TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday hit back at former President Donald Trump’s criticism of his Covid-19 handling, pointing out that he scored a record reelection victory that showed voters supported his hands-off response to the pandemic.

“I roll out of bed, I have people attacking me from all angles, it’s been happening for many, many years,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Bradenton where he was asked about Trump’s recent digs at him.

“The good thing is, is that the people are able to render a judgment on that whether they re-elect you or not. And I’m happy to say — you know in my case — not only did we win re-election, we won with the highest percentage of the vote that any Republican governor candidate has had in the history of the state of Florida. ... That verdict has been rendered by the people of the state of Florida.”

DeSantis has made similar remarks in the past, but his Tuesday comments show he’s willing to engage and defend against a rising stream of attacks from his one-time ally who boosted him to the governor’s mansion back in 2018.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/31/desantis-trump-republican-candidate-00080406

Hundreds of local election officials across the country are about to confront a political challenge putting their management skills and their campaign chops to the test: Administering the 2024 presidential vote while running for reelection themselves.

Donald Trump acolytes galvanized by the former president’s false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen from him piled into last year’s campaigns for state election officer positions. And although Democrats and mainstream Republicans defeated all of those candidates in key battleground states like Michigan, Arizona and elsewhere, far more races for local election positions there and in other states will be up for grabs next year.

The slate of below-the-radar campaigns will test how much money and attention will be available for these critical roles in the midst of a presidential race.

“The concerns about being primaried is absolutely on the mind of very dedicated and very middle-of-the-road, nonpartisan-functioning” election officials in Florida, said Mark Earley, the election supervisor in Leon County, Fla., a blue-leaning county in the state’s deep-red Panhandle.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/31/election-officials-2024-reelection-presidential-vote-00080543

Kyrsten Sinema’s defection from Democrats should be a golden opportunity for the GOP. But two high-profile 2022 election losers in Arizona are eyeing Senate runs in 2024, sparking angst among Republicans that they will blow an increasingly winnable race.

Republican Blake Masters, who lost his Senate bid last year by 5 percentage points, is setting himself up for another potential run, talking to consultants and making calls about the contest. Some Arizona GOP strategists are treating it as a foregone conclusion that he’ll jump in, although a person familiar with his moves said he is truly undecided at this point and just testing the waters.

Kari Lake, the unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate, is also considering a Senate campaign, but any decision is expected to come after her legal challenge alleging false claims that her 2022 election was stolen is completed, according to a person close to her.

The possibility of Lake and Masters entering the political waters once more is complicating the newfound optimism GOP officials felt about capitalizing on Sinema’s recent party switch to independent. With Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego already in the race, Republicans see a prime opportunity to win the election with a plurality of the vote.

Republican State Committee members elected Amy Carnevale as their new leader on Tuesday, booting Jim Lyons from the top job after two turbulent terms that saw the party take a hard-right and pro-Donald Trump turn in a state where both are electorally unpopular. Carnevale defeated Lyons 37-34 in the second round of voting.

The transfer of power was surprisingly peaceful for a party so plagued by infighting that its meetings have in the past devolved into shouting matches. Lyons motioned for his supporters to smile once the votes were tallied and shook hands with Carnevale before the results were announced. The two were cordial to each other in their remarks.

But electing Carnevale doesn’t magically solve the MassGOP’s problems. Her slim margin of victory reflects the deep divisions she’ll have to navigate — and attempt to heal — as party chair.

Carnevale, a self-proclaimed Baker-Trump voter, is viewed by some as a bridge between the party’s moderates and conservatives. But the state GOP's divides are less ideological at this point than they are personal.