Ron DeSantis Ignored by Florida Republicans Upon Return

After his presidential run ended with an anticlimactic exit, Ron DeSantis has been widely snubbed by fellow Republicans in Florida, as a number of tax breaks he proposed for residents appeared to fall on deaf ears.

The hard-right Florida governor, who's once again prioritizing Florida after eight months of presidential campaigning, recently proposed to cut homeowners' insurance taxes and assessments, but his initiative was rejected by the state's House Republicans.

DeSantis, who's facing an ongoing insurance crisis in Florida, proposed to cut the 1.75 percent premium tax and other charges and assessments on homeowners and flood insurance premiums to alleviate costs on residents.

But Florida House Republicans are concerned that the federal pandemic funds are drying up and think the state should tighten the belt, even as Floridians are currently paying the highest home insurance premiums in the country. Instead, they are considering a scaled-back tax package that doesn't include DeSantis' proposal, with tax cuts for utilities and businesses but not homeowners.

Responding to a request for comment by Newsweek, DeSantis' spokesperson Jeremy Redfern pointed at comments the governor made on Tuesday, saying: "We're working on all this stuff. I mean, I think we're going to have some significant tax relief. I'm very confident of that. I think it's important."

DeSantis took credit for the record $2.7 billion of tax relief he signed for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, adding that at the same time his administration "ran a big budget surplus, paid down debt." In the same comments, DeSantis said he would "veto spending that's excessive."

Florida homeowners are currently paying premiums up to an average of $6,000 per year, the highest rates in the entire country. The recent hike in premiums is due to a combination of factors including excess litigation, fraud, climate change and the exodus of several major private insurers from the state—but DeSantis and his administration have been blamed for not doing enough to fix the situation.

Florida Republicans' unwillingness to rally around the governor now that he's back in the state and is proposing new legislation possibly indicates that DeSantis' influence on the GOP and the state has waned since his doomed run for the presidency.

The Florida governor announced his withdrawal from the Republican primary for 2024 on January 21, ahead of the vote in New Hampshire, and endorsed his rival Donald Trump, currently the frontrunner in a two-person race with Nikki Haley.

"It's clear to me that a majority of Republican primary voters want to give Donald Trump another chance," he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter—the same social media platform where less than a year before he had announced his bid for 2024 amidst much clamor. At the time, the governor, an 'anti-woke' champion of the GOP, was still seen as the likely future of the party and the only person capable of dethroning Trump.

However, DeSantis came out of his presidential campaign having suffered a lot of mockery at his expense for his perceived awkward, stiff behavior during campaign events.

DeSantis is determined to keep going and rebuild his profile, as he stated after his withdrawal from the Republican primary. He said that people are "not going to see me go on like some hibernation where I'm like saying 'oh woe is me'."

Another proposal he made after the failure of his presidential campaign seems to suggest his influence on the state GOP has ebbed. Earlier this month, the governor failed to convince the Florida legislature to consider a bill that would have allowed for the creation of a casino on Miami Beach.

"We were open to a proposal that would have resulted in a contraction of gaming—requiring a pari-mutuel wagering company return one of two existing gaming licenses to the state in exchange for the relocation of the other license out of a residential, blue-collar community to a tourist-focused beachfront hotel," Redfern told Newsweek in a written statement on Wednesday.

"We supported a proposal that would not have authorized any new gaming or construction of new casinos. Instead, it would have closed a large facility in Hollywood, Florida, converting many acres of former dog track and gambling venues into needed housing and beautification for Broward County," he added.

"To this end, the agreement would have brought massive, tangible improvements to Broward County and simultaneously brought over $120 million (largely from out-of-state visitors) to public projects in South Florida simply by moving existing slot machines to an existing hotel."

Update 2/15/24, 2:40 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include comments from DeSantis's spokesperson.