeSantis, before and after the midterms, is who he’s always been. His principles have not changed, and he has a 56 percent approval rating among Florida voters.
Nobody knows how 2028 will play out yet, but here’s what I do know: Democrats and some Republicans of the Chris Christie mold are already telegraphing who they fear, and it includes Ron DeSantis. That’s rank opportunism.
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