Issue #243: The Primary Election that sparked the war between Governor DeSantis and Speaker Perez

A 2020 Primary set the stage or 2025

Those who have been following Florida politics the last 6 months know full well about the ongoing civil war among state Republicans. Governor Ron DeSantis, for the first time in his Gubernatorial administration, has been forced to deal with a legislature that is willing to defy his directives and chart their own course. What is most amazing about this is that it is not a legislature controlled by Democrats, or even one controlled by a moderate coalition. Nope, the legislature DeSantis cannot get along with his a super-majority Republican and a decidedly conservative body.

I first documented this shift in relations back in January. The first major sign the House and Senate would not just follow the Governor’s orders was seen when DeSantis demanded a special session on immigration. For all the backstory on DeSantis’ once-dominance over the legislature, and the cracks that began to emerge, give this a read.

Since I wrote that piece, relations have only broken down further.

• The legislature overrode DeSantis vetoes from last year.

• The legislature defied DeSantis on immigration, passing their own proposal before a compromise was finally reached.

• The House has been the lead investigator into the Hope Florida charity that Casey DeSantis runs.

• Many of DeSantis’ proposals fell on deaf ears through the regular legislative session

Much has been written and whispered about the breakdown in relations between the Governor and legislature. In truth, it was a longtime coming, part of the constant battle between legislature and executive. However, what many have noticed is the especially strong vitriol that exists between the Governor and Speaker of the House Daniel Perez.

It is clear that the two men do not like each other, and Perez has been especially willing to go to war with the Governor and assert State House leadership on many policy matters. In response to constant attacks by the Governor, Perez has attacked the Governor as well. During the legislative session, on the House floor, the Speaker said DeSantis was having “temper tantrums.”

Relations between the House and Senate have also begun to break down as well. No state budget has been agreed on yet, with money running out at the end of June. When the Senate appeared to be willing to move to DeSantis on budget matters, Perez and the House re-acted with anger. The House, hence, remains clearly the biggest DeSantis antagonist in the state.

This had led to the obvious question, why is Speaker Perez so forceful against DeSantis? More so than asserting legislative independence, its clear that Perez has no love for the Governor. What is the source of this?

Well, as I believe, it all stretches back to a State House Primary in 2020. In that year, in August in Miami-Dade, a race unfolded that set up a permanent fracture between the Governor and House Speaker. That year, then-Speaker Jose Oliva funded a primary challenge to Perez, who was already designated as Speaker for the 2025-2026 legislature. This was a battle of personalities and Cuban politics; as both men are Cuban and represent heavily Cuban communities.

This effort by Oliva, which Perez survived, permanently fractured the relationship between Perez and DeSantis; as Perez believes DeSantis knew about and signed of on the effort. It ensured Perez would come in as Speaker ready to do battle with the Governor.

Lets look at the events step by step and see how things got to this point.

Perez Arrives in the House

Daniel Perez first entered the state house back in a 2017 special election; an election triggered by a scandal in a DIFFERENT seat. In State Senate District 40, incumbent Republican Frank Artiles was forced to resign for a series of scandals; namely campaign finance questions and being caught using racial slurs. The special election for the Senate seat saw House District 116 incumbent Jose Felix Diaz recruited by the GOP to run. With Florida’s resign-to-run law, Diaz had to vacate his house seat, setting up a special election for it to be held on the same day as the SD40 contest.

House District 116, as drawn from 2012-2022, was over 80% Hispanic and right around 48% Cuban. The district sat west of the city of Miami, with its northern precincts being partially in Doral, a city with a large Venezuelan population. The primary electorate for a district like 116 is dominated by Cuban Republican voters. Not only that, low-turnout races like this push the influence of older Cuban voters higher; as they have the strongest turnout.

This older generation of Cubans has a large number of “Cuban Exiles,” people who directly fled the Castro-run island. In addition to direct exiles, many are the children of exiles. On average, this community is fiercely anti-communist, anti-left broadly, and anti-open relations with the Cuba’s communist rule. I covered this dynamic much more in my issue on Miami-Dade as the refugee haven.

With Cuban politics so heavily influential in the district, Hd116 was a historically conservative seat. The lone exception to this was 2016, when Hillary Clinton won the district by 6%; coming off a backlash Trump had with Hispanic voters. However, while Clinton had won the seat due to anti-Trump sentiment, the district was firmly Republican down-ballot. That same day, Marco Rubio won the seat by 17 points in the US Senate race. The 2016 result proved to be fleeting, as Trump won the seat by 15% in 2020; a MASSIVE swing to the right.

