Ron DeSantis can now make his agenda a reality ahead of a possible 2024 announcement
By Steve Contorno, CNN
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will soon have new authority over Disney’s iconic Florida theme parks, leeway to transport migrants from anywhere in the country and fewer hurdles to put people behind bars for voting errors — all top priorities that have animated conservatives who may decide the next Republican nominee for president.
And he amassed this power in less than a week.
DeSantis possesses a unique asset as he lays the groundwork for a potential presidential campaign: A subservient state party that is eager to hand victories to the Republican leader. The special session in Florida that ended Friday — during which his priorities sailed through the GOP-legislature in a matter of days and with minimal resistance — was a public demonstration of his total control over an ostensibly separate branch of government.
It’s a tool he is expected to wield often in the coming months as he eschews an early entrance into the race in favor of building up a record of decisive actions that could be appealing to future primary voters.
DeSantis has already laid out several legislative targets when lawmakers meet again next month, including fewer restrictions on firearms, more restrictions on abortion, weaker legal protections for the media industry and more public funding to attend private schools. With Republicans holding a super majority in both the state House and Senate, there is little expectation that DeSantis will not get his way.
DeSantis isn’t expected to jump into the race for president until after lawmakers conclude their legislative business in May — a sign of how important that agenda is to his platform for president and the narrative around his candidacy.
“Everyone is just waiting to take their cues from the governor,” one longtime Florida lobbyist said. “He is setting the agenda and it’s all red meat for 2024 voters.”
So far DeSantis isn’t missing out on a crowded nomination battle. Former President Donald Trump remains the only declared candidate, but more appear not far behind. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is expected to announce her campaign on Wednesday. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu formed a new political organization as he inches toward a decision. Others, like former Vice President Mike Pence, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have openly acknowledged their interest in the office.
Behind-the-scenes, DeSantis is also readying a political operation for a presidential campaign, with an eye toward making a campaign announcement in late May or early June, two people close to the governor said.
His top advisers are in the early stages of launching an organization that could become a super PAC to support his 2024 bid. His memoir “The Courage to be Free” will drop at the end of February, leading into a national book tour and media blitz. The decision for DeSantis to invite top Republican fundraisers to a retreat and policy conference later this month in Palm Beach — the former president’s backyard — is the latest sign of how the governor is ramping up his operation in hopes of sending a signal to donors that he is serious about jumping into the race and he won’t be deterred by Trump.
But DeSantis has otherwise dismissed speculation around his political ambitions. Even as he becomes the focus of attacks from the prospective field — most notably by Trump, but also Sununu and Hogan — DeSantis has avoided counterattacks that might distract from his focus on stacking legislative wins and culture war victories that his political advisers believe will give him a platform to take to voters, especially in a field full of candidates who are no longer in office.
“It’s awkward for many of us who genuinely like President Trump, but believe Governor DeSantis should be our party’s nominee,” said a major donor who talks often with DeSantis. “Trump can’t beat Biden. We’ve seen that already.”
While no president in American history has come from Florida, the prospect of the state having two 2024 GOP candidates — DeSantis and Trump — has added another layer of intrigue and questions of loyalty among many Republican donors, strategists and officials.
For weeks, Trump has steadily intensified his criticism of DeSantis. For his part, DeSantis has largely ignored the attacks and responded by either declining to attack fellow Republicans or pointing to his 19-point victory in the midterm elections last fall.
As the Republican field begins taking shape, DeSantis is sending clear signals to donors and prospective campaign staff that he intends to run. But he feels no urgency or pressure to accelerate his timeline.
“I spend my time delivering results for the people of Florida and fighting against Joe Biden,” DeSantis said when asked about recent Trump attacks on social media. “That’s how I spend my time. I don’t spend my time trying to smear other Republicans.”
DeSantis has pushed the limits of his executive authority to hold the spotlight and amass a record tailor-made for a primary battle against Trump. He recently stacked the board of New College, a small liberal arts school, with political allies and like-minded conservatives who have already shaken up the progressive university. Under his watch, transgender children can no longer access certain treatments, and he used his veto powers to eliminate funding for LGBTQ mental health programs. He ousted a twice-elected local prosecutor for simply promising not to use office resources to go after abortion providers.
But it’s through the legislature that DeSantis has built the bulk of his political resume, and where he has demonstrated his command of his party. On Monday, DeSantis launched his latest salvo against the financial industry, announcing a proposal to block banks from lending or investing based on environmental, social and governance factors.
“Why is it always someone has to try to jam their agenda down our throats?” DeSantis said at a news conference to unveil his plan to take on so-called “woke” banks.
The special session last week was the sixth time lawmakers were called back to Tallahassee in two and a half years to take on DeSantis’ priorities outside of their regularly scheduled meeting. This time they assembled largely to clean up existing measures taken by DeSantis that earned the governor considerable praise in conservative media but also legal headaches for the state.
Lawmakers during the five-day special session voted to give the statewide prosecutor jurisdiction to go after Floridians for violating election and voting crimes. The measure comes after DeSantis initiated a crackdown on voter fraud that resulted in the arrest of 20 individuals accused of voting illegally in 2020. However, the move hit a legal snag in some cases, including in Miami-Dade County, where a judge dismissed a case against a Miami defendant on the grounds that the state prosecutor had acted beyond its authority.
Similarly, the Republican controlled-legislature gave DeSantis the power to transport migrants from anywhere in the country after a legal challenge arose when the governor last year sent two planes of migrants from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, despite a state law that the state’s authority was limited to relocating “unauthorized aliens from this state.”
The move last week to give DeSantis the power to pick the board members for Disney’s special taxing district was also a step to avoid a potential financial catastrophe after DeSantis last year demanded lawmakers vote to dissolve the Reedy Creek Improvement District without a plan for its existing debt and contracts. Republican lawmakers, though, were happy to oblige.
“As the governor says, there’s a new sheriff in town,” state House Speaker Paul Renner said as lawmakers prepared to hand control of Disney’s special taxing district over to DeSantis.
Democrats in Florida, powerless to stop DeSantis and his allies, have mostly used the bully pulpit to criticize their GOP colleagues for ceding so much control to the executive branch.
“I don’t understand why we just give away this ultimate power to one individual who should live up to the consequences of breaking the law,” said state Rep. Anna Eskamani, an Orlando Democrat. “The reality is that we have a governor who’s setting up a presidential bid. And this is basically his attempt to get earned media time on Fox News.”
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CNN’s Jeff Zeleny contributed to this report.
