Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Coronavirus

Today, April 1st, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) issued a statewide stay-at-home order after weeks of criticism by both national and Florida Democrats for lack of state action on the coronavirus. This happened only days after President Trump acknowledged that the pandemic is going to be more damaging over the next two weeks and extended social distancing guidelines until April 30th. The timing of DeSantis's order is no coincidence, as he himself acknowledged - "When you see the President up there and his demeanor the last couple of days, that's not necessarily how he always is." (https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/01/politics/desantis-florida-coronavirus/index.html)

DeSantis's governorship has been interesting to follow. He was elected in 2018 almost entirely due to Trump's endorsement in the Republican primary (DeSantis ad from this time - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1YP_zZJFXs). Unlike some politicians that align closely with Trump and make headlines with outrageous statements or actions, he has maintained a balanced public image through the 2018 general election campaign and into his time as governor.  Within the last 2 years he has acted on several legislative priorities that Democrats had been attempting for years under previous Governor, now Senator, Rick Scott (R), like increased action on water pollution (including new emissions regulations) and pay raises for all state employees, including a minimum wage for teachers (on March 19th the budget passed the state legislature with zero no votes, but will likely have to be remade in the coming months due to the crisis).

I can't say that I religiously follow Florida politics, but whenever I checked in during DeSantis's time as governor I never found significant public opposition to what he was doing. This pandemic is different. This has been the first time that he has taken sustained criticism for his actions. It has shown the tightrope he is forced to walk between appealing to Florida's Republicans, who are largely steadfast in support of Trump, and being the governor of the country's third largest state with a significant contingent of moderate swing voters that routinely decide statewide elections. I am interested to see what effects this crisis has on his statewide approval and whether or not it will still matter in 2022 when he is up for reelection.