Power play: Is DeSantis using authority as Florida governor to help struggling campaign?

As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign struggles, he regularly is attracting attention by turning to a familiar aspect of his time in office – aggressive use of state power. 

DeSantis has long been known for taking provocative actions that generate buzz in conservative circles, whether it’s flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard or convening lawmakers to punish Disney. 

Critics have accused the governor of pushing the boundaries of his authority.  

"This governor creates fake problems that he can pretend to solve, solely so he can brag about it," said Andrew Warren, the twice-elected state attorney for Hillsborough County, a Democrat, who DeSantis removed from office last year for "neglect of duty."

A federal judge later ruled DeSantis' claim was "false," and there was "not a hint of misconduct."

Now there is increasing evidence that DeSantis is tapping his powers as governor to generate interest in his flagging campaign, with each action a Hail Mary attempt to narrow former President Donald Trump’s commanding lead in the polls. 

Since announcing his presidential campaign, DeSantis has removed a second elected prosecutor after alleging she wasn’t tough enough on crime, supported state health officials recommending against COVID-19 booster shots for people under 65, evacuated Americans from Israel after declaring a state of emergency over the war there, moved to disband university student groups he accused of supporting terrorism and called for expanding state sanctions against Iran.  

The GOP-controlled Legislature is dutifully complying with DeSantis’ desire to punish Iran, initiating a four-day special session set to begin Monday to give the governor another opportunity to engage in conservative policymaking that could draw him support in early presidential primary states. 

While Florida lawmakers are in Tallahassee, DeSantis will be taking part in the third GOP presidential primary debate Wednesday night in Miami. That could be another opportunity for him to tout the special session, which is aimed at enacting what his office calls the "strongest sanctions" against Iran by any state and approving a formal proclamation of support for Israel.

Experts have said it's unclear what Florida can do to punish Iran, and the governor’s earlier high-profile efforts to evacuate almost 700 Americans from Israel may now get overshadowed by the expanding war in the Middle East.

But each of these recent moves has been touted repeatedly by DeSantis on the campaign trail and in fund-raising pitches, signs that he views them as politically advantageous in a GOP presidential primary where he is a distant second in most polls to Trump.

DeSantis released the first television ad of his campaign Wednesday. It emphasizes that he "safely evacuated hundreds of stranded Americans out of Israel."

Asked whether DeSantis' recent actions as governor were aimed at generating attention for his campaign, governor's office spokesman Jeremy Redfern said "We implement policy at this office. Campaigns are outside of our purview," and referred questions to the campaign, which did not respond.

A record of accomplishments or 'attention grabbing stunts'?

DeSantis’ recent actions play into his preexisting presidential talking points, whether it’s skepticism of COVID-19 conventional wisdom, assertations that Democrats aren’t doing enough on crime or critiques of President Joe Biden’s foreign policy. 

It’s not unusual for politicians to tout their actions in office when seeking another elected position.

"The best argument that Governor DeSantis has in a GOP primary is a record of tangible conservative victories," said St. Leo University political science professor Frank Orlando.

University of Miami political science professor Gregory Koger agrees that "generally speaking, it's not a bad thing for presidential candidates to talk about their accomplishments while serving as governor or member of Congress."

“On the other hand, if a politician is using his current position to perform attention-grabbing stunts to win a different job, that can be an abuse of authority,” Koger added. 

DeSantis launched his presidential campaign in May and has seen his poll numbers steadily drop. He went from 23% support in the average of national polls in early May, to 13% as October comes to a close, according to Real Clear Politics. 

Former South Carolina Governor and United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has begun to eclipse DeSantis in some state polls and is attracting increasing interest from the media. 

Using his position as governor to roll out policy announcements that garner media attention is helping to keep DeSantis in the spotlight, even as some view them as the desperate acts of a dying campaign. 

Since early summer, key policy actions have quickly been turned into talking points on DeSantis’ presidential campaign. They include: 

Israel and Iran sanctions special session

The special session starting Monday is mostly focused on showcasing the state’s support for Israel, including an expected formal proclamation and efforts to enhance safety at Jewish day schools in Florida. 

