Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is now reportedly calling for a shake-up in conservative media after Republicans suffered sweeping losses in Tuesday’s midterm elections, which handed Democrats control of both the House and the Senate.
Speaking during a Saturday interview at the University of Notre Dame, DeSantis argued the conservative movement needs to rethink where it puts its energy, starting with the media ecosystem that surrounds it.
“I think you need more bottom-up, I think you need less focus on the presidency, and I think you need more focus on not just people running for elected office, people that are involved in the conservative groups, but I think we need a big change in kind of the conservative media culture,” DeSantis said.
“Because a lot of that is a grift, and it’s pay-to-play, and it’s just not offering very much in the way of strong ideas and things that are really going to illuminate your understanding,” he added.
DeSantis did not single out any specific commentators or outlets.
The governor said several aspects of the right are underperforming and argued Americans deserve a conservative movement that is “fit to fight” and prepared for a decade of battles to avert disaster and put the country on a solid path.
The Notre Dame appearance capped a busy week for DeSantis, who has been on something of a media tour since Election Day, offering his assessment of what went wrong for the GOP. Earlier in the week, he delivered a stark warning about the scale of the party’s losses.
“This is as close to an extinction-level event for Republicans in many parts of the country, as we have seen probably in the last 100 years,” DeSantis said.
Florida stood out as a rare bright spot for Republicans on Tuesday, with the GOP sweeping the state even as Democrats flipped key positions across the country. Democratic strategist James Carville went so far as to label DeSantis the Republican winner of the midterms.
DeSantis has also taken aim at fellow Republicans in recent days. In a social media post, he said he wished he had not voted for former Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, calling him a “total squish.”
The governor’s strong showing at home has fueled speculation about his political future. His term as governor ends Jan. 5, and a Washington Post report claimed he is planning another run for the White House. DeSantis pushed back on social media, writing that the paper was “fabricating this out of whole cloth.”
Meanwhile, sources told CBS News that President Trump is considering DeSantis to replace Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon. According to that reporting, DeSantis could go through Senate confirmation during the lame-duck session and take the post once his term as governor expires.
DeSantis ran against Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination before dropping out and endorsing him. Their relationship has been rocky at times, with Trump famously dubbing him “Ron DeSanctimonious,” though it appears to have improved since.
The governor’s criticism of right-wing media lands as conservative commentators are already turning on one another in the wake of the defeat, trading blame over the party’s performance and debating the direction of the movement heading into 2028.
