DeSantis, Florida GOP tensions spill out into open
Tensions are spilling out into the open between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and members of his own party in the Sunshine State, pointing to a new discordant era of GOP-led politics in a state that has trended red over the last few cycles.
The rare intraparty fighting came to a head this week when DeSantis’s proposed special session to implement President Trump’s immigration agenda kicked off, only to be ended by state Senate President Ben Albritton (R) and state House Speaker Daniel Perez (R). Republicans in the state legislature then introduced the Tackling and Reforming Unlawful Migration Policy (TRUMP) Act, which notably called to make the state’s Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson the chief immigration officer. The Senate bill was authored by state Sen. Joe Gruters (R), a Trump ally who is said to have a frosty relationship with the governor.
The events mark a new era for DeSantis as he seeks to curry favor with Trump on his top campaign issue in the state that has become the center for the GOP universe. The infighting in Tallahassee also comes as Trump seeks to move his agenda through Washington at record speed using a flurry of executive orders and actions with an emphasis on immigration.
“You have a situation where DeSantis wants to push the best, strongest policy possible but you have a lot of people here who also have some political interests and they have to understand that Trump is driving the bus,” said Ford O’Connell, a Florida Republican strategist.
In calling Florida’s special session, DeSantis argued that the state could be a model for other states to work with the administration in implementing the president’s immigration agenda. Republican legislature leaders say they are in agreement with Trump on immigration, but argue they were “blindsided” by DeSantis’s move to call a special session and that the move was “premature.”
“Gov. DeSantis’s sharp elbows have not won him many friends in Tallahassee,” said Republican donor Dan Eberhart, who supported DeSantis’s presidential bid before backing Trump.
“DeSantis has always been a populist with the support of the people and not other politicians,” he added.
On Tuesday, state lawmakers passed the TRUMP Act after tweaking the legislation in an attempt to compromise with DeSantis and his allies. The White House was involved in the brokering of the compromise, according to Florida Republican lawmakers.
Among other provisions, the final product includes mandating the death penalty for immigrants who are in the country illegally and have been found guilty of committing a capital crime. Additionally, it calls for a maximum sentence for immigrants in the country illegally who are a part of a gang and convicted of a crime.
Still, DeSantis and his allies maintain the legislation is weak. The governor wrote in a post on X “the veto pen is ready.”
“It’s a certainty that he’s going to veto this,” said state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia (R), who is supporting DeSantis in the standoff with Republican legislature leaders. “I think it’s a waiting game at the moment. Nothing can happen until the bill is transmitted to the governor’s office.”
“My guess is he would call everybody back into a special session,” he added, referring to the period after the likely veto.
Arguably the biggest point of contention over the legislation is the power it would transfer from the governor to the agriculture commissioner.
“Moving and stripping power away from the governor is really problematic, if not unconstitutional,” Ingoglia said.
Albritton and Perez argue that if DeSantis were left in charge, he would appoint an “unelected bureaucrat” to serve as the state immigration enforcement coordinator.
Simpson, who has an icy relationship with DeSantis, has frequently been floated as a potential gubernatorial candidate in 2026.
DeSantis and his allies have argued the effort to move immigration under Simpson in the state could protect the agriculture industry, which has been an employment source to a number of immigrants in the country illegally.
“From a political and policy-wise point of view, having the commissioner of agriculture oversee illegal immigration plays into every stereotype about illegal immigration,” Ingoglia said. “And then they sit back and wonder why there’s such harsh pushback against that.”
DeSantis echoed the point in a post on X earlier this week, saying it “creates a conflict of interest.”
Simpson hit back in a subsequent post, citing his own support for Trump and DeSantis’s effort for primary Trump in 2024.
“[DeSantis’s] routine attacks on farmers don’t sit well here in Florida — and apparently not with folks across the country either,” Simpson wrote.
The war of words between DeSantis and Republican state legislative leaders has raged on throughout the week on social media, as well as Florida and national political talk shows.
DeSantis held a number of roundtables and press conferences across the state this week addressing immigration head on.
The governor appeared to further escalate the feud in an X post on Thursday, saying he will use his PAC known as the Florida Freedom Fund to back “to ensure support for a strong conservative gubernatorial candidate and to support strong conservative candidates in legislative primaries.”
“Immigration is such a concern among Republican voters that the governor is able to take the high road and the legislature is boxing themselves in to a public fight they can’t win,” said one Florida lobbyist familiar with the situation involving the governor and state legislative leaders.
“I think the legislature thought that DeSantis had lost a step and wasn’t going to wield the influence in his last two years that he had in his last 6 years. It appears that was a miscalculation,” the lobbyist added.
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