How FIU’s pick for president could shake up the 2026 Florida governor’s race

With Florida Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez expected to resign Friday to become interim president of Florida International University, Gov. Ron DeSantis is once again in a position to make an influential political appointment — one that could shake up the Republican field for governor in 2026.

DeSantis, who is term-limited and set to leave office in January 2027, has not yet said who he thinks should be his heir apparent. At least three prominent Republicans are already known to be considering a run for governor, but none enjoys a particularly warm relationship with DeSantis, who said last week that he intends to help elect a “strong conservative gubernatorial candidate” with support from his political committee.

While Florida’s lieutenant governor historically has not played an influential role in Florida politics, there has been growing speculation among lawmakers, lobbyists and strategists that whomever DeSantis picks could be a prominent player in the mix of what is shaping up to be a competitive governor’s race in 2026.

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Who will DeSantis pick?

DeSantis is likely to pick someone who is in lockstep with him politically. His orbit of potential choices is small — and it is unclear how quickly he will move to pick his next lieutenant governor.

The early shortlist for contenders includes former Republican House Speaker Jose Oliva, a staunch conservative from Miami Lakes who has long worked with DeSantis, and Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, whom DeSantis endorsed when he first ran in 2022, and has been considered one of his biggest legislative allies. Another name is Richard Corcoran, another former House speaker whom DeSantis appointed as the president of New College of Florida.

DeSantis could also choose to leave the post vacant for an extended period of time, a decision that could have political advantages. The Florida Constitution requires there be a lieutenant governor, but does not outline a timeline for when one must be selected.

In case of a vacancy in the office of the governor and in the office of the lieutenant governor, the attorney general would become governor.

The last time Florida had a lieutenant governor vacancy was in 2013 when then-Gov. Rick Scott waited 308 days to replace Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, who resigned amid a gaming scandal. Scott eventually picked former Miami state Rep. Carlos Lopez-Cantera.

The governor’s race

Regardless of whether DeSantis chooses a preferred successor as his next lieutenant governor, he’ll be injecting another personality into the high-profile race for his open seat.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson and former Congressman Matt Gaetz are already mulling campaigns. None of the three Republicans is particularly close with the governor. (Casey DeSantis, a former television personality who is well-known by Florida voters, can never be counted out.)

Gaetz, once a key surrogate for the governor in the early years of his administration, became a critic during the Republican presidential primary as DeSantis sought to topple Trump as the GOP’s presidential nominee.

Donalds also endorsed Trump over DeSantis in the presidential primary, though last week, as DeSantis feuded with the Republican legislative leaders over a bill that stripped much of the governor’s oversight authority over immigration and gave it to the agriculture commissioner, Donalds said the governor should be able to keep it.

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“The one aspect of the bill, and this is where the governor is, in my view, correct, is that the police powers around the immigration czar, if you will, have to reside with the governor, because the governor has police powers, not just in Florida, but in every state,” Donalds, who did not publicly support one side over the other, said in the PBD Podcast last week.

As a result of this same immigration bill, DeSantis and Simpson openly clashed, the latest feud between the two Republican leaders. At one point, DeSantis said at a news conference that the only reason Simpson was elected to the statewide office of Agriculture Commissioner is because DeSantis was at the top of the ticket.

Donalds, Gaetz and Simpson all have relationships with Trump, who could tilt the contest with an endorsement. Trump won Florida in 2024 by nearly 15 points and he is functionally the head of the Florida Republican Party. (One advantage to waiting to pick a new lieutenant governor is that DeSantis may find out first whom Trump will endorse in the race.)

On Wednesday, Ben Galbraith, a Republican pollster with the firm Victory Polling, released the results of a poll that found Donalds the heavy favorite in a four-way race against Simpson, Nuñez and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who has also talked openly about running for governor. Galbrath found that Donalds netted 31 percent support, while no other candidate hit 5 percent.

On the social media site X, Galbraith noted talk about DeSantis endorsing in the race, and questioned whether DeSantis would get behind a candidate running against someone backed by Trump, saying the “‘DeSantis wing’ of the party is not actually distinct from the ‘Trump wing.’”

“I find it unlikely that DeSantis would want to cap off his tenure with a losing fight to pick his successor,” Galbraith said. “He might just stay out of the race entirely. We’ll see!”

This story was originally published February 6, 2025 at 12:55 PM.