Special Issue: King DeSantis the Weak
You can see the power fading away
On Monday, Ron DeSantis said that he wanted to call Republican lawmakers into a special legislative session to pass a series of laws. This was not new for Florida - with DeSantis having a long history of calling special sessions and pushing legislative leaders around. What was stunning was the defiant reaction that occurred within the Florida legislature. Republican leaders questioned the timing and questioned the Governor’s plan. It was a major reversal in the power dynamics of Florida in recent years.
I want to talk about this - and moments leading up to it. We will look at how Ron DeSantis went from a powerful near-king in Florida to suddenly finding himself openly defied by members of his own party.
A Powerful Governor
If you have been even remotely following Florida politics for the last several years, you know that Ron DeSantis has been one of the state’s most powerful modern governors. For several years, especially between 2021 and 2024, DeSantis was able to exert his will in Florida virtually unchallenged. Previous Governors, even those that ruled with their party in control of the legislature, were not able to dominate the political space as much as DeSantis was. Rick Scott often clashed with legislative leaders over different priorities. Charlie Crist saw the closing time of his term see his moderate positions conflict more and more with the conservative legislative body. Even looking back into the era of Democratic rule, Lawton Chiles could not run rough-shot over the Democrats that controlled the chamber from 1990 to 1994.
For much of Florida history, lawmakers held a great deal of power. Governor’s had the biggest bully pulpit, but legislative leaders could capture attention and controlled a great deal of money - making them hard to push around. Granted, most Governors did not seek to bully the other chamber. However, Florida saw DeSantis reach previous unheard of power for several years thanks to a mix of factors.
Timeline of his Rise
DeSantis’s term as Governor, which began in 2019, did not start off any different than most Florida Governors. There were policy agreements, policy disagreements, and back and forth negotiations.
However, things really changed with the COVID pandemic and DeSantis using the crisis to flex his own power. This flexing came as lawmakers, eager to avoid contentious policy decisions around issues like lockdowns or vaccines, ceded control to DeSantis to “manage” much of the crisis. This allowed the Governor to consolidate a great deal of power. The saga is well-documented in this Huffington Post op-ed by Anders Croy.
That op-ed has a great deal of details - including news links - documenting DeSantis’ rise. For the moment, a key timeline of events, as I see it, is as follows….
When elected in 2018, he won the Republican primary thanks to the backing of Donald Trump. This already put him on a stronger position of strength than when Rick Scott, who became governor as an outsider businessman, won the same office in 2010.
After Trump lost in 2020, DeSantis’ political star continued to rise in right-wing circles as he embrace anti-COVID mitigation. He became an increasingly darling figure in national conservative circles - building a fanbase he could always turn on legislative leaders.
DeSantis weaponized attacks on social issues, from diversity initiatives to LGBT rights, to build up a loyal following of Christian conservatives and far-right groups like the Proud Boys. He aimed to move to the right of Trump and as such built a massive following.
As his star rose through 2021, he built up a massive war chest for his re-election bid. This block of money mixed with his national star power made him a dangerous person to cross.
His own brash personality makes him someone who wants to control legislators. While many Governors have wanted the legislature to push their policies - DeSantis’ personality is one that craves control well beyond key agenda items.
The 2022 election cycle absolutely represented the peak of his power. Through this period, DeSantis basically told the legislature what to do. His willingness to wield the veto pen against member projects didn’t hurt either. However, it was his popularity in conservative voter circles that was most critical.
Dictating Legislative Contests
DeSantis weaponized his appeal with conservative voters to allow himself to pick favorites in legislative primaries. Before this, legislative leaders had broad leeway in playing favorites in primaries for open state house or senate seats. The legislative leadership controls well-funded political committees that can often exert their will in primaries. Governor’s rarely get involved in this drama, but DeSantis was very different.
The first major incident was DeSantis getting involved in a 2022 Republican Primary for State Senate District 11; a deep red seat based around Citrus, Pasco, Hernando, and Sumter counties. Republican legislative leadership were backing State Representative Ralph Massullo. DeSantis, however, endorsed State Representative Blaise Ingoglia; a man not liked by many Republican leaders. DeSantis entering his endorsement led to Massullo dropping his bid.
Senate leaders were confused about this involvement, and when incoming Senate President Kathleen Passidomo asked DeSantis about it, apparently he told her that legislative leaders should be speaking to HIM about endorsements. More of this drama can be read about here. Other districts saw similar DeSantis meddling - with him aiding several people make it to the capital that now remain personally loyal to him.
