Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Friday marked the end of the Florida legislature’s legislative session, sparking further speculation on a potential presidential announcement following rumblings that the governor would not do so until after the session ended.
“We have had a historic legislative session this year!” he exclaimed on social media. “Thank you to the Legislature for working together to deliver for Floridians all over our state”:
“I don’t think we’ve seen a six-month stretch that has ever been this productive in the history of our state, and I would put us up against any state in the modern history of our country,” DeSantis said during the Friday press conference.
“I don’t know that there was any meat left on the bone after this legislative session. If you look on issue after issue, we jointly work together to tackle this stuff head-on,” he continued.
DeSantis cited a few accomplishments, including tax relief across the board, parental rights agenda items, protecting children from radical gender ideology and mutilation, and moving anti-environmental, social, and governance (ESG) legislation forward.
“We won the fight this legislative session to pass great legislation that conflicted with the woke agenda, and we did not see any opposition mounted,” he said, concluding that the political process “worked well.”
WATCH:
The announcement follows rumblings of DeSantis’s political future, as “political experts” have speculated that the governor was waiting to reveal his political intentions until after the current legislative session.
According to a report from NBC News, DeSantis could be making more public moves by mid-May — including the launch of an exploratory committee and formal announcement.
According to the report:
Some of his backers are urging him to declare as early as May 11, to counter the creeping national narrative that former President Donald Trump is the overwhelming front-runner for the 2024 GOP nomination. Others in the governor’s orbit, however, have argued that that date would be too soon, according to two of those sources. All emphasized, however, that mid-May is the target.
DeSantis’s refusal to announce, as well as what critics consider to be recent missteps, has spooked some major Republican donors, some of whom have publicly aired their concerns surrounding the governor.
Republican megadonor John Catsimatidis is among those who have expressed concerns, withdrawing support from the governor largely due to his apparent lack of communication.
“Why would I support somebody to become president of the United States that doesn’t return phone calls?” he asked.
Top GOP donor billionaire Thomas Peterffy has also put support for DeSantis “on hold” as well, indicating that other donors are also waiting to see who is “the most likely to be able to win the general, and then put all of our firepower behind them.”
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