With wife mulling ’26 campaign, DeSantis talks up her work in State of the State speech

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday used his State of the State address to talk about his policy priorities — and, notably, his wife’s efforts in his administration, amid speculation that she is considering a run to be his successor.

With state lawmakers gathered to launch Florida’s annual legislative session, DeSantis used a good portion of his opening day remarks to highlight the work she has done with an initiative called Hope Florida, which helps connect the needy with existing faith-based, private and nonprofit services instead of government assistance.

“Hope Florida was designed by our First Lady, Casey DeSantis, to transform the way government agencies provide services to our fellow citizens in need, rather than perpetuate dependence on a great society-style bureaucracy,” DeSantis said.

He said the initiative has helped nearly 30,000 people “reduce or entirely eliminate their reliance on government assistance” by connecting them with services offered by private, public and religious organizations.

“Thank you to my wife, Casey, for her leadership and her ingenuity,” he said. “Great job!”

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DeSantis invited a woman named Ginger to the state Capitol to show state lawmakers how the first lady’s initiative has helped people connect to services. Ginger was sitting next to Casey DeSantis, and the couple’s son, Mason, in the gallery as lawmakers gave her a standing ovation.

The remarks underscore how the governor has increasingly used his platform to promote the First Lady’s work and talked up the idea of her running for Florida governor as he faces term limits. DeSantis more actively and publicly began doing so last week after Florida Rep. Byron Donalds announced he was running for governor with the support of President Donald Trump.

Over the weekend, multiple outlets reported that DeSantis’ met with Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach. A few hours after the governor’s remarks on Tuesday, DeSantis posted on X a picture of the First Lady golfing with President Donald Trump at the president’s golf course in Palm Beach County.

A campaign by the first lady could once again set up a potential proxy war between DeSantis and Trump, who ran against each other in the most recent Republican presidential primary. The president’s endorsement of Donalds makes the Naples Republican a strong, early candidate, but the first lady has high name recognition and has been included for years in her husband’s governing agenda.

“Anything that we’ve accomplished she’d be able to take to the next level,” DeSantis said at a news conference in Tampa on Feb. 24.

Hope Florida

The governor has been increasingly promoting the first lady’s Hope Florida initiative within the state Department of Children and Families. The couple has since branded it as the conservative solution to welfare.

“Since 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson announced his ‘War on Poverty,’ more than $23 trillion has been spent on federal and state anti-poverty programs, with no meaningful improvement in poverty rates,” Casey DeSantis wrote about Hope Florida in a 2022 Wall Street Journal column. “After decades of failure, it’s time to try a community-based approach, in which government plays a role but is not the only solution.”

A cancer survivor, Casey DeSantis also established a program to “enhance the quality and competitiveness of cancer care” in Florida, according to the state Department of Health.

“There’s people who serve a lifetime in different public capacities who probably couldn’t say they’ve had such an impact with some of these programs,” DeSantis told reporters in Miami on Feb. 28.

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Casey DeSantis played coy when reporters asked her last week if she was planning to run for governor. In response to a question, she quoted baseball legend, Yogi Berra: “When you come to a fork in the road,” she said, “take it.”

The governor laughed off her response, saying, “you guys can read into that what you want,” and went on to talk her up again.

“I’ve had people coming up to me for years begging to get her in the fray,” DeSantis said at the Miami news conference. “She’s passionate, she’s articulate, she’s smart. She’s got rock-solid values.”

When a reporter followed up about whether Casey DeSantis would run, the governor said: “I think she’s leaving that to imagination.”