Taking over Redistricting
As I documented extensively in my redistricting coverage for 2022, DeSantis made the unprecedented move of getting involved in the Congressional map-making process. Governors have historically stayed out of the redistricting process. Only the Congressional map is subject to a veto or signature, but a signature has always been a formality. As lawmakers prepared to pass a fairly balanced “least change” map; eager to avoid the years of lawsuits that came from the 2012 redistricting process, DeSantis got involved by proposing maps of his own. All these maps were extreme Republican gerrymanders that cracked Democrats and eliminated Black-performing districts.
Legislative leaders had resisted DeSantis meddling in redistricting at first. Reports in February of 2022 reported serious “bad blood” between DeSantis and lawmakers. However, under threats of primaries and budget veto’s, lawmakers eventually caved. The heavy-handed involvement of DeSantis was most clearly with State Senator Wilton Simpson. Then the Senate Republican President, Simpson was going to be running for Agriculture Commissioner in 2022. Simpson had the primary clear for himself and until the spring of 2022 was resisting DeSantis’ redistricting meddling. However, a sudden primary challenge emerged, Chuck Nadd, a veteran of Afghanistan. Nadd would begin hitting Simpson on his ties to big agrobusiness and US Sugar, something DeSantis was also attacking the Senator on. Once Simpson came into alignment with DeSantis on redistricting, the primary bid of Nadd ended. I discussed all this here.
DeSantis finally got his way after he vetoed initial Congressional maps passed by lawmakers. A special session was then organized for April of 2022 - where the current map was passed.
This map’s elimination of the Black-performing 5th Congressional district has resulted in a years-long lawsuit that lawmakers are still dealing with. More than anything, legislative leaders wanted to avoid the courts. DeSantis, however, made crossing him a more scary prospect.
The Wannabe King of Florida
Wherever DeSantis could utilize his authority in Florida - he did so. More and more, Governorship of Florida was treated like the state was a tool of Republican Party interests. This was seen when DeSantis made it a routine habit of delaying elections when legislative vacancies occurred.
In 2021, when Congressman Alcee Hastings passed away, DeSantis delayed in announcing a special election for this black-majority seat for well over a month. The dates finally set also left the seat vacant far longer than normal - almost an entire year. The Governor did the same thing with special elections for several heavily-Black state legislative districts. Compare this with the quick timeline of the Florida 1st Congressional District special election, and it becomes clear politics and race were at play in how quickly a seat gets an election called.
In the 2024 fall campaigns, we saw an alarming escalation on state resources being used for political purposes. DeSantis waged a war against Amendments 3 and 4, citizen-initiated measures that would have legalized marijuana and expanded abortion rights respectively. DeSantis had a right to campaign for or against these proposals - even raise or spend campaign cash on them. However, what happened was state taxpayer money was spent against both measures. Agencies like the Department of Transpiration ran ads, funded by taxpayer dollars, about the risk of marijuana legislation. The Department of Health ran ads warning about Florida becoming an abortion vacation destination. Most alarming of all, TV stations were sent letters by the Department of Health warning them they were breaking the law by running ads from the PRO Amendment 4 campaign.
DeSantis has also demonstrated serious authoritarian tendencies with his use of the suspension power. For those of you unfamiliar - Florida law allows the Governor of Florida the broad ability to suspend local officials from office. This power is meant for officials who are charged with crimes or are under credible investigations. Such suspensions can also be overruled by the Florida Senate. However, in the first weeks of his job, DeSantis began weaponizing this power when he suspended the Broward Sheriff and Palm Beach Elections Supervisor for more political grounds than legal or ethical.
This ratcheted up when DeSantis would suspend State Attorney’s Andrew Warren and Monique Worrell for entirely political reasons. In the case of Warren, it was because the prosecutor signed a pledge to use his discretion to not go after women seeking abortions. In the case of Worrell, it was a vague “she’s not tough on crime” claim. I discuss the circumstances around both more here.
The whole story is DeSantis simply “decreeing” that these officials were not doing their job. No reviews - no accountability - just BOOM you are gone. Now while the State Senate could overrule DeSantis on these decisions, it should now be clear how unwilling lawmakers were willing to cross him.
In the 2024 elections, Andrew Warren and Monique Worrell would run to win their posts back. I covered both of those races in this post-election article. Warren was unsuccessful in winning back his post, swept by the red tide that went through Hillsborough. Monique Worrell, on the other hand, won her seat over DeSantis-appointed Incumbent Andrew Bain. Worrell has sense taken the oath and has her post back, BUT things remain sketchy, as a Polk County grand jury is apparently investigating here - or something to that effect. Many of us are still watching this closely - wondering if DeSantis will try an investigation - which is likely nonsense - to justify a brand new suspension.
