After President Trump (R) announced he will be running once again for the White House, Republicans across the country either remained in the former president's corner or jumped ship for a potential run by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) Now the rivalry thickens as fellow Republican, Mike Lindell, has accused Ron DeSantis of election fraud.
After becoming known as the "My Pillow guy," Lindell rose to political prominence when he aligned himself with Donald Trump's America First platform sometime in the late 2010s. After President Trump's election loss, Lindell faded into the wing of conservatism that denied the results of the 2020 election, even hosting an election "symposium," exposing what he alleged were the real results of the 2020 election.
Aside from Trump branding the Florida governor as "Ron DeSanctimonious" hardly any shots have been fired up until now. On his show, The Lindell Report, Mike Lindell once again flexed his election skepticism, but on the results of Ron DeSantis' re-election last month.
"What we're doing now is I'm going after Dade County in the 2022 election. Why would you go after Dade County? You know what happened in Dade County in the 2022 election? This is where Ron DeSantis won Dade County, a Republican won Dade County.," said Lindell.
Conspiracy theorist Mike Lindell says he is going to Florida to audit Governor Ron DeSantis' (R) historic re-election victory because there is no way DeSantis did as amazing as he did. pic.twitter.com/gK31cOD95Z
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 21, 2022
In response to his stunning victory in a traditionally blue county, Lindell said, "I don't believe it." Lindell also repeatedly called the Dade County win for DeSantis a "deviation."
While it is hard to believe DeSantis could pull one of the most Liberal counties in his favor, there are several explanations for this paradigm shift in Florida, specifically. The Republican Party of Florida has been proud of their party registrations hitting all time highs in Florida. In fact, for the first time in the state's history there are more Republicans than Democrats registered to vote in Florida.
South Florida is also the home of a very dense Hispanic population, which according to the general data, are leaning more Republican as of recently. DeSantis' win was so highly anticipated, even the most liberal of polling firms gave him odds of over 90% re-election probability.
While some Republican voters may feel they are stuck between a rock and a hard place choosing between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, election fraud fear mongering may make that decision easier for the average Republican, especially those that reside in the state of Florida.
