While full results of the midterm elections are still uncertain, one outcome not in question is the Republican and conservative revolt against Donald Trump: The former president is widely blamed for reducing the predicted “red wave” of GOP victories to a pink splash by alienating mainstream voters and rallying his base to nominate candidates too extreme for the general elections. With Trump in disfavor, even as he prepares to announce a 2024 presidential run, many are looking to Florida’s GOP governor Ron DeSantis, reelected in a landslide with nearly 60% of the vote, as the party’s new leader and 2024 frontrunner. Can DeSantis win — and can he finally accomplish a Trump/​GOP uncoupling?

DeSantis, 44, is a former Trump protégé who has sought to inherit the former president’s culture-warrior mantle. In 2020, he notoriously opposed COVID-19 mitigation measures that conservatives have viewed as outrageous impositions on freedom: lockdowns, mask mandates, and school closures. He has positioned himself as a crusader against “wokeness,” a term that denotes progressive ideology focused on race and gender identity. He has pushed legislation against “critical race theory” and LGBT-friendly sex education in public schools, and battled powerful corporations such as Disney which conservatives see as pushing “woke” ideas on America.

At the same time, DeSantis has proved himself sufficiently flexible and pragmatic to gain support from suburban and urban voters in traditionally Democratic districts, including Latinos. DeSantis’ fans see him as living proof that a strong stance on conservative cultural issues can work as long as it’s combined with pragmatism and competence — and with a personal style that can be combative without crossing the line into boorishness or egomania.

DeSantis critics, who include not only Democrats but many “Never Trump” Republicans, see him as a figure that represents “Trumpism without Trump.” Unlike solid conservatives such as Sen. Mitt Romney (R‑Utah) and outgoing congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, he has never challenged Trump. He has coyly avoided answering questions about the validity of the 2020 presidential election but campaigned for election deniers in other states. And, while avoiding Trump’s in-your-face outrageousness, he has embraced some of the most toxic aspects of Trumpist populism. His recent stunt of shipping a group of migrants from Florida to Martha’s Vineyard, a Massachusetts locale known as a vacation spot for the affluent, combined anti-migrant nastiness — the legal asylum seekers were tricked and treated as props — with pointlessly polarizing baiting of “liberal elites.”

DeSantis’ battle against “wokeness” — which, as his post-election remarks indicate, will be the centerpiece of his likely presidential campaign — also highlights some of the problems with the Florida governor. The issues he tackles are ones that appeal not only to conservatives but to many independents and moderates. In too many cases, public school education really has pushed questionable and divisive progressive dogma on race and gender, encouraging kids to see everything through a racial lens or to explore alternative gender identities when they lack the emotional maturity to comprehend such issues.

But the DeSantis approach has been to push his own dogma, with legislation that not only imposes a conservative version of “political correctness” on the K‑12 curriculum but infringes on academic freedom in higher education.

If DeSantis manages to break the Republican mainstream away from Trump — a big “if,” since several past attempts at such a divorce have ended in reconciliation—that will be a positive development. But one of the two national parties still needs something better than Trumpism with a human face.