The whole suspension power saga has shown this power needs to be either seriously curtailed or removed entirely. However, what DeSantis wants is to EXPAND the power. One key part of his special election call was expanding the power for him to be able to suspend Sheriffs and State Attorneys that won’t cooperate with Trump’s desire for mass deportations. We will get to that in a moment.
For years DeSantis has ruled Florida has a near king. However, there has been growing signs this heyday is coming to an end. Arguably the first “cracks” in his power came when he decided to go fully national.
The 1st Crack: Presidential Campaign Disaster
How long DeSantis’ power could have lasted is up for debate. Part of his power and influence was the fact that lawmakers knew he intended to run for President in 2024. Lawmakers already knew the pain of being on the wrong side of DeSantis when he was governor, they certainly didn’t want that same dynamic with him as President. Staying on DeSantis’ good side was very important for most Republicans.
However, the DeSantis Presidential run proved to be a major error. Once Trump made it clear he was going to run again, DeSantis would have been smarter to step aside. The two men already had a frosty relationship, but DeSantis was too over-confidant he could topple the former President. I wrote about this at the launch of his campaign - which you can read here. As I discussed, DeSantis had been elevated to Governor with Trump’s backing and help. The run against Trump, who maintain a very loyal following, smacked of betrayal and disloyalty - beginning a process of poisoning many conservatives against him.
DeSantis’ campaign was a mess almost from the start, and showed how much is Florida power and strength was based of a mix of factors and not just his iron will. He was a weak campaigner and his heavy-handed style didn’t work out of Florida. He faced internal embarrassments when almost the entire Republican Congressional delegation of Florida backed Trump. The reports from the time detailed Congresspeople talking about how aloof DeSantis was and how little he reached out for endorsements. DeSantis had almost all state lawmakers on his side, but countless insider reports showed many of these endorsements came because members didn’t want to anger the governor and risk money and projects for their districts.
A gaff-prone campaign came to a bitter end in Iowa, where DeSantis lost 2-1 in the first contest of the nomination. I wrote about the campaign and the Iowa results here. With this loss, DeSantis dropped his Presidential campaign a few days later.
Weakened in 2024
The DeSantis primary lost came in the beginning of 2024. DeSantis limped back to Tallahassee but still maintained strong power and influence in the state capital. With the election season rapidly approaching, there was little time for the legislature to try and re-assert its independence right then. Everyone moved into the election season with DeSantis focused on 2024 school board races and defeating Amendments 3 and 4.
While November went very well for Republicans, few credit that with DeSantis. The Governor, meanwhile, had a mixed election season. While Amendments 3 and 4 did fail to secure the 60% they needed, they still topped 56% - showing a solid majority of voters didn’t buy his arguments and pushes against them. His desire to get credit for killing both has also been overshadowed by the Trump national win and incoming administration plans.
On top of this, DeSantis saw his record on local race endorsements take a serious hit. In 2022, DeSantis had gotten heavily involved in local school board races, aiming to “reshape” the schools into his warped worldview. The 2022 involvement was very successful, with his candidates sweeping races. In 2024, however, the story was very different, with DeSantis-backed candidates suffering big defeats and other conservatives going down as well. I discussed this whole saga here. I actually have updates I need to conclude - but the drop in wins from 2022 to 2024 is massive.
Trump is the real power in Florida
With the end of 2024, it was clear DeSantis was no longer as powerful as he had been two years, or even just one year, ago. Donald Trump, set to be President again, is the biggest name in Florida.
This was first seen with the special election for 6th Congressional District, a seat being vacated by Congressman Mike Waltz, who is becoming Trump’s National Security Advisor. Trump instantly endorsed State Senator Randy Fine for the seat. The Fine endorsement for the 6th is an especially humiliating matter for DeSantis - as the two men hate each other. Fine, initially a state house member, defected from DeSantis to Trump in October of 2023. Then when Fine ran for State Senate last year, DeSantis was unable to find a primary challenger to him for the seat. The failure to secure a challenger to Fine was a MASSIVE shift from the power he wielded two years earlier. Fine won that State Senate seat and is poised to easily win the Congressional special election. DeSantis can only sit back and watch.