The special election for HD116 was not seen as competitive in a general election. Democrats would put all their focus on Senate District 40, a seat they would flip! Meanwhile, House 116 was largely about the Republican Primary, and that is where Daniel Perez entered the picture. That primary would be especially brutal - and would be dominated by issues around Cuba. THIS primary set up the 2020 drama to come.

The 2017 Special Republican Primary

Two Republicans filed for House District 116. The candidate with the most institutional support was Jose Mallea, who had the backing of former Governor Jeb Bush and former Speaker Will Weatherford. Mallea also had ties with Marco Rubio, having run his 2010 Senate campaign. With strong political ties, Mallea as able to raise $240,000 in his bid.

Daniel Perez, meanwhile, had much fewer political connections. While he was modestly involved in local Miami-Dade Republican affairs, he was primarily known best as an young 29-year-old attorney. He proved to be an aggressive fundraiser, however, bringing in $168,000. Perez was definitely the more outsider candidate, but he did have some institutional support; namely from State Rep. Carlos Trujillo.

The primary was filled with Cuba-related drama. Perez took major heat for having engagement photos taken in Havana, Cuba itself. This is a practice that is not supported by many Cuban exiles, who want to maintain firm isolation of the island until the communist regime falls.

Mallea focused heavily on this issue, attacking Perez in mailers over the scandal. On this issue, Mallea stated…

“It’s an issue of judgment and character. You’re running to represent a district that’s predominantly elderly Cuban Americans who suffered at the hands of the Castro regime, like so many of our families, and you’ve got to have better judgment than to go to Cuba to take engagement photos,”

Perez and his finance, Stephanie Nicolas, defended the move, insisting it was primarily about visiting her elderly uncle. This story did come with some skepticism, especially as conflicting stories about how long the photoshoot was emerged. The Perez team said it was a one-day shoot. The photo company said it was many days.

The Perez campaign responded with Danny’s parents writing a letter as a mass-mail-out to highlight their son’s commitment to the exile community. The letter also insisted that visiting relatives was the biggest reason for the trip. Forgive the low-resolution, the letter is from the Miami Herald article linked above.

If you read the letter, something stands out in the 2nd to last paragraph. There, Perez’s parents go on the attack against Mallea; specifically going after his heritage. Mallea is half-Cuban, with a Cuban father and Ecuadorian mother. In the letter, the Perez’s state…

“Our family finds it offensive than an Ecuadorian-American, who doesn’t understand what it feels like to lose everything at the hands of a tyrannical dictatorship, would attempt to mischaracterize and mislead our community about our son, just to try and win a political campaign.”

This strategy, to emphasize Mallea not being fully Cuban, was a common tactic of the Perez campaign. Perez would often tout himself as “the only Cuban-American in this race.” Yes this is a distressing and unacceptable campaign tactic, but it is also one many keen observers of the political dynamics in the area recognized would work. Among the exile community especially, being “one of us” has historically been a very key issue.

Mallea would stand up for his mixed-heritage, but also focused his campaign heavily on highlighting his Cuban ties. In a robocall attacking Perez, Mallea stated..

"Mallea is a real Republican, Cuban-American, who wants to fight for a free Cuba. In contrast, his opponent, Daniel Perez, was a beneficiary of the Obama-Castro policy, going to Cuba on a luxury vacation to take his engagement photos."

Marco Rubio’s presence would also come into play in the race. While Mallea has ties with Rubio from years past, he did not have his endorsement in this race. When Mallea sent out a mailer implying a Rubio endorsement, it led to the Senator refuting that. It came as Perez also attacked Mallea in radio ads for backing Jeb Bush over Mallea in the 2016 Presidential Primary. In those attacks on Mallea, Perez stated..

“Mallea says he is a friend of Marco Rubio. But when he had the opportunity to elect one of our own to the White House, Jose Mallea chose to spend millions of dollars in false attack ads against Marco Rubio.”

The “elect one of our own” line again focused on Cuban solidarity as a core issue in the campaign. The attacks for not supporting Rubio would continue into TV ads as well. Overall, the primary proved to be an especially brutal and nasty race.

When the primary finally came on July 25th. The results saw Daniel Perez defeat Jose Mallea by just under 10% of the vote.

