In the words of the late Texas Democratic Governor Ann Richards about George H.W. Bush, was RONALD DION DeSANTIS "born with a silver foot in his mouth?" You tell me. Seems like his plan to install his wife as Governor is stillborn. What do you think? From South Florida Sun-Sentinel:
DeSantis slams Trump’s choice for next Florida governor, touts his wife for job
Gov. Ron DeSantis took jabs Monday at U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, the Republican who President Donald Trump wants to see as Florida’s next governor.
DeSantis then touted another potential candidate to succeed him: his wife, Casey DeSantis.
The Republican primary to pick a nominee for governor isn’t for another 18 months, in August 2026. But the behind-the-scenes campaign is long underway, and has suddenly become more public.
On Thursday, Trump issued a full-throated endorsement for Donalds, the Gulf Coast congressman who championed Trump over DeSantis during the 2024 presidential campaign.
“I know Byron well, have seen him tested at the highest and most difficult levels, and he is a TOTAL WINNER!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social site. “Byron Donalds would be a truly Great and Powerful Governor for Florida.”
The next day, at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Donalds told people to “stay tuned.”
Not so fast, DeSantis suggested Monday at a news conference in Tampa, at which he offered criticism of Donalds and praise for his wife.
“You’ve got a guy like Byron, he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over the left, over these last years. He’s just not been a part of it. He’s been in other states campaigning doing that, and that’s fine,” DeSantis said, indicating that he thinks Donalds hasn’t delivered results from his time in Congress.
Moments later, the governor said Casey DeSantis would win big if she ran for governor and would build on what he’s done in the job.
“I won by the biggest margin that any Republican has ever won a governor’s race here in (Florida). She would do better than me. Like, there’s no question about that. That would happen and she’s somebody that has, I think, the intestinal fortitude and the dedication to conservative principles that you know anything we’ve accomplished she’d be able to take to the next level,” DeSantis said.
The governor wasn’t speaking off the cuff. He was sure to be asked about Donalds after Trump’s endorsement last week.
‘Race is on’
The inescapable conclusion, said Sean Foreman, a political scientist at Barry University, is that a Donalds-Casey DeSantis contest is coming.
“The race is on,” Foreman said. “Otherwise, why tease it? Why potentially upset Trump and Donalds and other Republicans by doing this unless you’re gearing up for that big primary fight? There’s no reason to toy with ‘My wife’s going to run for governor’ unless she’s going to run for governor.”
“We’ve heard rumors. Now they’ve turned into stories. Now it’s just a matter of time before we get an announcement. And the announcement has to come sooner rather than later because of Trump’s endorsement of Donalds,” Foreman said.
And other candidates could enter the race as well.
A Trump endorsement is enormously important, which no one knows better than Ron DeSantis.
Trump’s late 2017 endorsement of DeSantis — though it came later in the election season than the 2025 endorsement of Donalds — propelled DeSantis to victory in the Republican nomination for governor in 2018, and ultimately victory in the November election that year.
DeSantis at the time was in his third term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Donalds is currently in his third term in the House.
“Trump’s endorsements have made the difference in many races,” Foreman said. “But it’s not an automatic win for somebody that Trump endorses. There’s going to be a competitive primary. Even with Trump endorsement, Byron Donalds is going to have an uphill climb running statewide in Florida.”
DeSantis can’t run for reelection in 2026 because of term limits. Politically, he’s seeking to stay relevant after he leaves office, hoping to keep alive his chances at another attempt to run for president.
There are other factors at play as well.
DeSantis fell out of Trump’s graces when he ran, unsuccessfully, for the 2024 nomination for president, though they’ve publicly attempted to show they’ve patched the rift.
DeSantis and Donalds also were once political allies — so close that Donalds introduced DeSantis at the governor’s 2022 reelection victory rally. But Donalds endorsed Trump over DeSantis for president.
And in 2023 DeSantis and Donalds were at odds when state guidance on teaching Black history said “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Donalds, who is Black, wrote on social media that the standards “are good, robust, & accurate. That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted.” DeSantis allies questioned Donalds conservative bona fides.
Donalds has the same kind of challenge DeSantis faced heading into 2018. Florida is a big state with many members of Congress, and it’s difficult for one to get known statewide outside of their home district. That was evident in a Feb. 18 poll released by the University of North Florida, in which voters were asked their views about several political figures and organizations.
Among Republicans, Donald’s was viewed favorably by 27% and unfavorably by 2%. But 60% had never heard of him and another 10% said they didn’t know.
Casey DeSantis was viewed favorably by 57% of Republicans, unfavorably by 3%, with a smaller 28% saying they had never heard of her and 12% saying they didn’t know.
