Fox News analyst Jason Chaffetz was one of the first to acknowledge this. The personal stories told by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis during Thursday night's debate with California Governor Gavin Newsom not only helped DeSantis argue his points, but reflected a more approachable side of a governor and candidate who pundits have complained comes off robotic and overly serious.

CHAFFETZ: “Throughout the debate Ron DeSantis was masterful in drawing out personal stories.”

“DeSantis was just spot on.” pic.twitter.com/QW0P7Ncpsw

— DeSantis War Room 🐊 (@DeSantisWarRoom) December 1, 2023

Newsom's slick veneer suffered serious gouges, especially with the first DeSantis anecdote (and a hilarious one at that). When DeSantis and Newsom debated over the exodus of people from California to Florida, Newsom issued lies and misinformation about how more people are leaving Florida and coming to California than the other way around.

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DeSantis nailed Newsom immediately on his pontification and platitudes that did not address the question. He also brought in personal stories of San Francisco law enforcement who, when DeSantis visited the state, acknowledged to him that he was a supportive leader. But then DeSantis brought in one particularly personal story that deflated Newsom's puffery.

DeSantis: "I was talking to a fellow who had made the move from CA to FL. He was telling me that FL is much better governed, safer, better budget, lower taxes, all this stuff...and then he paused and said 'Oh, by the way, I'm Gavin Newsom's father-in-law.'" pic.twitter.com/Rbp8amZ5oJ

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) December 1, 2023

RedState was on this story in September 2022, bringing to light not only that the Siebels had left California, but their financial backing of the Florida governor: 

Conversations around the holiday table must be awkward these days. The Siebels pour their financial support, votes, and most of their tax dollars toward a very successful governor whom their son-in-law despises. According to Fox News, the Siebel Family Revocable Trust made a $5,000 contribution on April 6, 2022, to the Friends of Ron DeSantis.

What an embarrassment.

Is there any PAC called “the Friends of Gavin Newsom”? Inquiring minds want to know.

It’s Newsom’s own fault, of course. Hair Gel is a piss-poor governor overseeing the failure of a once-great state. If the Siebels still own property in the San Francisco area, they have seen this first hand.

When you’ve lost your own in-laws…

That story set the tone for the night. Each time DeSantis came with data, facts, and personal testimony of how Florida's policies have worked, Newsom interrupted, bloviated, and spouted progressive platitudes and soliloquies.

One personal story that DeSantis has shared in previous GOP presidential debates surrounds Miriam "Penny" Hopper, a survivor of a late-term abortion. While detractors have worked to debunk her story, and fact-checkers are already trying to paint DeSantis as dishonest for sharing it once again, the story was a powerful contrast to Newsom's flat-out refusal to respond to what limits on abortion he supports.

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Gavin Newsom will not name one single restriction on abortion he would support to protect the unborn — even when asked about months 7, 8, and 9 of pregnancy. pic.twitter.com/QEsUrz6w38

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) December 1, 2023

Newsom's radical stand on abortion is now a constitutional right with the passage in November 2022 of California's Proposition 1, which guarantees abortion up to birth. A proposition that Newsom championed and contributed funding to. Newsom may lie, but where he spends his money tells the truth.

BREAKING: California Gov. Gavin Newsom will spend $2.5 million of his own reelection campaign money to ask voters to support Proposition 1, the ballot measure that would enshrine the right to abortion and contraceptives in the state constitution. Outstanding!

— CALL TO ACTIVISM (@CalltoActivism) October 10, 2022

So, no matter how much the legacy media attempts to malign DeSantis and debunk Hopper's story, DeSantis' sharing of it shows who the true radical is in this equation.

Here is Hopper telling her story in February 2020.

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Save for subtle nuances and condensing the story, Hopper's narrative has not changed from 10 years prior, when she first told it to Florida Right to Life.

Newsom's California DNC allies, including the homegrown team of McClatchy newspapers (Sacramento Bee, et. al) circled the wagons and declared Newsom victorious, but the fact that Newsom is walking around now claiming that DeSantis and Fox News moderator Sean Hannity "cheated," is confirmation that he suffered significant damage.

Newsom camp: Hannity, DeSantis cheated. They dispute the charges.https://t.co/8uv9yV9MCa

— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) December 1, 2023

Before Ron DeSantis could unveil his “poop map,” Gov. Gavin Newsom team’s frustration with Sean Hannity and his crew centered on his promises to them that he would be a fair moderator, only to repeatedly sandbag the governor and give the entire affair a 2-on-1 dynamic — as they saw it.

“The debate was rigged, and Newsom still won,” Newsom adviser Sean Clegg said.

Newsom himself told people as the debate ended that he’d had fun — sharing that feeling on X where he added that he could have kept going for longer.

But the grievances from Newsom’s team inside the venue were just the start of the mass finger-pointing that followed the 95-minute melee late Thursday in the suburbs of Atlanta. Other alleged violations — of rules both written and understood — involve Ron DeSantis, the Republican Florida governor.

Bitter, much? The truth is that DeSantis' use of the poop map and his bringing a copy of Gender Queer to the stage were boss moves that exposed Newsom's gaslighting on California's peerage compared to other states and his record on education and books. 

According to a DeSantis aide, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom swooped in to save her husband.

A DeSantis aide said California first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom was the one who stepped in and ended the debate on her husband’s behalf after Hannity invited the two governors to go deeper into overtime. A second person on the ground confirmed that.

“Gavin Newsom got beat so badly last night his wife literally had to throw in the towel for him. It was embarrassing,” DeSantis spokesperson Andrew Romeo said.

Between his bombastic interruptions, the preening, and the overly-whitened grin, Newsom's slick, hair-gelled image suffered significant damage, while DeSantis not only won the Happy Warrior award, but came off relaxed, relatable, and infinitely more likeable than he has appeared in previous debates.