Randy Fine says Ron DeSantis, team ‘begged’ him to apply for FAU opening

U.S. Rep. Randy Fine is pushing back against claims by Gov. Ron DeSantis surrounding a failed push to install Fine as the President of Florida Atlantic University (FAU).

DeSantis said he was trying to get Fine out of Tallahassee and into the FAU job because legislators wanted Fine gone.

But Fine says that the Governor and his staff lobbied him to consider the move to academia.

“Ronald and his team begged me to apply for about six weeks before I agreed to do it. I suspect it was Ronald who was desperate to get me out of Tally,” Fine tells Florida Politics.

DeSantis said Wednesday that Fine “repels” people and that drove him to consider handing him a presidency of a major university in the state.

“They wanted to get him out of the Legislature, so they asked me to put him up for Florida Atlantic President, and I did. And the whole board would’ve rather resigned than make him President,” he said in Ocala Wednesday.

The Governor’s Office said that statement would serve as their response to Fine’s allegation.

There was a time when messaging was more unified.

In 2023, Fine told the Palm Beach Post that the Governor’s Office had encouraged him to apply for the FAU President job. DeSantis told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that Fine would be a “good candidate.” Ultimately, Fine didn’t make the list of finalists.

The gig could have been lucrative for Fine. New President Adam Hasner will make at least $1 million a year.

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