“It’s so unique with Casey DeSantis being a first lady of this state and not having run for office before — that would typically make someone an outsider and not a strong candidate for office,” said Foreman. “But in this case, Casey DeSantis has been a close adviser to the governor throughout his term and half, and she had a career in television before, and the people who have met her talk about how she would be a great candidate and public servant. In many ways this could be a DeSantis third term. There’s a lot at stake for the governor to protect her candidacy.”
DeSantis on Donalds
At the news conference in Tampa, DeSantis minimized Donalds’ contributions.
DeSantis said Donalds should concentrate on the work ahead in Congress. The governor is often critical of Congress, and people who serve there, including Republicans — even though it was his time as a member of Congress that got him on Fox News, which caught Trump’s attention, and ultimately led to Trump’s endorsement of DeSantis.
At the news conference, DeSantis said Trump has just taken office, adding that “I want these congressmen focused on enacting his agenda. They haven’t done very much yet. They’re not putting his executive orders into place. We’ll see what they do on the spending, but we have such a narrow majority that to be trying to campaign other places and missing these votes, I think is not something that’s advisable at all.”
The comment from DeSantis about campaigning elsewhere and missing votes is notable. As governor when he was running for president, DeSantis was often away from the state. On the April 2023 day the Fort Lauderdale area began cleaning up from historic flooding — and the airport and seaport hobbled by floodwaters — DeSantis was at political events in Ohio. The next day he traveled to Virginia and New Hampshire for more presidential-related events.
“The reality is, you know, we’ve achieved victories in Florida. We need to start achieving those victories up there (in Washington),” DeSantis said, adding that “people look at it” and think Donalds needs to “deliver results up there. You know, that’s what I want to see. I want to see them delivering results for the people of Florida.”
Another potential candidate for the Republican nomination, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, took to social media to respond to DeSantis’ comments about Donalds.
“Man, it hurts me to see this,” Gaetz wrote, along with a frowning emoji shedding a tear.
Gaetz reminded DeSantis that in 2018, he and Donald “were working collaboratively to get you elected” and helped him with debate preparations.
He said it’s true that Donalds would miss some votes in Congress during a gubernatorial campaign, adding that DeSantis, too, missed some votes when he first ran.
Casey DeSantis
Casey DeSantis, a former television anchor, is widely acknowledged as extremely influential as a political adviser to her husband.
“You know, people ask me all the time about our wonderful first lady who has done a fantastic job as first lady of Florida and there’s been a lot of people, you know, I was asked on Fox the other day about, you know, all these people are chattering about about her running and what I said was, you know, that’s not, she’s never angled for anything, right, because that’s just not who she is. I mean she kind of, you know, does what she does,” DeSantis said.
The governor said early in his term in office, he and Casey DeSantis were at a Palm Beach dinner seated next to the late conservative icon and radio personality Rush Limbaugh. DeSantis said his spouse was “just holding court with Rush about conservatism and all this other stuff, all this other stuff, and you could see, like, Rush, his eyes are lighting up because, you know, Rush would always say the spouses are more liberal and it pulls the office holder to the left and on this case, he said that is not true.
“And so at the end of the dinner, (Limbaugh) put his finger in my chest (and said) ‘The only person I would rather have is my governor than you is her,’ and he pointed to her and I was like, that’s a pretty good endorsement there,” DeSantis recalled.
DeSantis legacy
DeSantis, who had his way on almost everything he wanted during his first six years as governor, has more recently received resistance from fellow Republicans who control the state Legislature. They appear unwilling to acquiesce to the governor’s marching orders.
DeSantis repeated something he’s said previously, that he would be raising money to help elect people in line with his vision in coming elections.
“I said I’m going to be, you know, raising money. We’re going to be looking to have somebody that’s going to be able to continue and build off the success that we’ve had here in Florida,” he said.
DeSantis said if the state doesn’t have the right kind of leader it could “revert very quickly” to the way it was before he was governor.
In assessing a future governor, “it really needs to be, OK, are you going to be somebody that’s going to fight for people, especially when it’s not easy? Have you been willing to get in and get involved in these big battles that we’ve had and have won over these many years? If you’re not willing to do that, then I think we are going to see this state reverse. So I would not take anything for granted,” DeSantis said.
He has plenty of other political power he can exercise. On Monday he said he wasn’t going to fill the jobs of chief financial officer or lieutenant governor until after the Legislature finishes its annual session in May. “I also want to be able to watch how different people are able to perform,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis has the power to place people in those jobs because CFO Jimmy Patronis is all-but-guaranteed to be elected to Congress in an April 1 special election. Former Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez resigned to become interim president of Florida International University.
Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
2 comments:
Your choices are some one selected by some reactionary or the continuance of a nepotistic dynasty. Folks, this unethical clown show has been born from the womb of the lowest common intellectual denominator and the situation is looking quite hopeless.
2 million plus super citizens with more rights than everyone else, unlimited legal resources, immunity, and favoritism by the courts. Perhaps Trump should tackle that issue and stop focusing on probationary employees, DEI, and other partisan irrelevance.
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