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DeSantis fights proxy war with Trump over governor’s race endorsement [1]
['Daily Kos Staff']
Date: 2025-02-24
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis seems to be scrambling after President Donald Trump upended the state’s 2026 gubernatorial race and endorsed Florida Rep. Byron Donalds for the gig.
During a scrum with reporters on Monday, DeSantis suggested that Trump’s endorsement doesn’t mean the race is over. In fact, the Republican governor said that his wife, Casey DeSantis, would be a formidable candidate should she choose to enter the race. (Neither Casey DeSantis nor Donalds has formally announced their run, though Donalds recently teased a future announcement.)
“She’s never angled for anything,” DeSantis told reporters in Tampa, regarding his wife. “But I will tell you this: You’re talking about somebody like her. I won by the biggest margin that any Republican’s won a governor’s race here in Florida. She would do better than me”
Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida
DeSantis’s provocative insinuation that his wife could win the state—and handily—comes days after Trump said that Donalds was his preferred candidate for the 2026 race. DeSantis is term-limited and will leave office in January 2027.
While Casey DeSantis has not yet publicly said she wants to run, her husband’s remarks made clear there’s a real possibility she could throw her hat in the ring.
Indeed, Trump’s endorsement seemed to be a direct shot at the DeSantis family. Last week, Trump encouraged Donalds to run, saying the Florida man would have the president’s “Complete and Total Endorsement.”
“RUN, BYRON, RUN!” Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social.
By offering endorsements (or near-endorsements) for candidates who are not formally in the race, Trump and DeSantis have set up yet another proxy fight following their duel in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. While Trump easily fended off DeSantis in that contest, DeSantis could make another run for the White House in 2028. And it’d certainly be easier for DeSantis to keep the spotlight on him if his wife were holding public office.
This isn’t the only recent time DeSantis has been at odds with the president. Earlier this year, DeSantis could’ve filled the U.S. Senate vacancy left by now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio with Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, but DeSantis went another direction and appointed Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.
DeSantis likely wants a say in who his successor will be since he’s promised to raise money for “strong conservative candidates in legislative primaries,” according to The New York Times. He’s also suggested that he’ll spend money on behalf of his preferred candidate for governor, though he hasn’t named who that is yet, the outlet reported.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, squints as his wife, Casey DeSantis, speaks at a campaign event in Bluffton, South Carolina, on June 2, 2023.
DeSantis is right that his wife would have a shot of winning if she were to enter the race. A survey published last week by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab found that the state’s registered voters viewed Casey DeSantis more favorably than the four other potential Republican candidates for governor (Donalds, Moody, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, and Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson.)
Plus, DeSantis probably doesn’t want Donalds in the governor’s mansion. Though the two reportedly once had a good professional relationship, they clashed in 2023 over how the state’s middle schoolers should be taught about Black history. In particular, Donalds took issue with guidelines, approved by DeSantis, that stated that students should be informed about how Black people supposedly benefitted from slavery.
More recently, Donalds endorsed Trump over DeSantis in the 2024 Republican presidential primary.
During Monday’s press conference, which was held so that DeSantis could discuss the creation of Florida’s own Department of Government Efficiency, the governor said that Donalds hasn’t been part of any of Florida’s “victories.”
“You got a guy like Byron, he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over these last years,” DeSantis said. “He’s just not been a part of it. He’s been in other states campaigning doing that, and that’s fine, but okay, well then deliver results up there.”
Meanwhile, of his wife, DeSantis said that she has “the intestinal fortitude” and “dedication to conservative principles.”
He added, “Anything we’ve accomplished, she’d be able to take to the next level.”
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