Most voters supported marijuana, abortion. Will Florida lawmakers make any changes?

As Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigned against Florida’s abortion and marijuana amendments, a key argument he made was that state law, not the Constitution, is where changes should be made.

Now that both measures failed despite getting majority voter support, it’s unlikely that DeSantis and Republican lawmakers will propose any changes to expand access to abortion or open up the marijuana marketplace.

Already, several members of the incoming Republican supermajority, including in leadership, have indicated that they don’t have any interest in changing the state’s six-week abortion ban or marijuana laws.

Some lawmakers attributed the majority vote on the ballot measures to a misinformed public. They pointed to voters’ decisions to elect Republican leaders as evidence that residents agree with their and the governor’s conservative stances on both issues.

Even if lawmakers wanted to make legislative changes, DeSantis would likely veto them, said Rep. Randy Fine, who was elected to the state Senate on Tuesday.

“Why go through the effort to do something that you know will engender a veto?” Fine said. “Passing bills is hard, it’s a lot of work. So why put the effort in for something that has no chance of passing?”

Republican state Sen. Jason Brodeur of Orlando added: “I’d be really curious about the governor’s thoughts on those issues prior to us getting involved.”

The Republican supermajority returning to Tallahassee largely voted for Florida’s current six-week ban on most abortions. Only a handful of Republicans in office endorsed recreational marijuana.

DeSantis — a vocal opponent of recreational marijuana who signed the state’s six-week abortion ban — did not respond to a request seeking comment on whether he would support any changes to the state’s laws.

With two years left in office, DeSantis is likely to use the defeat of both amendments as a springboard for his political future.

What could happen with recreational marijuana?

Among DeSantis’ main gripes with Amendment 3, which proposed legalizing recreational marijuana, were that the ballot initiative did not include restrictions on where people could smoke pot in public and that it did not allow people to grow pot at home. The amendment got about 56% of the vote, short of the 60% needed for passage.

Sen. Ben Albritton, the incoming Senate president, said he doesn’t support expanding marijuana beyond the state’s medical marijuana program.

Similarly, state Rep. Daniel Perez, the incoming speaker of the Florida House, said he opposed Amendment 3 and that his position on that issue has not changed.

But at least one House Republican is considering filing legislation that would allow Floridians to grow and consume their own pot at home.

“Personally, as one of the 85 elected Republicans in the Florida House, I’d be very open to the idea of doing something like homegrown [marijuana] or personal consumption at home,” said state Rep. Alex Andrade, of Pensacola, who supported Amendment 3.

Andrade says he has “no idea” if the proposal would have a chance in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

“I’d love to test the waters and see the reception for a solely homegrown marijuana bill,” he said.

Sen. Joe Gruters, a Republican who supported Amendment 3, said he thinks the issue of recreational marijuana isn’t going away. Opponents were vocal about wishing the amendment had more guardrails — and he said he would like to see “recreational with all the guardrails that they want.”

“Let’s do this the right way,” he said.

Former President Donald Trump, a Florida voter, supported Amendment 3, saying he thinks it is time to end “needless arrests” for small amounts of marijuana use. It is unclear whether the president’s position on the issue will sway how Republicans in the Legislature act in the future.

Despite Trump’s stance, full recreational legalization seems out of the question under DeSantis’ leadership. Shortly after he was sworn into office, DeSantis said recreational pot was off the table “while I’m governor.” DeSantis is term-limited and will leave office in January 2027.

Amendment 3 was primarily backed by the marijuana company Trulieve, which distributes weed to the medical market in Florida.

DeSantis repeatedly criticized Trulieve in his campaign, but company CEO Kim Rivers said in a Wednesday interview with ABC Action News that she’s interested in talking with state leaders about the path forward for recreational pot.

She said there are “more things that we’re agreeing on than disagreeing on.”

Lawmakers unlikely to do anything on abortion

Amendment 4, which would have overturned Florida’s current ban on most abortions after six weeks, earned 57% of the votes Tuesday but, like the marijuana amendment, fell short of the 60% threshold for passage. Amendment 4 and Trump got similar levels of support among Florida voters.

“We lost because of a minority of Floridians,” said Sarah Parker, a member of the Amendment 4 executive committee. “I think this is a stark reminder that what we’ve been saying is true, that the majority of Floridians do not agree with the six-week ban.”

Trump has said Florida’s six-week abortion ban is too short, but opposed Amendment 4.

Heading into the 2025 legislative session, some GOP lawmakers seem unconvinced that the turnout for Amendment 4 translates to voter support for undoing the state’s six-week ban.

Voters didn’t understand what they were weighing in on, said Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican and close DeSantis ally.

“The more people found out about what the amendment actually did, the more people disliked it and voted against it,” Ingoglia said. “If this campaign was another month long, it would’ve never broken 50%.”

Anna Hochkammer, the executive director of the Florida Women’s Freedom Coalition, said she thinks lawmakers could move to make patients safer. A major fight over the amendment centered on whether Florida’s current health exceptions for abortion work.

The governor has said any doctor who doesn’t grant an abortion in the case of a medical emergency is committing malpractice. But with doctors criminally liable for illegal abortions, the law in Florida puts medical professionals in a tough spot.

“If they would acknowledge and attempt to fix the operational deficiencies to make their claims of ethical useful exceptions a reality, that would be a huge step,” Hochkammer said.

But Albritton said in a statement that he was “appalled by the vicious lies spread on the campaign trail that completely distorted” the state’s abortion laws, which he said are good and protect mothers.

Perez said he opposed Amendment 4, and that his position has not changed on the issue of abortion.

Andrade said he does not believe there is an appetite to make changes to the state’s abortion laws, saying that “the majority of legislators believe that life begins at conception.”

“I believe that a person becomes a person at conception, so I’m not going to do anything to roll those protections back,” he said.

Tampa Bay Times staff writer Kirby Wilson contributed to this report.