Ron DeSantis heads into his final two years in office with a significant boost to his political influence after two ballot measures he staunchly opposed failed Tuesday night.

DeSantis led an aggressive, months-long campaign against Amendment 3, which sought to legalize recreational marijuana, and Amendment 4, which would have expanded abortion access in the state, often harnessing the power of state government and using taxpayer money. to defeat the measures.

While a majority of Florida voters supported the measures, the ballot initiatives did not meet the 60% support threshold needed to pass. With the results, DeSantis can say for the second consecutive election cycle that Florida bucked national trends, this time breaking a winning streak of abortion measures across the country.

“Now that the polls are closed in Florida, Amendment 3 has failed. Amendment 4 failed,” DeSantis said in a post on X shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday.

In addition to the ballot measures, one of the two state attorneys suspended by DeSantis was re-elected to his position, and four of the six school board candidates endorsed by the governor were winning the runoff elections as of 8:30 Tuesday pm.

Read more: DeSantis appointee wins Miami-Dade school board seat, secures conservative majority

The results are likely to set the tone for DeSantis’ final years in office, as he plots his next move in politics before his final days as governor in January 2027. Some Republicans are already saying that Tuesday’s election results night will help establish the governor as a major power player heading into the 2028 presidential cycle, or at least give him a healthy start to exploring that path.

“This will continue to shape the narrative that the governor is a pioneer in turning purple states deep red,” said Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican who is a close ally of the governor.

“He is still the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to politics in the state of Florida,” Ingoglia added.

Others in his party are skeptical that the races will play a major role in the governor’s future political efforts, although they acknowledged that the failure of the ballot initiatives was “crucial” to DeSantis’ legacy in Florida.

“I think local people will remember it, but I’m not sure if out-of-state voters will remember it in a few years,” said Republican state Rep. Juan Porras of Miami, who supported Trump early in the Republican presidential primary. when DeSantis was a challenger in the race.

In Miami-Dade County, which turned red Tuesday night, Republican voters were already speculating about DeSantis’ future.

“After Trump as president, I hope we get (JD) Vance and then maybe DeSantis,” said Tony Wells, 73, a Cuban-American voter who said he voted against both Amendment 3 and Amendment 4. .

DeSantis maintains the ‘Florida brand’

Since DeSantis blew up during the GOP presidential primaries earlier this year, he has spent most of his political capital this election cycle trying to defeat Amendments 3 and 4.

DeSantis spent millions on taxpayer dollars running ads against the amendments. State officials, including Florida’s surgeon general and agency spokespeople, actively campaigned against the amendments at state-sponsored news conferences and on social media. And his administration threatened to criminally prosecute television station executives who ran political ads in support of the abortion rights ballot initiative.

“He is so ambitious to remain a fixture on the national stage that he is willing to take Floridians’ taxpayer money and weaponize it against them,” said House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell. , from Tampa.

Going forward, he said he hopes the governor will continue to do so because he has been given “no incentive to stop behaving this way.”

DeSantis and his allies have justified the use of state resources in the campaign as a means to defend the state’s quality of life and state laws, including the six-week abortion ban, which was a major element of the short presidential campaign. by DeSantis.

If passed, the ballot measure would have turned Florida into California “through the back door,” DeSantis said in an interview with Fox News last week. The amendments needed at least 60% support to pass in Florida.

With 10.3 million votes counted, Florida’s abortion measure garnered 57% support and the marijuana amendment garnered 55% approval.

Republican state Rep. Alex Andrade of Pensacola said defeating the ballot measures will allow the governor to maintain “brand Florida.”

How did you do on other topics?

Overall, DeSantis virtually did not campaign for Trump, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott or Florida Republicans on the ballot. But he did travel to Ohio to campaign for Republican candidate Bernie Moreno as Republicans worked to win the Senate majority in Congress.

Moreno was in a neck-and-neck race against Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown. starting at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night.

In the local school board elections, DeSantis didn’t spend much time helping school board members he endorsed earlier this year and who faced a runoff election Tuesday. However, most of the school board candidates endorsed by DeSantis won their elections on Tuesday. In total, 10 of the 23 school board candidates DeSantis supported this year won their elections.

Voters also criticized the governor’s suspension of Orange-Osceola Democratic State’s Attorney Monique Worrell.

DeSantis removed Worrell and Hillsborough County State’s Attorney Andrew Warren from office, saying they were “woke” and not aggressively pursuing crimes.

On Tuesday, Worrell was elected to office again, winning more than 55% of the vote in Orange and Osceola counties. Warren was defeated by DeSantis-appointed state attorney Susy Lopez, who received 52% of the vote, according to election results released at 8:30 p.m.

Miami Herald reporter Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.