Ron DeSantis, Elon Musk, Liz Cheney shortlisted for TIME Person of the Year

Time Magazine on Monday released the list of the finalists for 2022 "Person of the Year," which included the anti-Trump Republican US Representative Rep. Liz Cheney, R., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump's rival, and Twitter CEO Elon Musk.

The title is handed to the prominent persons, groups, and other entities who are known to have created the  "most influence in the previous 12 months... for better or for worse" annually. Since 1927, Time magazine has mostly shortlisted United States Presidents for the Person of the Year title. In 2021, the magazine named the Tesla and SpaceX boss who became the world's richest man, Elon Musk for the title. 

World’s 'most influential' person to be declared on Dec 7

"Musk was named as the Person of the year for creating solutions to an existential crisis, for embodying the possibilities and the perils of the age of tech titans, for driving society’s most daring and disruptive transformations," the CEO Edward Felsenthal had explained at the time.

On Dec. 5, Time revealed its annual 10-person shortlist which named the world’s "most influential" person, including others such as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy whose country has been valiantly deterring the Russian aggression. The final selection will be made on December 7. The list of the shortlisted candidates was picked by the Time editors and was first revealed on the TODAY Show on Monday.

Trump's 2024 alleged rival contender, DeSantis gained popularity for staunch opposition to the COVID-19 mandates in his state of Floria during the pandemic, and his contradictory views about sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. The US-based politician also increasingly criticises the left-leaning liberal “woke agenda” seeping in American society. Cheney, on the other hand, gained traction and national attention for her role on the January 6 House Select Committee investigating the Jan 6 Capitol breach. She turned into the most high-profile Republican in Congress to speak out against former President Trump's electoral fraud claims and inciting violence to halt the democratic process to certify the sitting president Joe Biden.

While Franklin D. Roosevelt is known to be the only person to have held a record of being named at least three times the Person of the Year, Elon Musk would be the second if he secures the title this year. Felsenthal told TODAY at the time that Musk was honoured last year that he “is reshaping life on Earth and possibly life off Earth as well.” In 2022, the billionaire topped the Forbes list of the World’s Richest People as he also purchased the microblogging site Twitter for $44 billion in October, and has since been in the headlines.