Lawmakers also are poised to embrace DeSantis’ call for expanding Florida sanctions against Iran, which historically has supported Hamas, the Islamist political and militant organization behind the Oct. 7 invasion of Israel. 

Florida already lists Iran as a “foreign country of concern,” along with China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria. Since 2008, Florida has barred state agencies and local governments from contracting for goods and services of more than $1 million with any business that has contracts with the Iranian government. 

A state law DeSantis enacted earlier this year also placed land-ownership restrictions on people from Iran and the other foreign countries of concern. The federal government has gone even further, with broad, strict sanctions on Iran since 1979. 

“It’s just kind of a double whammy for companies that may not know they are indirectly doing business with Iran or any of these prohibited countries. Now, they’d have to do state and federal compliance,” said Eric Lob, a political scientist at Florida International University who has written extensively on Iran. 

But Lob said researchers doubt sanctions at any level have much effect. “They don’t necessarily change the behavior of the state that is targeted,” he said. 

DeSantis’ plan looks intended to expand the industries affected by the business ban on Iran and exert more pressure on the Biden White House. The governor would prohibit Florida from lifting any sanctions until after the president and Congress certify that Iran has stopped supporting international terrorism. 

Lob said domestic politics is likely a motivator for DeSantis. 

“This is a great way to galvanize Jewish voters and donors,” he said. “That may be more the impact he’s looking for than actually economically punishing Iran.” 

Within days of Hamas’ invasion, DeSantis declared a state of emergency in Florida. He signed an executive order which permitted him to use the resources of state government and millions of Florida taxpayer dollars to bring Americans home from Israel. 

Almost 700 Americans, many of them Floridians, were flown out. And DeSantis has sent supplies, healthcare equipment and even weapons to Israel in recent days. 

How much he’s spent has not been made public. The state’s Division of Emergency Management acknowledges that $19 million in purchase orders have been approved for one of the companies, ARS Global Emergency Management, involved in the flights. 

A company that helped organize the initial evacuations of Americans, a Tampa-based non-profit, Project Dynamo, told USA TODAY Network-Florida that it hasn’t received any funding from Florida for the flights. 

But State Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie told NewsNation that the state spent roughly $4 million for the first evacuation of 270 people from Israel to Tampa that Project Dynamo helped lead.  

Guthrie did not say directly which companies were paid that money. And the DeSantis administration has not responded to requests for a more precise accounting of state money being spent. 

If DeSantis is trying to impress GOP primary voters with the evacuation flights, their cost could be perceived as an effort to use taxpayer money to benefit his campaign. It's not the only time there have been questions about whether DeSantis is using taxpayer resources for political purposes.

Riding state plane to fundraisers

Earlier this month DeSantis held an official event in Manatee County, dedicating a park that was named after him, and then attended a fundraiser nearby for his presidential campaign.

DeSantis appears to have flown a state plane to Sarasota Bradenton International Airport to attend the two events.

Flying private jets to political events is expensive, and DeSantis' frequent use of such transportation has come under scrutiny as his campaign rapidly burns through cash. The campaign has looked to cut costs, including with layoffs.

By holding an official event and a political event in the same location on the same day, taxpayers may be covering the cost of flying DeSantis to fundraisers.

The Manatee County events aren't the first time DeSantis has paired official appearances with fundraisers. The pattern goes back at least to 2021.

Removing Democratic prosecutors

After removing Warren, the Hillsborough County prosecutor last year, DeSantis doubled down on his legally questionable action by yanking Monique Worrell, the Democratic state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties in early August. 

Like Warren, Worrell’s primary offense appeared to be that she was a progressive Democrat. But DeSantis accused her of neglecting her duty, arguing that her handling of cases allowed serious offenders to “evade incarceration.” 

Worrell has sued, with her removal scheduled for arguments Dec. 6 before the Florida Supreme Court. Justices in June had refused to consider Warren’s bid for reinstatement, saying he had waited too long in asking the court to intervene. 

Five of the seven justices have been appointed by DeSantis. 

Two weeks after removing Worrell, DeSantis cited his attack on voter-elected prosecutors in the first Republican presidential primary debate. 

