As most of the state gears up for the newly opened early voting, Gov. Ron DeSantis kicked off his fifth campaign event in one week against Florida's controversial ballot initiatives, slamming the proposed amendment to legalize marijuana as a "monstrosity" and "trainwreck" that will not pass.
He spoke at a roundtable event with Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and Escambia County sheriffs in Pensacola, where he doubled down on previous claims that the measure, called Amendment 3, would strip Floridians of their freedoms and grant monopolized control to the company behind the amendment, the marijuana giant Trulieve.
"Was this driven by citizens throughout Florida who really wanted this? No, it was written by the CEO of [Trulieve]," Gov. DeSantis said Friday morning, not mentioning that the other ballot measure he has campaigned against, Amendment 4, was driven by citizens.
"This amendment is not about freedom...you can possess and smoke it, but only if you buy it from these companies," he continued. "You cannot grow your own [marijuana] under this amendment...They want to force a business relationship with their cartel."
Trulieve has pumped over $103 million into the campaign for the amendment, Smart & Safe Florida, since 2022, which boasts nearly $111 million total in contributions. More than half of the Trulieve money poured in after the Florida Supreme Court greenlit the amendment for the ballot on Apr. 1.
This is DeSantis' second anti-Amendment 3 press event this week, though his wife, Casey DeSantis, hosted three throughout the week. DeSantis began the early voting kickoff, which was Oct. 21 for most counties, by campaigning against the other citizen-led ballot initiative: Amendment 4.
That measure would overturn his 2023 priority legislation, a six-week abortion ban, and expand the right to the procedure until fetal viability—around 24 weeks. He hosted three anti-Amendment 4 conferences alongside the group Florida Physicians Against Amendment 4. His Coral Gables event was also held with a Catholic archbishop, while his other two were in churches.
DeSantis' committee to combat both Amendments, the Florida Freedom Fund, has raised just over $6.3 million, though state agencies shelling out nearly $20 million have started to run ads and websites opposing the measures.
While Republicans are fairly united against the abortion amendment, there's been a measure of conservative infighting surrounding Amendment 3 after Republican Sen. Joe Gruters defied the Governor and endorsed it. Soon after, former President Donald Trump threw his weight behind the amendment; placing him in firm opposition to DeSantis.
DeSantis' communications team took to social media to accuse Gruters of being paid off by the marijuana industry, which he denied, before a brief lull in politics took hold of the state during Hurricanes Helene and Milton. This week, however, after the DeSantises began their statewide campaign against Amendment 3, staunch Trump ally and conservative media personality Laura Loomer blasted the Florida leaders for breaking with Trump.
The Governor and First Lady are deliberately "trying to undermine Donald Trump during early voting," she posted on Tuesday. "You can't hate the DeSantis[e]s enough."
"We already had a primary to prove who the leader of our party is," continued Loomer, who is in the process of suing comedian Bill Maher for defamation after he suggested she was having an affair with Trump.
Despite the Republican schism over Amendment 3, DeSantis isn't backing down. He claimed that the amendment has "too much bad stuff" in it for it to reach the 60% vote threshold necessary for it to pass.
"The way they get to 60% is people not reading this," he said. "This handcuffs the state in the constitution."
