by Sharon Rondeau
(Apr. 29, 2023) — Last week the Florida legislature partially repealed a statute requiring state-level public servants to resign prior to seeking elected federal office.
The Senate approved the measure Thursday, and the House of Representatives voted in favor on Friday, multiple sources reported.
Though late in the legislative session, the amendment to the “resign-to-run” law was introduced just last Tuesday and specifies it applies only to those seeking the presidency or vice-presidency.
It is widely expected that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis plans to seek the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential race, joining 45th President Donald J. Trump and others previously declared.
Trump claims credit for DeSantis’s 2018 gubernatorial victory via his endorsement when DeSantis was polling significantly behind his primary contender, then-Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. In November DeSantis went on to win, by a small margin, over Democrat Andrew Gillum.
In 2022, DeSantis won handily over former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who was previously a Republican and Independent before declaring himself a Democrat in 2016, when he ran successfully for the U.S. House of Representatives. Although winning two subsequent re-elections, Crist challenged DeSantis for the governorship in 2022.
A Florida resident, Trump does not appear to have commented on the legislative development as of press time.
During his 2022 campaign, DeSantis insisted he was focused on the needs of Floridians. He signed numerous bills dealing with school safety and medical services, including one which extended a shield for healthcare workers and facilities from legal liability resulting from COVID-19 vaccinations.
According to Health News Florida in February 2022 on the renewed law, which remains in effect until June 1, 2023:
Health care providers can still face COVID-19 lawsuits. But the legal protections, for example, require a higher standard of proof for plaintiffs. In such cases, plaintiffs have to prove “by the greater weight of the evidence that the health care provider was grossly negligent or engaged in intentional misconduct.”
Also, health care providers are shielded from lawsuits if they can offer “affirmative” defenses, such as compliance with government-issued health standards.
Following re-election, DeSantis signed a “Freedom Budget” which “builds on Florida’s successes as the state continues to outpace the nation in building a robust economy, safeguarding students’, parents’, and teachers’ rights; restoring our environment; and maintaining healthy reserves to respond to natural disasters. The Free State of Florida serves as a framework for states across the nation to follow.”
Notably, longtime political operative and commentator Roger Stone, a strong Trump ally who received a pardon in the waning days of his administration, predicted the legislature would enact the change.
In October, Stone additionally opined that “If Governor Ron DeSantis challenges @realDonaldTrump who has made it clear that he will be a candidate in 2024 it would be the most stunning act of ingratitude and treachery in the history of American politics.”
While initially polling a close second place against Trump, DeSantis’s favorability appears to have waned considerably in recent weeks, a point Stone made on his Substack.
“Florida Congressman Byron Donalds’ surprise endorsement of President Donald Trump, followed by the endorsement of newly elected Congressman Cory Mills, is further evidence of the erosion of the political prospects of Governor Ron DeSantis, who, to the surprise of some, has turned on the man who is solely and completely responsible for his elevation from the position of obscure and relatively unknown congressman to the governorship of the Sunshine State,” Stone wrote on April 11. “Perhaps 2018 is too long ago for many Americans to remember that the entire Florida Republican establishment, including all 67 Republican county chairmen, every elected Republican state representative, state senator, or every Republican member of the Florida congressional delegation had endorsed former Congressman and Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in that year’s Republican gubernatorial primary.”
Trump’s recent term for DeSantis, “Ron DeSanctimonius,” apparently was coined by Stone last fall, perhaps inspired by a political ad Stone embedded in his article captioned, “God Wants Ron DeSantis to be Governor.”
Last July, former Assistant to the President, author and podcaster Peter Navarro commented that a Trump/DeSantis ticket could be “unstoppable.” However, Navarro apparently did not consider the Twelfth Amendment, which would likely prohibit such a union or else forfeit Florida’s electoral votes when the Electoral College would cast its votes in December 2024.
In a broadcast Friday with Steve Bannon and as reflected in a Saturday transcript, Navarro stated:
As you will see from this clip, Steve and I always have fun on the set; and we share a common bond, having served in the Trump White House together. In that White House, both Steve and I found as many Never-Trump enemies within the West Wing as outside it, but the message of this particular clip is one for both Ron DeSantis and the world.
To wit: there is an enormously steep learning curve for any individual ascending to the office of president for the first time. As both Steve and I argue in this clip, nobody on either side of the political aisle is more ready to govern come January 2025 given the problems we are facing on both the economy and national security than Donald John Trump.
As I argue in my Taking back Trump’s America book, Ron DeSantis would do well to wear the mantle as vice president to Trump, spend four years in the White House going up the learning curve, and then, likely spend another eight years as president.
I hope sanity prevails in the DeSantis camp – are you listening Ron – but the more I see the globalist Never-Trump crowd throw money at DeSantis, the more concerned I become that a Trump-DeSantis will not become a reality.
Although DeSantis has not officially declared himself a candidate, both his supporters and political groups supporting Trump have launched advertisements criticizing the other.
In February, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush endorsed DeSantis.