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Doral, Florida - Governor DeSantis still wants to be President. He launched his campaign in May 2023, notwithstanding that by then the Trump Train had picked up unstoppable steam. He reluctantly suspended his campaign after an ignominious defeat in the Iowa caucuses during February 2024. Thereafter he kinda sorta supported Trump, and now all Republicans claim that they are MAGA.
Nevertheles, Casey still wants him to run for President. As he looks at the field of contenders, however, he sees that Vice President Vance is solidifyng his position as front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028. Vance is from the Rust Belt, so he will probably want to balance his ticket with a vice presidential nominee from the Sun Belt. Today the leading choice for that is Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He was a favorite for the vice presidential nomination in 2024, and his effective performance so far has solidified his hold on that nomination for 2028.
So, DeSantis must have felt pressure to do something in order to burnish his MAGA credentials and stay in the political conversation. He called a special session of the state legislature to consider issues of immigration enforcement and election integrity. Every Republican today wants to show that he is “Trumpier than thou!”
Of course, new legislation for immigration enforcement is not needed. All that state and local authorities have to do is collaborate with the federal authorities, who have exclusive jurisdiction. The Governor has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding with federal immigration authorities to coordinate the collaboration by state and federal authorities. On election integrity, DeSantis proposed to require a demonstration of United States citizenship in order to register to vote, but not much more.
Response of State Legislature
To get the dancing started, as we observed above, Governor DeSantis called for a special session of the state legislature. Senate President Albritton and House Speaker Perez, however, labeled the call “premature.” They gaveled in and out the Governor’s special session, and instead gaveled in their own special session. There they passed a new bill called the “Trump Act” addressing a lot of the same issues.
The new bill proposed by the Senate President and House Speaker differed from the bill proposed by the Governor in several ways, but perhaps the most important way was to name Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson as the state’s chief officer for immigration enforcement. Simpson, reflecting his background in the agriculture industry, has opposed immigration enforcement and shown little interest in election integrity. During his time in the state legislature, Simpson voted to grant drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens, and to provide them with in-state tuition rates for state colleges and universities. He was also the author of Red Flag laws for gun control, and has opposed the use of E-verify to prevent employers from hiring illegal aliens.
What has now happened, in effect, is that the leadership of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) has announced their abandonment of our term-limited Governor, and their support of Simpson for Governor in 2026. Even his Lieutenant Governor has abandoned DeSantis to take the position of President of Florida International University. Hopefully she will clean out their communist faculty.
This Republican leadership is made up of: (1) Senate President Albritton, who represents an agricultural district and is serving his last term; (2) House Speaker Perez, who honeymooned in Havana (like Bill DeBlasio, former Mayor of New York City) and is also term-limited; and (3) Evan Power, Chairman of the RPOF, a lobbyist employed by Ramba Consulting. This triumvirate has abandoned Governor DeSantis for Commissioner Simpson.
The head of Ramba Consulting, David Ramba, who employs Power, also serves as Executive Director of the Florida Supervisors of Elections (FSE), an opponent of grassroots conservatives on issues of election integrity. The FSE’s main legislative priority is a bill to criminalize poll-watching by alleging that it constitutes harassment and intimidation of election workers. Of course, there is no empirical evidence of such harassment, and there are plenty of criminal laws on the books protecting election workers from such harassment, but reason does not matter with woke progressive activists. They consider poll-watching to be a micro-aggression against the administrative state.
In most States, this harassment law is championed by Democrats, but it is championed by Republican leadership in Florida. This leadership includes many Supervisors of Elections. Earlier this year two Democrat legislators in Florida switched from the Democrat to the Republican conference. Both legislators are fairly progressive, and they found themselves at home with these Republicans.
The FSE also proposes that requests for Vote-By-Mail (VBM) ballots should be evergreen, so that they do not have to be requested on every election cycle. Considering that VBM is rife with fraud, their position further undermines election integrity. Finally, the FSE wants to hide the personal information of election workers from public records. They are public servants who should have nothing to hide from the citizens, taxpayers and voters who hire them and they are supposed to serve.
When the new “Trump Bill” proposed by the Speaker was voted on by the House of Representatives, all Republicans voted in favor, except Representative Mike Caruso from Palm Beach County. In retaliation, the Speaker removed him from the chairmanship of his subcommittee, and moved him out of his corner office. At least he was not moved to an office in the basement, like former Representative Sabatini. Governor DeSantis should appoint Caruso to the office of State Chief Financial Officer (CFO) when incumbent Patronis is elected to Congress in April.
On the Senate side, only one hour was allowed to propose amendments after the “Trump Bill” was introduced. Republican Senator Blaise Ingoglia from Hernando County, a supporter of Governor DeSantis, did not have time to propose amendments.
Next month the RPOF will host a Disruptor’s Ball in Tallahassee. The keynote speaker will be Nigel Farage, founder of the Reform UK Party. That is an odd choice of speaker, because the RPOF is more like the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom that Farage is challenging for leadership in opposition to the governing socialist Labor Party. The Conservative Party is made up of lukewarm conservatives who eventually defenestrated their own Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. In America, Farage connects best with grassroots MAGA conservatives. The only things the RPOF disrupts are election integrity and liberty.
RINO’s v. MAGA in Next Year’s Republican Primary Election.
As things stand, the RPOF slate of RINO’s in the Republican primary elections of August 2026 will be:
1. Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson for Governor.
2. House Speaker Perez for Lieutenant Governor would provide regional balance in the general election.
3. Former Speaker Renner for Attorney General.
4. Senate President Albritton for Commissioner of Agriculture.
5. Senator Joe Gruters for State CFO.
6. United States Senator Ashley Moody for re-election.
Governor DeSantis is term-limited, but reports say that he is not interested in running for the United States Senate. He will probably bide his time and wait for a Cabinet appointment, either in the second half of Trump’s administration, or at the start of a new Republican administration in 2028. He would also be a good choice for Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
At the same time, his wife Casey is rumored to be interested in running for Governor. Florida politics is descending to the level of Latin tele-novelas. Casey DeSantis may be vying to become the Isabel Peron or Cristina Kirchner of Florida, not a good thing!
On the side of grassroots conservative MAGA Republicans, the following slate may make sense for those elections:
1. Congressman Byron Donalds for Governor.
2. Former Congressman Matt Gaetz for Attorney General.
3. Senator Blaise Ingoglia for Commissioner of Agriculture.
4. Representative Mike Caruso for State CFO, perhaps for re-election.
5. Congressman Cory Mills for United States Senator.
All the more reason for conservative voters to register as Republicans so that they can participate in the primary elections. In predominantly Republican states like Texas and Florida, the Republican primaries are where the action is. Unfortunately, unlike Texas, in Florida party primaries may be won with a plurality of the votes. No majority is required, so there is no possibility of a runoff between the top two vote-getters in case no candidate receives a majority of the votes.
No humans are scalped in dances with Florida RINO’s, unlike in the movie “Dances With Wolves.”
