Fresh off his huddling with donors last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is teeing up a jammed-pack week as he seemingly lays down the groundwork for a 2024 bid.
DeSantis will deliver his hotly anticipated State of the State address to the Florida legislature, which is set to convene Tuesday, and start his mad dash to wrangle through a bevy of big-ticket items. Then, DeSantis will close off the week with a trip to the early primary state of Iowa to promote his new book.
DESANTIS PLANNING PRODUCTIVE LEGISLATIVE SESSION IN FLORIDA AS 2024 LOOMS
"Gov. DeSantis has said he is going to have the most productive and successful legislative session yet," Javier Manjarres, a political consultant and publisher of the Floridian, told the Washington Examiner.
"Constitution Carry will pass," he added. "The Governor is focused on Education reform and appears to be poised to extend Parental Rights in Education to K-8, and protect children from being mutilated during sex reassignment procedures."
The governor's State of the State speech will be the first of his second term after he locked down a nearly 20-percentage-point victory in the 2022 midterm elections. The speech is expected to broach national issues as well as the various state items he is pursuing — similar to his inauguration address.
Perhaps the most significant item of business DeSantis is pursuing is an adjustment to the state's "resign to run" law that would compel him to step down from office if he opts to embark on a presidential campaign.
The legislative session will likely serve as a prelude to DeSantis's possible 2024 campaign. DeSantis previously indicated that after the legislature wraps up, which it is set to do around May, he can decide on 2024.
"We have supermajorities in the legislature. I think people look at Florida and then say, 'Man, this governor's gotten a lot done.' We have, and we're proud of it, but you ain't seen nothing yet. This is going to be the most productive legislative session we have had across the board," DeSantis teased last month.
In the run-up to the legislative session, DeSantis has unveiled a litany of policy proposals, including a plan to counter "Biden's border crisis" by tightening state rules on immigration.
That proposal would expand E-Verity to private businesses, crack down on human smuggling, invalidate out-of-state licenses for illegal immigrants, and mandate voters to attest to being U.S. citizens to vote, among other changes.
Additional items on the docket include bolstering school choice, permitting legal gun owners to carry firearms without a permit, tweaking libel laws for "everyday Floridians to protect themselves from defamatory or libelous speech by news organizations," and possibly environmental initiatives as well.
Last month, at DeSantis's behest, the Florida state legislature convened a special session to pass a law to usher in state control of the special taxing district created for the Walt Disney Company and expand a state program to move illegal immigrants to regions that are Democratic strongholds.
Should he run for the presidency, this state legislative session will be paramount for DeSantis because it will be an opportunity to further build up his political portfolio and wrap up state business before he turns his attention to the national arena.
Capping off the legislative frenzy, DeSantis is set to make his hotly anticipated Iowa debut Friday. He has stops planned in Davenport and Des Moines featuring appearances with Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA). Officially, the visit is meant to promote his new book The Courage to Be Free: Florida's Blueprint for America's Revival, which hit bookshelves last week.
However, given Iowa's perch as the leadoff state in the GOP nominating process, the visit has presidential undertones.
After Iowa, DeSantis is reportedly planning to travel to Nevada and then Manchester, New Hampshire, while a trip to South Carolina is being considered as well.
DeSantis is now polling in second place after former President Donald Trump in a hypothetical 2024 GOP primary, per the latest RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.
Last week, DeSantis skipped out on a split-screen showdown with Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Instead, he attended a donor retreat with the Club for Growth, a fiscally conservative advocacy group. He then gave a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, where he appeared to dig at his potential 2024 foe.
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“You didn’t see our administration leaking like a sieve. You didn’t see a lot of drama or palace intrigue. What you saw was surgical precision execution day after day after day,” DeSantis stressed.
The Trump administration was well known for its onslaught of leaks as staffers engaged in power struggles and kept the press appraised of the inner workings of the White House.