Ron DeSantis won the race for governor after a year-long, $100-million-plus campaign that was one of the most expensive and closely watched elections in the nation last year.

And yet DeSantis, a Republican from Northeast Florida who spent most of the past six years as a far-right member of the U.S. House of Representatives, is still very much a mystery to many Floridians. He has few established relationships in Tallahassee. He ran as Donald Trump’s candidate to beat Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam in the primary and then as the foil for Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum’s liberal agenda in the general election.

DeSantis’ platform consisted more of broad goals — improve water quality, continue Rick Scott’s economic agenda — than specific policies. (Contrast that with Scott’s “7-7-7” economic program in 2010 or Gillum’s promise to implement long-sought progressive policy goals such as raising the corporate income tax and expanding Medicaid).

But friends and advisers to the new governor describe the former Navy Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps lawyer as a sharp student of policy who has a clear idea of where he wants to lead Florida. DeSantis “reminds me a lot of Jeb in his early days,” says former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, who has helped lead DeSantis’ transition team. “He’s a big thinker.”

Some of DeSantis’ early policy goals are beginning to come into focus. There are a number of influential lobbies — doctors, Realtors, school-choice advocates — that have reason for optimism. But there are also others — sugar growers and hospitals, chief among them — that have reason to be nervous.

Here’s a closer look at what to expect as the DeSantis administration assumes power:

Environment

Two figures loomed over last year’s Republican primary race between De- Santis and Putnam. The first was, of course, Trump.

The second was Florida’s sugar industry.

DeSantis repeatedly clashed with sugar growers in Congress by harshly condemning and voting against the federal price support system for growers. The industry, led by U.S. Sugar and Florida Crystals, in turn spent millions attacking DeSantis and helping Putnam. “They came after him pretty hard in the primary,” says one DeSantis adviser. “That left a little bit of a mark on him.”

The hostility between DeSantis and sugar continued into the general election, where it prompted one of the most surprising endorsements of the campaign: The Everglades Trust’s decision to back DeSantis over Gillum, breaking with the rest of the state’s big environmental groups.

Kimberly Mitchell, the Everglades Trust’s executive director, said the endorsement came down entirely to its confidence that DeSantis would “stand up” to sugar companies.

“We spent a considerable time with all the candidates for governor. There wasn’t anyone close to Ron DeSantis,” Mitchell says. “He was willing to go where nobody else that had a shot at the governor’s office was willing to go.”

What that means is that environmental groups are expecting DeSantis to push hard to get a long-sought reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee built that can be used to restore a flow of freshwater between the big lake and the southern Everglades — and reduce the need for the discharges that have fouled the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers. Environmentalists have long accused the sugar industry of lobbying to delay and block such a reservoir in order to keep farming the land.

DeSantis, who made solving the state’s water-quality crises the central talking point of his general-election campaign, says the southern reservoir will be a top priority for his administration. “I want the reservoir online as soon as possible,” he says.

Privately, people in DeSantis’ inner circle say they expect environmental issues to be where the new governor most clearly diverges from Scott. Though DeSantis is careful to avoid saying anything critical of his predecessor, he does allow that there will be differences between the two administrations. “We’re going to have people on the water management boards that understand the issues and are going to be problem-solvers,” DeSantis says.

Supporters are a bit more blunt. “I think he will appoint the right people to the water management districts, people who will properly manage and apportion water, not to just one interest group but for everybody,” says Chris Peterson, owner of Daytona Beach-based Hell’s Bay Boatworks, which builds shallow-water fishing skiffs. Peterson has worked with De- Santis in Congress on water-quality issues.

By contrast, Peterson says “big agriculture has been overrepresented” on water management boards under the Scott administration.

Health care

An important moment in DeSantis’ campaign for governor happened in June. Still trailing Putnam in polling and money, DeSantis stopped at an Orlando coffee shop to meet with state Rep. Jose Oliva, a Miami Lakes Republican slated to take over later in the year as Speaker of the Florida House. The two didn’t know each other well, and it was supposed to be a quick meeting; they ended up spending more than an hour together. A short time later, Oliva endorsed DeSantis — becoming by far the most powerful Florida politician to take DeSantis’ side in the GOP primary.

One of the things they bonded over? A distrust of hospitals.

Oliva has vowed to make hospital reform — specifically, eliminating the certificate-of-need regulatory process, which limits when and where medical facilities can be built — a centerpiece of his agenda as Speaker. And he expects DeSantis to be a key ally in that fight. Oliva says he has already spoken “at length” with the incoming governor about the issue.

“In the health care system, where regulation and monopolies have run rampant, he knows the solution is not spending more money — it’s figuring out a way to lower the cost of what we’re spending it on,” Oliva says. “I think you will see a great deal of action in trying to extricate government from the free market, and I think one way in health care is the tremendous regulation and government-granted monopolies that are given to hospitals.”

He’s not the only one who expects DeSantis to take sides in the battle to end certificates of need. The Florida Medical Association — which represents doctors and would love to see more hospitals and medical facilities open — also chose to endorse DeSantis in the primary. The doctors group was the first major business lobby to back DeSantis; it did so about a month after Oliva endorsed him.

The certificates-of-need fight already seems likely to become one of the biggest turf wars of the 2019 session, with the hospital-friendly Florida Senate expected to resist the legislation.

The certificate-of-need issue is not the only reason that hospitals are wary of DeSantis. The incoming governor says he also intends to push regulatory changes that would force hospitals to publicly post prices for various procedures. The “transparency” changes were begun under Rick Scott, over opposition from hospitals.

“What we would do with this information is try to enact some sort of right-to-buy, right-to-shop type of reforms,” DeSantis says. “Where people who have an insurance policy and are actively looking for the best deals, if they’re choosing deals that are cheaper than at other places, then they’re getting rebates.”

Economic development

DeSantis campaigned on the promise of continuing Scott’s economic policies, with general promises to continue reducing taxes, eliminating regulations and promoting Florida as a destination for business relocation and expansion. But he’s also a Freedom Caucus Republican who rose to prominence at a time when many conservative activists began condemning the use of economicdevelopment incentives.

During the campaign, DeSantis attended a Colorado retreat hosted by an organization established by the Koch brothers, who have been among the sharpest critics of “corporate welfare.” He was also endorsed in the primary by a Koch-backed super PAC.

Still, the new governor says he intends to make use of Enterprise Florida and public incentives as businessrecruitment tools. He says diversifying Florida’s economy beyond tourism and construction will be a priority, citing financial services, manufacturing and technology as sectors he expects to target.

“I see using Enterprise Florida as trying to recruit businesses, being ambassadors for Florida,” DeSantis says. “In terms of like an Amazon-type package, I’m not sure that’s necessarily the way we’re going to be able to do that. I do think there’s going to be some funding, but I think it’s going to be in the governor’s Job Growth Fund. We’ll use that.”

While DeSantis hasn’t fleshed out a detailed economic agenda yet, one specific policy he’s expected to pursue: Continuing to reduce the sales tax charged on commercial leases, a longstanding priority for the state’s business lobby, which has persuaded legislators to lower it from 6% to 5.7% in recent years. “We want to continue to chip away at that,” says Jeanette Nunez, DeSantis’ lieutenant governor. “I think the business community can certainly breathe a huge sigh of relief that we have a Gov. DeSantis instead of a Gov. Gillum,” Nunez adds. “They’re going to have a friend in him.”

Education

As they campaigned this fall, Nunez says she and DeSantis heard repeatedly from business owners who complained of being unable to find workers with the skills they need. “One of the things you hear is that Florida’s workforce is not up to par,” Nunez says.

That is at the root of DeSantis’ top education priority: Adding more career- specific training programs that ultimately better match graduating students with the needs of employers. DeSantis says he will propose changing Florida’s school-funding formulas to better incentivize things like vocational training and apprenticeship programs.

“We need to expand the number of industry certifications,” he says. “Particularly the high schools — they need to be working with the businesses in their area.”

DeSantis also says he wants to continue expanding the use of privateschool vouchers and other schoolchoice programs. He says he’ll call for more funding for the state’s Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship. More significantly, he says he wants the state to shift toward pure education savings accounts, in which parents are given a set amount of money for their child’s education and are free to use it however they see fit — whether at a different public school, a charter, a private school or for home schooling.

“That would really empower lowincome families,” he says.

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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