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Politics
Florida's New Governor, Ron DeSantis
And now, the details: Here's what to expect from Florida's new governor
» Ronald Dion DeSantis, 40
» Family: Wife Casey Black DeSantis is a former TV host in Jacksonville. They have two children.
» Born: Jacksonville
» Education: Dunedin High School, Yale University (B.A. in history, 2001), Harvard Law School (2005)
» Legal Career: After Harvard, DeSantis completed the U.S. Naval Justice School and joined the Judge Advocate General’s Corp. He worked for the Joint Task Force- Guantanamo Commander as a lawyer for detainees held at the facility in Cuba. He was later assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Command, where he was assigned to SEAL Team One and sent to Fallujah, Iraq. He returned to the U.S. in 2008 and later became a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Florida.
Political Career: He won a six-way Republican primary in the 2012 congressional election, with 39% of the vote and then easily won a general election. He launched a brief campaign for the U.S. Senate when Marco Rubio ran for president but abandoned the campaign after Rubio chose to seek re-election. He initially considered running for attorney general in 2018 before deciding to run for governor instead.
Hospitals: DeSantis distrusts big hospitals; he wants to eliminate the certificate-of-need process that limits the number of facilities and wants to make hospital pricing more transparent.
Doctors: DeSantis’ health care policy is likely to tilt more in favor of doctors than hospitals. The Florida Medical Association endorsed DeSantis early.
Water Management Districts: DeSantis is likely to be less doctrinaire toward the districts than Scott, saying he’ll appoint “people that understand the issues and are going to be problemsolvers” to the district boards.
Incentives: DeSantis doesn’t categorically oppose public incentives but doesn’t like “big, Amazon-type” businessrecruitment packages.
Taxes/Regulations: The new governor wants to reduce the sales tax charged on commercial leases and eliminate regulations.
Schools: DeSantis wants to expand private-school vouchers and other school choice programs. He supports more emphasis on things like vocational training and apprenticeship programs in the schools.
The Inner Circle
» Casey DeSantis: By all accounts, DeSantis’ wife, a former host of a television talk show in Jacksonville, played an active role in developing her husband’s campaign strategy. Most expect that to continue in the governor’s office. “She will tell me if I’m on the right track and if I’m doing something that’s resonating. And if not, she’ll tell me about it,” DeSantis says.
» Susie Wiles: DeSantis’ campaign appeared to be foundering in September when he brought in Wiles to take over his campaign. The Ballard Partners lobbyist, who also led Trump’s 2016 Florida win, helped turned things around and earned DeSantis’ trust in the process.
» Kent Stermon: The COO of a Jacksonville-based military logistics contractor and a prominent figure in Northeast Florida politics, Stermon is one of DeSantis’ closest friends.
» Matt Gaetz: DeSantis developed an odd-couple friendship with the brash Gaetz while the two served in Congress. DeSantis didn’t know much about Tallahassee when he launched his campaign for governor and has leaned on Gaetz, a former state legislator whose father was a Senate president, to teach him the lay of the land.
» Richard Corcoran: The former House Speaker endorsed Putnam over DeSantis in the Republican primary but also maintained back channels to the campaign via some key political allies — including Gaetz and new Florida House Speaker Rep. Jose Oliva — who had sided with DeSantis. Corcoran, who has been involved in the Legislature for three decades, understands the inner workings of the Capitol better than most, which is knowledge DeSantis lacks.
» Byron Donalds: A third-term Republican state representative from Naples, Donalds bonded with DeSantis during the campaign as DeSantis spent a lot of time in Southwest Florida talking about water-quality problems. Donalds helped the campaign with debate prep.
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