Ron DeSantis unloads on ‘nominal Republicans’ in Legislature carrying ‘leftist’ agenda

Gov. Ron DeSantis says fake Republicans in the Legislature are holding back his efforts to enact a conservative agenda in the state.

DeSantis said one consequence of the Florida Democratic Party being “on the mat” is that “nominal Republicans” are infiltrating the GOP and diluting the legislative supermajority.

“Most people in most parts of this state have no chance to get elected with a ‘D’ by their name. They know that. Some of them are even switching to become Republicans now,” DeSantis said.

“That has led us to have more Republicans in the Florida House, let’s say, nominal Republicans who are claiming to be part of the party. The problem is, these are folks that they think if they say that they’re for Trump or put a red hat on or do all this, that you’re dumb enough to let them be liberal and basically stab you in the back. But just because they have that ‘R’ by their name, you’re not going to care. That doesn’t work, okay?”

DeSantis’ comments to a meeting of the Republican Party of Florida State Executive Committee were made Monday, and are the latest indication of his frustration with the Florida House, which saw two Democrats elected in November switch to the party before the 2025 Legislative Session began.

The House, he said, “is giving a lifeline to the Democratic Party … to the Left.”

As he has before, he vented about the disagreement with the House over the immigration bill passed in Special Session, saying that although “liberal Republicans” in the Senate were impediments, the real problem was in Speaker Daniel Perez’s court.

“The House leadership did not want to do that bill,” DeSantis said, likening the position to having “stabbed (activists) in the back” because they wanted to give Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson immigration enforcement authority.

DeSantis also took issue with a committee hearing for a “carbon sequestration” bill, wondering why the House is giving that play instead of an “open carry” bill despite having a supermajority.

One piece of legislation he does support: targeting “geoengineering and weather modification,” but he accused the House of “gutting” the bill, apparently referring to an amendment capping fines at $10,000 adopted Tuesday.

“It should be banned. You know, you have people that think they can fight climate change by doing stuff,” he said. “It’s insane.”

DeSantis also blasted efforts to push a constitutional amendment to “abolish the Lieutenant Governor Office.”

“They’ve changed it to where voters don’t even know where the line of succession is,” he said, blasting the “Office of Governmental Efficiency” proposal for exempting the House from scrutiny.

“That is a total, total fraud,” he added about the bill on the House Second Reading Calendar.

DeSantis sees “very little energy” in the House to “defeat the Left.”

“I think it’s offensive to run under the banner of the Florida first model, the Florida success model, the conservative policies that have made the state great, and then use that to attain power and then abuse that power by pursuing a more leftist agenda. That’s fundamentally wrong because they did not tell you that’s what they were going to do,” DeSantis said.

As he wrapped his 20-plus-minute speech, he predicted that soft Republicans would help Democrats make up ground despite the party’s deep issues.

“You are going to have folks —because everyone needs to be a Republican now — they’re not going to follow through on the conservative principles. They’re going to blur the distinction,” he said.

“Instead of the sharp contrast that we’ve drawn between our agenda and the Left and the Democrats, they’re going to blur that distinction. That’s going to cause our voters to lose enthusiasm and then elections, it gives the Democrats a chance to get back. They’re not going to win everything back right away. But over time that’s what happens and the great heights that we’ve reached will become eroded. So that’s the stakes that I see.”

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