Additionally, DeSantis is finding his influence more limited when it comes to several appointments he wants to make. With Jimmy Patronis, who is the State’s Chief Financial Officer, running for Congress in the special election for the 1st Congressional District, DeSantis can appoint a replacement to serve the rest of Patronis’ term. DeSantis wants to pick State Senator Blaise Ingoglia, a longtime ally who wants the job. However, Donald Trump has loudly declared he supports State Senator Joe Gruters, a longtime DeSantis foe and Trump ally. DeSantis has yet to make a decision, a sign that he is weighing how much to risk angering Trump. Again a few years ago I suspect Blaise would have the gig secured. Now everyone is waiting to see. Even if Blaise gets picked, Gruters has made it clear he’s running anyway in 2026.
2nd Crack: The Special Session Pushback
The biggest sign yet that DeSantis’ power has continued to wane is the response to him calling for a special legislative session on Monday. DeSantis tweeted out early in the day that he wanted lawmakers to come into a late January special session to pass a series of reforms and also draconian measures.
The key items to be discussed are
Making the petition-gathering process for ballot measures much harder. This could include needing photo IDs for signatures or even notary signatures. This is an extension of DeSantis’ war on Amendments 3 and 4.
Ending in-state tuition for “Dreamers” - aka the kids who were brought into the US illegally by their parents, but reside, work, and live in Florida.
Expanding the 287(g) program, which allows state and local law enforcement to perform some immigration enforcement duties. This would be for Trump’s desired mass-round ups of undocumented immigrants. DeSantis wants it to that Sheriff and State Attorney offices are MANDATED to help with immigration detentions - rather than it be an option. Here is where DeSantis wants to expand his power to suspend local officials. It should be noted that the Republican Sheriff of Miami-Dade County does not support this effort.
DeSantis had already been angling for a special session for weeks, but was largely rebuffed privately by legislative leaders. The regular legislative session begins in March and committee weeks for this session are already ongoing. Lawmakers told DeSantis all items could wait till March. DeSantis, likely eager to show he still ran the show, made a public call for a special session.
What few expected was lawmakers so public pushing back publicly and directly. In a strongly worded letter, House Speaker Daniel Perez and State Senate President Ben Albritton said that a session was not needed. Some highlights are seen below.
As you know, this Legislature will address illegal immigration, condominiums, petition initiatives and hurricane recovery this Session, which starts in 50 days. Calling a special session at this time is premature.
While the Governor discussed fragments of ideas for a special session he plans to start in just fourteen days, he did not release any actual bill language or even meaningful details for legislators and our constituents to consider.
The letter made it clear they supported Trump, and that such proposals would be taken up in the regular legislative session. However, they were not interested in DeSantis’ timeline. The fact they said he had “fragments of ideas” while chastising him for offering no legislative text is a stunning slap in the face to the Governor. Such push-back would have been unthinkable two years ago. Everyone sees this as a massive shift in the power dynamic for Florida.
DeSantis would go ahead and call the formal special session later that day. Lawmakers are legally compelled to come into session on January 27th. However, DeSantis cannot make them pass anything. They could gavel out if they wish. That, of course, seems very unlikely, as it would be the ultimate “F-U.”
Donald Trump offered DeSantis help, and offered lawmakers an out, however, when he endorsed a special session on Tuesday morning. He posted on his Truth Social app that he was happy about a special session.
With Trump backing a proposal, lawmakers will likely come into session and pass something. How detailed it is, what money they allocate, and so on, is unclear. Something will be passed and then likely expanded on in the regular session. However, it will all be credited to Donald Trump. Before Trump backed the session, Republican leaders already believed they had the votes in their caucus to not let DeSantis bully them. With Trump’s post yesterday morning, lawmakers will answer the call of the TRUE leader of Florida - Donald Trump.
For DeSantis, while this is preferable to an embarrassing special session that just sees lawmakers gavel in then quickly adjourn with passing nothing, its still a major ego blow to the man who once ruled Florida with an iron fist. Now DeSantis needs Trump to bail him out when legislative leaders look ready to defy him.
A New Weakened State
Ron DeSantis has two years left in his Governorship. He still wields power, but far less than he once did. He is likely to continue to be seen simply as a Trump lackey - someone there to assist the President - not rule Florida as his own fiefdom. There is also no clear pathway for a 2028 Presidential run for the man. JD Vance is in a much stronger position to take up the MAGA mantel in a few years. DeSantis' chance was 2024, and that is gone now.
The Days of King DeSantis are not over just yet. However, the once powerful and unstoppable King is much weaker than he once was.
He is “King DeSantis the Weak.”
Problem is they may still end up killing the Ballot intiative thing anyway