Florida's Homeowner Insurance Crisis Exposes DeSantis's Vulnerability

Gov. Ron DeSantis is arguably the most effective Florida governor in recent history, passing legislation that hardcore Republican and Independent voters continue to praise and that helped him win reelection in 2022 by 20 percentage points over his Democratic gubernatorial opponent. But there is one issue that Governor DeSantis was not able to bring home, or knock out of the park, and that is the skyrocketing homeowner’s insurance issue that Floridians have been saddled with.

Gov. DeSantis is right when he recently stated, “So, knock on wood, we won’t have a big storm this summer.”

Republican lawmakers met in a special session last December to deal with the homeowner’s insurance crisis as 15 national insurers have decided not to underwrite new polices in Florida.

“Over the past 18 months in Florida, 15 home insurers have placed moratoriums on writing new business, four carriers have announced plans to voluntarily withdraw from the market and seven companies have been declared insolvent,” Mark Friedlander, a spokesperson for Insurance Information Institute, told CNN. “Currently, there are 18 Florida residential insurers on the state regulator’s watch list due to concerns over their financial health.”

The homeowner’s insurance problem in Florida is one hot mess, and now Gov. DeSantis is being hit over the head on it by his main presidential political opponent, former President Donald Trump.

"The DeSanctimonious super-PAC, Always Back Down, should focus more on Florida property and auto insurance, which has zoomed to highest-in-the-nation status, and highest by far," said President Trump in a campaign video posted to social media earlier this month. "Come home, Ron, where you belong. Get those insurance rates way down, because what's happening in Florida shouldn't happen anywhere."

DeSantis defended his actions on homeowner’s insurance but put the blame on the very same Republican legislators he praised for helping him get his legislative agenda passed.

“We’ve done property insurance for three years. Going back to 2021, we had to get what the Legislature would do. There were other things that I wanted them to do then that they weren’t prepared to,” said DeSantis during a press conference in New Hampshire earlier this week.

“Once the election happened, we had better numbers,” added DeSantis. “We called a Special Session very quickly and got those changes done. So we’ve been working on this for a number of years.”

Democratic State Senator Shevrin Jones, stated that DeSantis “blaming the legislature will not solve the problem,” adding that Republican lawmakers were lock-step with the governor’s legislative agenda

"@GovRonDeSantis, blaming the legislature will not solve the problem. Many ideas were presented from both sides to address the property insurance crisis. However, it was evident that the Republicans were aligning themselves with YOUR stance and not supporting some of those changes. So, who’s not telling the truth? As Grandma used to say, "Somebody is lying." Regardless, Floridians need relief," stated Sen. Jones.

Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book and Leader-designate Jason Pizzo have recently launched a 3-part “property insurance crisis” virtual town hall series to help guide Floridians on what they can do, or not do regarding their homeowner’s insurance coverage.

As Floridians get deeper into the 2023 hurricane season, Florida’s 2024 legislative season starts in late September and there is already talk that lawmakers may get hauled into another special session to readdress the homeowner’s insurance crisis.

As DeSantis said, let’s “knock on wood” Florida doesn’t get hit by another storm like Hurricane Ian.