The conventional wisdom about Republicans after the disastrous 2022 midterms is that they need to choose between two different types of candidates: forward-looking, reform-minded governors, and populist rabble-rousers.

Or maybe they don’t: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is both.

DeSantis is a conservative populist who takes on Disney, sends migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and fights the left’s woke agenda.

But DeSantis is also a conservative reformer who delivers concrete results. During the pandemic, he kept Florida open and running. When storms hit, he was the model of a chief executive in action, getting the bridge to Pine Island rebuilt in less than three days, reopening the Sanibel Causeway in 15 days and cleaning up thousands of miles of debris.

And he has pushed a raft of conservative reforms through the Florida legislature: He signed one of the most comprehensive school choice laws in the country while also raising teacher salaries in traditional public schools. He cracked down on predatory lawsuits that steal the livelihoods of honest business owners.

He passed “constitutional-carry” legislation. And he barred “environmental, social and governance” investing of state assets.

In other words, DeSantis offers the best of both worlds: He delivers hard punches to the left, and results for the right. That mix seems to have appeal. More than 3 million people have listened to his campaign announcement.

It also seems to work at the polls. DeSantis won reelection by nearly 20 percentage points. “We’ve shown in Florida that we’re able to win voters who don’t always vote Republican,” DeSantis said in a conference call Wednesday night. In 2024, he said, “we need to win those independent voters that we were able to win overwhelmingly in Florida … who want to move on from Biden.”

That should be an appealing message to Republicans, because it means they can take on the left’s assault on our culture and values without sacrificing the votes of independent swing voters. By passing pragmatic measures aimed at improving the lives of Florida residents, DeSantis appeals to nonideological voters. By delivering win after win on issues conservatives care about, he energizes the right while dispiriting the left.

But to take on Biden, DeSantis first has to beat Donald Trump. And right now, Trump is leading him by a 3-to-1 margin, according to an Emerson College poll released Thursday. But the race is not nearly as locked in as some suspect.

Trump is ahead, but he is vulnerable. That is why he has spent $15.3 million on ads attacking DeSantis as insufficiently MAGA — more than he spent supporting all the candidates he endorsed in last year’s midterms combined. Meanwhile, former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has released an ad attacking DeSantis as a Trump clone, and declaring that Americans want “a choice, not an echo.” This isn’t a very effective line of attack.

The fact that DeSantis is getting hit from both sides shows how appealing his message is. He poses a threat to Trump and his non-Trump rivals because he is, for now, the only declared candidate who delivers the best of both sides.

He is a disrupter who isn’t self-destructive, a populist policy wonk who loves the minutiae of legislating as much as he loves taking on the woke left.

We’ll soon see whether that is a combination that sells in Republican primaries.