“When we had two of these district attorneys in Florida elected with Soros funding, who said they wouldn’t do their job, I removed them from their posts. They are done,” DeSantis said, linking them without evidence to George Soros, the billionaire Democratic investor who is frequently the target of conservatives and antisemitic tropes. 

“As president,” he continued, “we are going to go after all of these people because they are hurting the quality of life and they are victimizing innocent people in this country, and it will stop when I get into office.” 

In Florida, DeSantis may be ready to do even more to tilt the justice system toward his vision. 

A DeSantis ally, House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, asked the Florida Supreme Court in June to begin an analysis of the state’s 20 judicial circuits, exploring whether the counties included in them should be rearranged. 

Chief Justice Carlos Muniz, who DeSantis appointed, approved the request two weeks later, forming a Judicial Circuit Assessment Committee supposed to complete its findings in December, in time for the Legislature to consider a redrawing of circuit boundaries during the session beginning in January. 

At public hearings held by the assessment committee, opposition to the consolidation plan has been overwhelming. And Friday, the committee voted unanimously to recommend against changing circuit boundaries in the report it will send to the Supreme Court.

That could put an end to the effort. But the committee's opposition may not stop justices or the Legislature from advancing the idea.

While DeSantis hasn’t mentioned the possible overhaul of the judicial circuits, his political spending committee had sent a political account controlled by Renner a $1 million contribution just weeks before the speaker sent his letter to Muniz. 

 The Republican state attorney for the Florida Keys, Dennis Ward, has said the overhaul is intended primarily to prevent Worrell and Warren from winning re-election next year. Worrell is running; Warren said he is still considering a bid to get his old job back. 

“The whole point of this circuit revision is to drown out the Democratic vote in Democratic-leaning counties,” said Worrell. 

With Worrell and Warren both replaced by DeSantis allies, only four Democratic prosecutors remain out of Florida’s 20 circuits. 

“It’s absolutely politically motivated and geared toward giving him talking points in the presidential campaign,” she added. “But more importantly, it’s an egregious attack on democracy.” 

COVID boosters shunned by DeSantis administration

With vaccine hesitancy rife among conservative Republican voters, DeSantis has further steered the state away from the latest round of boosters.

And he’s campaigning on it, including tapping Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo — a COVID vaccine skeptic who has led DeSantis' pandemic response — to vouch for him on the campaign trail.

DeSantis held a “medical freedom” town hall with Ladapo Wednesday in Manchester, New Hampshire. The event's invitation said Ladapo was appearing in his "personal capacity."

Still, it's unusual to have a high-profile government official — let alone the state's top health official — appear at campaign events, another example of DeSantis mixing his political activities with his role as governor.

“They lied to this country,” DeSantis said in Iowa last month, echoing his anti-vaccine talking points, including several discredited ones. 

“They were wrong about lockdowns. They were wrong about forced masks. They were wrong about school closures. They were wrong about mRNA COVID shots. They were wrong on all these things,” DeSantis said. 

DeSantis in September joined Ladapo, who frequently promotes anti-vaccine theories on right-wing podcasts, to urge that Floridians under age 65 avoid the COVID boosters then being released and promoted by health officials and the Biden administration. 

Without evidence, DeSantis and Ladapo cautioned the boosters could be harmful. Almost 92,000 Floridians have died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, and 79 deaths were reported the week of Oct. 8-14, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

But in Republican politics, vaccine hesitancy has become engrained. DeSantis seized on it and abandoned his initial promotion of vaccines when they became available almost a year into the pandemic. 

Since then, DeSantis has floated a range of off-center ideas intended to shake Trump’s well-established hold on blue-collar conservatives and a larger GOP voting base open to conspiracies. 

Donna Shalala, a former U.S. Health and Human Services secretary and member of Congress from Florida, told KFF Health News in September that by spreading disinformation, DeSantis is “playing with fire, and this is about life and death.”

Sarasota Herald-Tribune Political Editor Zac Anderson is on Twitter at @zacjanderson. He can be reached at zac.anderson@heraldtribune.com. John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport.