Florida’s First Lady sounded like a candidate for her husband’s job during a speech to the Glonal Liberty Institute Friday.

After roughly 17 minutes of boilerplate, Casey DeSantis delivered a dire warning about how Florida could become a “purple state” sooner than later, mirroring rhetoric from Gov. Ron DeSantis.

And in her remarks, delivered at the end of the speech, a discerning listener may have deduced the beginning of a 2026 stump speech in a GOP gubernatorial primary.

“While we are leading here in the state of Florida, I would say, and this is true, even with a Republican supermajority and the GOAT in the Governor’s office, none of this here runs on autopilot. The winds in Florida and frankly the sanity and the freedom that we enjoy in the free state of Florida unfortunately are not guaranteed in perpetuity,” Casey DeSantis warned.

In addition to threats posed by “the left and special interests,” she said “squishes wanting to go Republican lite by continuing to spend on massive boondoggles and not implementing the will of the people” also present obstacles.

The comments were circulated Monday night, hours after the Governor offered direct commentary about the dangers posed by Donald Trump-endorsed Rep. Byron Donalds.

“You got a guy like Byron Donalds, he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over the Left over these last years. He’s just not been a part of it,” DeSantis said in Tampa. “He’s been in other states campaigning, doing that, and that’s fine. But okay, well, then deliver results up there. You know, that’s what I want to see. I want to see them delivering results for the people of Florida. We deliver it here all the time for the people of Florida, and that’s what we need to be doing.”

Trump offered Donalds, a longtime ally in Congress, his endorsement last week. And Donalds has said his team is having “internal conversations” and that an announcement is coming soon. The potential candidate also has hired prominent campaign staffers like Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio.

Polling that has included Casey DeSantis and Byron Donalds has been favorable to her, including with people who voted for Trump last year.

New polling from the University of North Florida (UNF) shows 57% of Trump voters approve of First Lady DeSantis, while just 4% disapprove of her. Donalds does respectably well in the survey, with 3 in 10 Trump voters approving of the Congressman and just 2% disapproving. But that puts the Congressman far from DeSantis’ +53.

While a recent Trump Truth Social post spotlighted a January poll, first covered by Florida Politics, showing Donalds with a massive lead over a hypothetical field of Republican opponents (Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez), most polling goes Casey DeSantis’ way.

Per a June polling memo from Florida Atlantic University, she leads a field of candidates with 43% support, ahead of Donalds at 19%, with Jimmy Patronis and Matt Gaetz further back still.

A poll conducted in April by FAU showed 38% of 372 Florida Republicans polled would choose the First Lady in a head-to-head race against Gaetz, who would receive 16% support in that scenario.

A University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab survey from November 2023 showed the First Lady with 22% support, a lead in a crowded field of potential candidates.

For a while, the First Couple acted disinterested in remaining in the Governor’s Mansion.

Casey DeSantis previously acknowledged the talk is “humbling,” and maintains that the seeming enthusiasm for her running is due to her “rock star” husband and the job he’s done as the state’s chief executive.

However, published speculation suggested there is more direct dialogue behind the scenes.

Reporting from Matt Dixon of NBC News cites a “source familiar with her thinking” suggesting a 2026 run is a possibility.

Indeed, her recent comments support that as a possibility.

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Gov. Ron DeSantis is wading into the 2026 Governor’s race, taking shots at Donald Trump’s preferred candidate and boosting the First Lady as his logical successor.

“You got a guy like Byron Donalds, he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over the Left over these last years. He’s just not been a part of it,” DeSantis said in Tampa.

“He’s been in other states campaigning, doing that, and that’s fine. But okay, well, then deliver results up there. You know, that’s what I want to see. I want to see them delivering results for the people of Florida. We deliver it here all the time for the people of Florida, and that’s what we need to be doing.”

The comments come as Donalds is ramping up a strong operation ahead of an increasingly likely 2026 bid.

Trump offered Donalds, a longtime ally in Congress, his endorsement last week. And Donalds has said his team is having “internal conversations” and that an announcement is coming soon. The potential candidate also has hired prominent campaign staffers like Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio.

DeSantis has been coy previously about Casey DeSantis running, but he is now changing his tune amid the Trump momentum for her potential Primary opponent.

“I was asked on it on Fox the other day about all these people (who) are chattering about her running. And what I said was that she’s never angled for anything, right? Because that’s just not who she is. I mean, she kind of, you know, does what she does,” DeSantis said.

He then said she was a stronger candidate than he was even in 2022.

“I won by the biggest margin that any Republican’s ever won a Governor’s race here in Florida. She would do better than me. Like, there’s no question about that. That would happen. And she’s somebody that has the intestinal fortitude and the dedication to conservative principles,” he added. “Anything we’ve accomplished, she’d be able to take to the next level.”

He then said long-deceased conservative leader Rush Limbaugh endorsed her years ago, as he was entranced by her uncompromising worldview at a dinner where she was “just holding court with Rush about conservatism and all this other stuff.”

“And you can see Rush, his eyes are lighting up because, you know, Rush would always say, ‘The spouses are more liberal and it pulls the office holder to the left.’ And in this case, he’s saying, like, that is not true,” DeSantis recalled.

“And so at the end of the dinner, he just put his finger in my chest. He’s like, ‘The only person I would rather have as my Governor than you is her.’ And he pointed at her. And I was like, that’s a pretty good endorsement there.”

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One of President Donald Trump’s strongest allies in Tallahassee will carry a bill seeking to strike all references to the Gulf of Mexico from teaching materials

Sen. Joe Gruters’ legislation (SB 1058) would require School Boards to “adopt and acquire” materials using the Gulf of America name.

It would also name a highway after the freshly christened Gulf of America. The legislation would designate the portion of U.S. 41 between S.R. 60 and U.S. 1 in Miami-Dade, Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota, Manatee and Hillsborough counties as “the Gulf of America Trail.”

This is the second Senate bill to address the Gulf of America nomenclature.

Sen. Nick DiCeglie’s measure (SB 608), which was filed earlier this month, would change 92 statutory references in Florida law to refer to the body of water along Florida’s west coast as the Gulf of America.

Both bills have House companions.

Rep. Juan Porras is carrying the House version (HB 549) of Gruters’ bill. Rep. Tyler Sirois is sponsoring the House version (HB 575) of DiCeglie’s proposal.

Tallahassee Republicans have quickly embraced the new name for the body of water that was called the Gulf of Mexico without controversy until earlier this year.

Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson is embracing the President’s preference regarding government documents, pushing for changes on behalf of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Simpson’s goal is to rename the body of water as the Gulf of America “as quickly as possible … in all department administrative rules, forms, maps, and resources.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis was the first state official to embrace the new name in an executive order declaring a State of Emergency over a Winter storm last month. That order said the inclement weather was headed to Florida across the “Gulf of America.”

The declaration came the same day Trump made the name change official in his own executive order.

Despite the unity demonstrated by Florida Republicans, the name change has been controversial in some quarters domestically and beyond.

The Associated Press hasn’t accepted the Gulf of America designation.

“The Gulf of Mexico has carried that name for more than 400 years. The Associated Press will refer to it by its original name while acknowledging the new name Trump has chosen. As a global news agency that disseminates news around the world, the AP must ensure that place names and geography are easily recognizable to all audiences,” the news organization announced last month.

The AP has not been allowed at certain White House events in the wake of its decision, as the Trump administration has stood by the renaming of the body of water.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum also rejects the name change, meanwhile, with her argument predicated on the United Nations’ Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“If a country wants to change the designation of something in the sea, it would only apply up to 12 nautical miles. It cannot apply to the rest, in this case, the Gulf of Mexico,” Sheinbaum said, as reported by NPR.

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