DeSantis talks up wife, suggests Trump’s pick for Florida governor should stay in D.C.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is not on board with President Donald Trump’s pick to be the next Florida governor.
But it sounds like he wouldn’t mind seeing his wife in the post.
Last week, Trump endorsed U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds in the 2026 race should the Naples Republican decide to run. The move upends the contest some 18 months before any ballots are cast. (DeSantis can’t run again because of term limits.)
But at a news conference in Tampa, when a Tampa Bay Times reporter asked about the endorsement, DeSantis said he would prefer to see Donalds focus on work in Washington.
“We’ve achieved victories in Florida. We need to start achieving those victories up there,” DeSantis said. “You got a guy like Byron — he just hasn’t been a part of any of the victories that we’ve had here over the left these last years.”
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DeSantis’ stance is notable both for its break with Trump — the Republican standard bearer — and its apparent dismissal of Donalds. DeSantis and Donalds were once close, but the two drifted apart after Donalds endorsed Trump over DeSantis in the 2024 presidential race.
Instead, DeSantis talked up the possibility of his wife, First Lady Casey DeSantis, taking a run at governor. Ron DeSantis has been rumored in recent days to be calling donors about the possibility of his wife running. She’s long been his closest political confidante and ally and she’s widely liked in Florida.
“I won by the biggest margin that any Republican has ever won a governor’s race here in Florida. She would do better than me,” DeSantis said in Tampa. “She’s somebody that has the intestinal fortitude and the dedication to conservative principles that you know anything that we’ve accomplished she’d be able to take to the next level.”
A survey released last week by the University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab found that Casey DeSantis had the highest favorability numbers among a group of five potential Republican governor candidates that included Donalds. Far more viewers know who she is than know Donalds, the survey found.
Former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, another Republican who’s expressed interest in a run, was also included in that survey. In a long post on X, he expressed surprise that DeSantis would take a shot at Donalds.
“Man it hurts me to see this,” Gaetz wrote. He closed the post with some comments directed at DeSantis: “Byron is going to miss some votes running for governor. You missed some too when you ran as a congressman.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM.