Donald Trump replaced as favourite to win the White House in 2024

An expected ‘red [Republican] wave’ became a ‘red ripple’ as big gains failed to materialise. The former President, who had indicated he would announce his bid next week, has now found himself behind Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis in the odds to be the next President.Mr DeSantis and Mr Trump, who watched the results come in at his Florida Mar-a-Lago home, had needled each other at the start of the night. But after his own convincing victory the Florida governor gave a speech which many saw as an unofficial launch for the White House.His campaign had focussed on ‘freedom’ and his record of resisting lockdowns during the pandemic as well as fighting the culture wars on issues like net zero and trans rights.He claimed to have ‘rewritten the political map’ over the last four years.Mr DeSantis added: ‘We have respected the taxpayers and we reject the woke ideology. We fight the woke in the legislature, we fight the woke in the schools, we fight the woke in the corporations.’We will never ever surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.’But while Florida and some early results in the east of the US seemed to point for big gains for the Republicans, Joe Biden’s Democrats staged a remarkable fightback.Crucially, they gained Pennsylvania off the Republicans where John Fetterman defeated Dr Mehmet Oz, who had won the nomination because of Trump’s endorsement.In a defiant spirit, Mr Fetterman said: ‘This campaign has always been about fighting for everyone who’s ever been knocked down that ever got back up.’Meanwhile, a key Republican target Georgia, where Trump friend Herschel Walker, a former American football star, was running is now likely to go to a rerun in December because nobody got 50 percent of the vote.Outside chances for the Republicans like Connecticut, with another Trump-endorsed candidate Leora Levy, were easily won by the Democrats who seemed to partly benefit from anger over the Supreme Court’s decision to end the automatic right to abortion. His campaign had focussed on ‘freedom’ (Image: Getty)Abortion rights referendums were on the ballot in several states with Michigan the first to vote to guarantee choice for women.Some pre-polling suggested that people who may not have voted for the Democrats because of the economic crisis felt strongly enough about abortion to go to vote.However, polls ahead of Tuesday’s election and exit polling had suggested a huge win for the Republicans who were projected to get 54 seats out of 100 in the Senate and a large majority in the House of Representatives.But as counting continues, it is still possible that the Democrats could still end up with a majority in the Senate which had been split 50/ 50 and control of the House of Representatives is still up for grabs.Early in the evening former President Trump told a group of journalists that the Republicans ‘certainly would clinch a majority in both [the Senate and House].’But a key ally of Mr Trump’s Jason Miller urged caution when he spoke to the Daily Express.He noted: ‘Vote numbers all over the place.’And, in an echo of the 2020 election where he has refused to accept defeat, Mr Trump had called on voters to ‘protest’ as voting was continuing because of problems with machines in the key battleground state of Arizona suggesting electoral fraud.Nigel Farage, a close friend of Mr Trump’s who was in America for the election, Tweeted that early postal voting was behind the Democrats’ success.He said: ‘Tonight is a disappointment for the Republican Party. The polls were wrong and the red wave is a ripple. Massive early voting has changed American politics.’But others pointed to the fact that many of the Republican candidates in battleground seats were MAGA supporters endorsed by Mr Trump.In total he endorsed 294 of the Republican candidates and 98.65 percent of those he personally backed were selected.One senior Republican source told Fox News: ‘We have a Trump problem.’Another messaged the Daily Express: ‘This is Ron DeSantis’s party. That’s been my narrative, but everyone seems to agree too.’Former Trump White House appointee Peggy Grande, who also worked for Ronald Reagan, pointed to big victories for the Republicans in governorship races including Mr DeSantis and Brian Kemp in Georgia.She said: ‘We know what wins – principled leaders who produce results. We saw this in the Republican governor races.’I’m still processing what caused the losses.’Mr Trump has said he will make a big announcement next Thursday November 15 on his future with many expecting he will announce his presidential bid.However, Republicans now expect that he will face a significant challenge from Mr DeSantis.With the contest anticipated, one Democrat campaigner told the Daily Express that they would be ‘getting out the popcorn’ to watch the two slug it out.Meanwhile, Mr Trump, who humiliated Republican rivals like Jeb Bush in the run up to the 2016 nomination, issued a warning to the Florida governor.He said: “I don’t know if he is running. I think if he runs, he could hurt himself very badly. I really believe he could hurt himself badly. I don’t think it would be good for the party.”