Ron DeSantis is up for re-election this year. He’s been considered America’s governor since he is so willing to go head to head with the Biden administration. He has worked hard to fight to end mandates and to allow people to have their freedoms.
His re-election isn’t going to be easy as there are many candidates vying for the governor’s seat.
Now, it seems that the Florida Senate has made it even harder for DeSantis. Is this a stumble, or has he fallen out of favor enough that it could cost him his seat?
The GOP controls the Florida Senate, so it should be easy for the existing GOP governor to be re-elected. Yet, it seems that his colleagues in the Senate are going to make him work for his seat.
DeSantis has some big plans for his election year, including quite a few high-profile priorities. Will the state ever get to see these things? Well, that depends. The Republican president of the Senate, Wilton Simpson, has recently decided to buck some of those priorities.
There’s a refusal to go along with congressional maps, a refusal to reign in some of the social media and tech companies, and a resistance to fulfill the state budget that’s valued at around $100 billion.
As one Republican senator explained, “There is bad blood between [Simpson and DeSantis] right now. It will likely work itself out in the end, but right now they are not in a good place.”
This spells trouble because DeSantis is looking for a win come the fall.
To show just how personal things have gotten, the Republicans have also failed to fund a $100 million cancer research request. The request came from Casey DeSantis, the governor’s wife. Casey was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. Following the completion of her chemotherapy, she asked for this money to be used to fund research as a way to give back to the medical community.
DeSantis is responsible for helping Florida through the pandemic. He’s the one that fought to keep the vaccine and mask mandates out of schools and workplaces. He’s one of the reasons why tourism has blossomed as many people want to escape liberal cities in order to experience freedom.
It’s come at a cost, though.
Not all Republicans have wanted to see DeSantis take such a hard approach. And, in order to get what he wanted, he has had to strong-arm the Florida legislature, which includes pressuring Simpson on various things. One thing that was particularly tough for Simpson was passing a long-stalled anti-union bill.
Conservative groups even targeted Simpson in his own district when he showed that he didn’t want to be cooperative.
So, the bad blood between DeSantis and Simpson is well-earned. However, it’s a matter of whether they can patch things up and move forward or if Simpson is going to sabotage DeSantis in a re-election year.
The governor’s communication director has addressed the discussion of conflicts by saying “The Governor’s Office continues to work in close cooperation with the Legislature and we look forward to having a successful session with their partnership.”
DeSantis might seem like a shoo win, but there are Democrats that are being considered, too – including Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried. Crist has already served as governor once before, and he crossed party lines to become a Democrat when he went to the U.S. House.
Hopefully, what DeSantis is experiencing is just a stumble as he re-learns how to work with the GOP-led legislature. Otherwise, his fall could be one that is felt throughout the entire Republican Party.