Perez and Mallea both has support in the Cuban heavy communities of the district. For all the focus on that, voters clearly divided on the issue; with neither dominating the Cuban or non-Cuban vote. Either way, Perez was victorious after a brutal primary.

Once the nominee, Perez had little issue winning the seat. On September 26th, Perez won the general election with 65% of the vote. That same day, Florida politicos were focused on the Democrats flipping Senate District 40. People largely slept on the HD116 contest, not realizing it had just elected a future House Speaker.

Rise to Speaker-Designate

Perez’s win in the special election was a good position to come in; all thanks to a loophole in Florida’s term limits. Normally, someone can only be elected to the Florida House 4 times in a row, marking an 8 year term. However, a special election does not count as one of those four. As a result, Perez could serve from 2017 through 2018, and only then would his 2018 election mark his FIRST formal term. As such, Perez was a “red shirt freshman” of the legislature.

This fact was important for Perez, as it effects the way Speakers are chosen. In Florida, the House has been organized so that no one is Speaker for more than two years. That speaker is normally chosen years in advance, with the class they were elected to making it clear who they want as leader. In other works, the members elected in 2018 would chose who they want to be speaker when they are all in their last terms. This is not law, and there have been breaks in this tradition, but it is the norm. For Perez, he would be considered part of the 2018 class for purposes of Speaker decisions. Hence, being in the chamber a year earlier gave him the time to learn the process, make friends with lawmakers and interest groups, and have a head start in pushing to become speaker with the 2018 class. Sure enough, in mid 2019, it was confirmed Perez had the support to become Speaker. This article linked there has far more details on the process Perez went through.

Of course, just because he was designated speaker does not mean he would become speaker. The risk of an internal coup is always possible, but re-election is often the biggest risk. In 2012, Speaker-designate Chris Dorworth LOST his re-election bid. However, Perez was in a pretty red seat. Only a primary would likely be an issue for him.

After his election to the House, Perez had little issues through the 2018 election. In a a Republican Primary that year, he won re-nomination with 80% of the vote. That November, he won re-election with 57%. This came as Ron DeSantis secured 54% in the district that same day.

For Perez, things seemed smooth heading into 2020. Then, a sudden primary challenger emerged.

The Infamous 2020 Primary

Daniel Perez was originally not supposed to have a major contest in 2020. However, an opponent in the primary did emerge; a man named Gabriel Garcia. Unknown to most, Garcia had only become a registered Republican a few years earlier. He did, however, have ties with the Proud Boys! Garcia, did not have a large amount of money for his bid, only raising $20,000. For most, he would not have been considered a serious risk to the future Speaker of the House. Perez, meanwhile, had hundreds of thousands at his disposal if any risks emerged.

However, suddenly a massive amount of money began to be spent against the incoming Speaker.

Perez began to see his engagement photo controversy re-emerge as a major issue in the 2020 primary. This was thanks to a massive attack from a group called Citizens for Ethical and Effective Leadership. This organization had an attack website against Perez and spent large sums of money hitting Perez in TV, radio, and mail advertisements. Regarding the engagement photos, one mailer said Perez was “a disgrace to Republicans and Our Exile Community.”

Through the summer, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on these attacks against Perez. It forced the Speaker-designate into spending much of his money on defending the seat.

Speaker Oliva’s Vendetta

The source of the attack money was one major source; a group called Conservative Principles for Florida, which gave over $400,000 to the Perez-bashing Citizens for Ethical and Effective Leadership. This made CPF the real attack dog, with CEEL just a funnel for the money. Such tactics are common in campaigns.

So who controlled CPF, and was hence funding the Perez attack ads? Why none other than the then-House Speaker, Jose Oliva.

The Oliva team aimed to deny the reports. One of the key consultants for the Perez-bashing committee, David Custin, insisted the committee was largely focused on the Miami-Dade Mayoral election. Oliva himself would repeat the Dade Mayor claim, but would also not make it clear if he supported Perez, or if any money was going after Perez. NO ONE bought the Oliva or Custin excuses, with House Republicans furious at Oliva for his decision to try and oust Perez; with him being dubbed “Benedict Oliva” by at least a few members.

In a Politico article, one anonymous House Republican expressed exasperation at the primary development

“In all my years, I have never seen something like this. An outgoing speaker spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, not for the caucus, or people who took bullets for him in a cycle where everyone is stressed out, but rather to take shots at someone entrusted to be a future leader.”

Oliva basically lit his reputation in the House on fire to fund the primary against Perez. The question then is… why? Why did Oliva just have to oust Perez?

