No political order of the State was more upset by the return to power of President Trump than that of his adopted Florida.
Mr. Trump stacked his new administration With the Floridians, leaving powerful vacant positions. The ambitious republicans have jockey to fill them through elections or special appointments by the governor. The reshuffle allowed Governor Ron Desantis, a Republican, to raise close allies to important roles.
Barely Trump settled in the oval office than Mr. Desantis and his republican colleagues in the state legislature engaged in an unusual political battle On a first issue for the president and voters: illegal immigration. While January turned around February, republican legislators seemed to worry more about responding to the wishes of Mr. Trump on the issue than Mr. Desantis.
The quarrel, which remains unresolved while the two parties argue if the governor or someone else had to control the efforts to apply state immigration, clearly indicated that the former commanding influence of Mr. Desantis had decreased. He has also changed the dynamics of power for the last two years of the governor limited to the term in the State Capitol, the Republicans already jostling before the mid-term elections of 2026.
At the end of January, Mr. Desantis said That its political committee would collect funds for “strong conservative candidates in the legislative primaries” – effectively threatening the Republicans seated with possible adversaries – and for his favorite candidate for the governor. Who could have become a Tallahassee show game, because Mr. Desantis has no obvious successor.
He could soon choose one, however: Friday, Jeanette Mr. Núñez, her lieutenant -government, was appointed interim president of the international university of Florida in Miami – during the suggestion of Mr. Desantis, said the president of the University’s Board of Directors – said – oblige Ms. Núñez to resign and give Mr. Desantis a chance to raise someone whom he considers as a potential political heir.
Already, Mr. Desantis Named Ashley MoodyWho had been the prosecutor general of Florida, in the American Senate, after the headquarters opened when Mr. Trump appointed Marco Rubio Secretary of State. The governor said that he intended to appoint James Uthmeier, his chief of staff, to replace Ms. Moody as a attorney general. Mr. Desantis must always appoint a new state financial director to succeed Jimmy Patronis, who is should win the Congress Seat previously run by Matt Gaetz, who left the headquarters after having was briefly Mr. Trump’s choice for the Attorney General.
The Republicans looking at a race for the governor include Mr. Gaetz; Wilton Simpson, state agricultural commissioner; And Representative byron Donalds de Naples. All three have good relations with Mr. Trump – whose approval is likely to import more than anything else – but not with Mr. Desantis. (There is a periodic chatter among some Republicans to find out if Mr. Desantis’ wife, Casey Desantis, would run.)
Mr. Gaetz, who managed the Governor’s transitional team in 2018, said Trump on Mr. Desantis during the presidential primary. Mr. Donalds too, who was also close to the governor.
The relationship between M. Simpson and Mr. Desantis is freezing; A key snack between the governor and the Republican leaders in the fight for immigration was whether Mr. Desantis or Mr. Simpson should be the principal responsible for the application of state immigration. Giving this powers to the official supervision of the agricultural industry, which has a history of hiring of undocumented workers, would be like putting the “fox responsible for the group house,” said Desantis recently.
Last week, in what was considered an olive branch for the governor, Mr. Donalds said on a podcast That he did not think that the commissioner for agriculture should undertake the application of immigration.
Mr. Desantis hardly moved away from political fighting during his six years in power. If anything, he looked for them, savoring Public Health Experts,, Biden administration,, school boards,, progressive prosecutors – even Disney.
But his tit-form with the Legislative Assembly was different, with Republican leaders who threw Mr. Desantis as the only second the most important Republican in the State, after Mr. Trump.
He started last month when the governor qualified a special legislative session on illegal immigration that Republican leaders did not want. One of Mr. Desantis’s gaps as a politician was his disinterest in maintaining certain relations, including with legislative leaders of his own party. The governor generally sent members of his staff to manage legislative affairs – and expected legislators line up.
Desantis called Ben Albritton, president of the Senate, 15 minutes before the 9:30 am, said a spokesperson for the Senate. Daniel Perez, the loudspeaker of the room, was flying for Tallahassee; The governor left him a voicemail message at 9:22 am
The legislator adopted his own bill instead of what Mr. Desantis had proposed, the lover to threaten a veto. Public quarrel days followed. At the top of the displeasure of the legislators, the Republicans questioned the governor Immigration record And said they could intensify the surveillance of his administration.
However, Mr. Desantis seemed to savor perhaps the most attention from the media he had received since he ran without success for the president.
Mr. Desantis, who won a re -election in 2022 By nearly 20 percentage points, remains popular with republican and independent voters, which he asked to protest against the Immigration Bill of the Legislative Assembly. He rejected discussions on a power struggle and insisted that he did not want to harden Florida immigration laws as long as they become harder.
It was only in recent days that the tone has changed, which suggests that a compromise could be close.
“We want to bring this to a conclusion,” said Mr. Desantis on Friday in Tallahassee. “I think we get closer.”
How different the rest of the Governor’s mandate can take a while to become apparent. The regular legislative session is expected to start on March 4. Mr. Desantis is widely considered in Florida as considering another White House race in 2028.
“We are going to have to come together to solve the problems of the state,” said state senator Joe Gruuters, a Republican from Sarasota, who sponsored the immigration bill. “I hope he is going to be a voluntary partner and not only seize all the occasions to recover for 2028.”
Mr. Desantis did not articulate a great vision of what he would still like to accomplish, beyond Keep Florida at the forefront right -wing policy. He declared that his pressure on legislation to extend the power of the state to hold and expel people who are in the country illegally – go further than even Mr. Trump – had been partially fueled by the desire to Act before the other states do it and become a national model.
“There is a reason why we have become a red state“Said Mr. Desantis recently to Fort Myers, adding that it is” not because we were Milquetoast “.