DeSantis and Trump priorities hold sway as Florida lawmakers begin legislative session
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — As Florida lawmakers officially kicked off their 2025 legislative session Tuesday, the political aspirations of two of the state’s best-known residents — Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump — were driving the conversation amid the pomp and ceremony.
As DeSantis approaches the end of his second term, the popular Republican governor has been talking up one potential heir to succeed him: his wife, Casey DeSantis. At the same time, DeSantis has sparred with some of Trump’s allies in the Legislature, working to lay the groundwork for his own political future while the president’s supporters in Tallahassee try to follow through on the campaign promises of the man DeSantis dared to challenge for the party nomination.
Addressing a joint session of the Legislature on Tuesday, DeSantis touted the laws he signed last month to crackdown on illegal immigration in the state, which lawmakers passed after huddling in three special sessions that sparked a bitter feud between the governor and legislative leaders as they battled over whose ideas would better deliver on Trump’s vision.
But speaking to a House chamber packed with lawmakers, DeSantis congratulated the legislative leaders on the immigration measures.
“No state has done more and no state did it sooner than we did in the free state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “We can and we must continue to lead.”
Heading into the regular session, DeSantis has called on lawmakers to consider a proposal to eliminate the state’s property taxes, to roll back gun restrictions that a bipartisan coalition passed in the wake of the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and to significantly restructure the citizens’ ballot initiative process. In November, Florida voters used the ballot process to propose legalizing recreational marijuana and expanding abortion rights, though the measure fell short of the 60% needed to pass.
“We saw how that constitutional amendment process was perverted,” DeSantis said, alleging there was fraud in the petitions used to get the measures on the ballot. “We need to clean up this out-of-control amendment process.”
Republican Senate President Ben Albritton has raised questions about the governor’s call to undo changes made after the school shooting, saying law enforcement officers tell him the state’s red flag law is working.
“If we can stop the next Nikolas Cruz,” Albritton said, referring to the Parkland gunman, “then I say we just hold tight and let the thing work.”
Lawmakers have teed up a slate of bills aimed at addressing some of their constituents’ most pressing concerns: the impact of back-to-back hurricanes, the rising cost of property insurance and housing, as well as immigration and threats posed by climate change and sea level rise.
Also on the Legislature’s docket are bills aimed at carrying out some of Trump’s asks, from banning fluoride in public water systems, which the president’s Health and Human Services secretary has advocated, to codifying the use of the “Gulf of America” by state agencies and in teaching materials after Trump signed an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico.
“It seems like they all want to please him,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said of Republican leaders. “So I do worry about the influence of the federal government, and particularly Donald Trump, on what we do this legislative session.”
Albritton focused his remarks on what he called the need for government efficiency at a time when the Trump administration is working to dismantle the federal workforce.
“To be clear, we will take the opportunity to build on and modernize some of Florida’s long-standing accountability processes. Now is the time to do it,” Albritton said.
In past sessions, legislative leaders have fast-tracked the governor’s priorities with little public resistance, helping DeSantis build his national profile as a bold executive eager to take on the left and make the state the envy of conservative activists.
But in recent months, Florida’s Republican lawmakers have challenged DeSantis’ leadership like never before, initially resisting his call for a special session on illegal immigration. Some lawmakers have filed bills to roll back DeSantis administration efforts, such as a proposal to take power away from state officials appointed by the governor to oversee the hiring of new university presidents.
Republican House Speaker Daniel Perez encouraged his members to embrace the opportunities for change “in this time of chaos.”
“We can’t be afraid to break the status quo,” Perez said. “We must rise to meet this moment.”
___ Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
By KATE PAYNE
Associated Press/Report for America