Many attributed it to a Miami turf war. There is definitely some truth to that. Miami-Dade politics has never been short on wars between Republicans. However, this was not just about two prominent Republicans in Miami-Dade feuding over who was the top dog in the county. No, for Oliva, this was very personal.

By all accounts, Oliva went after Perez because he truly hated the man. Oliva, like many Cuban Republicans, and as I expressed earlier, is a firm hardliner on NOT opening up relations with the communist government in Cuba. Oliva was personally offended by Perez doing the engagement photos in Havana and was not happy Perez was pegged to become speaker. As a result, Oliva was determined to try and oust Perez before he left the position of power he was in.

DeSantis Involvement?

When this primary was occurring, little was discussed of Ron DeSantis’ involvement. This was, after all, a war of Miami politicians, not the Governor’s right. However, it was widely understood DeSantis KNEW about the Oliva efforts. Whether he truly cared if Perez won or not, the fact was that DeSantis did sign off on the Oliva attacks, willing to let the race play out.

DeSantis also had plenty of ties to Oliva’s operation. David Custin, who was a key player in the anti-Perez committee, has close ties with both DeSantis and Lt Governor Janet Nunez. Custin has long ties with Nunez, who before becoming LG in 2018 was a State House member. As this profile shows, she has been heavily involved in Miami-Dade politics for many years, making key decisions behind the scenes.

By all accounts, DeSantis and Nunez knew about the Oliva plot, and at best were agnostic to it. Whether they wanted Perez defeated, or were simply willing to let Oliva do his thing, they did not speak up to defend Perez. This is something Perez didn’t forget.

The Final Results

When all was said and done, the money Oliva spent against Perez was for naught. In total, around $500,000 was spent trying to oust Perez in the Republican primary, almost all of that came from Oliva. Meanwhile, the future speaker had to spend around $800,000; not risking anything to chance.

Most predicted that at the end of the day, Perez would come out on top. On the August 18th Republican Primary, Daniel Perez secured 59% of the vote, winning re-nomination.

Perez’ win came across the district, with little sign that Cuban voters specifically had moved against him. He had modest wins across much of the district. With that primary over, Perez would easily prevail in November, taking 63% of the vote.

Oliva’s term as Speaker came to an end with the 2024 election and he left office. Perez had won the war with Oliva… for the moment.

Btw, wonder what happened to Garcia? Well he would go on to STORM THE CAPITAL on January 6th. He was subsequently arrested and convicted, but has now been pardoned by Donald Trump.

Bitter Feelings Linger

Once 2020 was done, Perez saw no electoral drama after that. Elections in 2022 and 2024 were easy. After the 2024 November elections concluded, Perez was officially named Speaker of the Florida House.

Jose Oliva, meanwhile, has remained close to the DeSantis orbit, something not lost on Perez. In 2023, DeSantis named Oliva to the Board of Governors, which oversees the State University systems. The former Speaker, while on the outs with many Republicans for his 2020 scheming, has continued to be a confidant to the Governor. Oliva was even on the short-list to be named a US Senator when DeSantis had to fill Marco Rubio’s seat.

Perez has ample reason to dislike DeSantis world, as they have rewarded those Perez went to war with. In February, Janet Nunez was named the new President of Florida International University, something clearly organized by the Governor. Such a cushy job given to someone tied to the consultants that funded his primary threat has not sat well with Perez. Now, as the battle between DeSantis and Perez continues, the long-running rumor of a LT Governor replacement will be none other an Oliva himself!

Oliva himself has done nothing to mend fences with Perez. Just at the end of March, Oliva responded to a Perez tweet. The post was Perez touting the conservative work of the Florida House. Oliva had this to say in a reply

Beware of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. If you claim to be a conservative and all you have done is support overriding spending cuts and obstruct the efforts of the country’s most conservative governor, you have nothing to be proud of. Do not cloak yourself in the work of others to shield your malice.

There is no love between the current and former Speaker. Oliva, more open than ever before, has made his dislike for Perez clear; matching what the Governor DeSantis thinks. Indeed Oliva would make for a good Lt Governor is DeSantis really wants to aggravate the speaker more.

Much can be said about the current disfunction between the Florida House and the Governor. Many issues are at play. However, one cannot overlook how much personal hatred and contempt drive the actions of politicians. For Daniel Perez, his hatred of the Governor very likely stems back to an expensive primary back in good ol’ 2020.