'The King Has Fallen': GOP Lawmakers Revolt Against DeSantis, Call Their Own Special Session

TALLAHASSEE—Florida Republican lawmakers revolted against Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday, adjourning his special session just 15 minutes after it began and, in a stunning move, starting their own surprise session.

The unusual GOP mutiny is the first of its kind under DeSantis, once heralded by some as the next potential U.S. President. The governor had maintained an iron grasp over the legislature, calling a record eight special sessions during his tenure, slashing legislative funding for combative lawmakers, and easily pushing controversial issues through both chambers.

No more, the GOP Legislature signaled Monday morning.

“The Governor is not the king anymore,” Democrat Sen. Shevrin Jones told The Floridian minutes after the special session dramatics, noting how “happy” he is to be in the Florida Senate.

“The king has fallen.”

His remarks followed Republican Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Danny Perez adjourning the special session just 15 minutes after it began at 10:30 a.m., exactly what they had threatened in a joint memo after DeSantis made the session call on Jan. 13.

“The Florida Legislature matters. Our opinions matter. Our voices matter. The Florida Constitution says so, and more importantly, so do our constituents,” Albritton said Monday, immediately after adjourning the special session to call a new one.

“Senators, sometimes leadership isn’t about being out in front of an issue. It’s actually about following the leader you trust,” Albritton continued. “I trust President Trump.”

Eleven bills were filed for the special session over the weekend, all but one of which targeted illegal immigration as the governor had asked for. The short-lived session's premature ending killed all those bills. The new session, orchestrated by legislative leaders, will center on a 75-page anti-immigration bill filed by Rep. Lawrence McClure and Sen. Joe Gruters, a Trump ally known to feud with DeSantis.

This is the first time since 2010 that the Legislature has flexed its authority over the governor by gaveling in and then promptly gaveling out of a special session. It’s also a far cry from what DeSantis claimed would happen.

On Jan. 13, DeSantis announced a special session for Jan. 27 to address illegal immigration, the petition process, and condominium reform to work in tandem with the incoming Trump administration. When Perez and Albritton pushed back, DeSantis warned that it would be “hazardous” to rebuke his special session, likening himself to a “junkyard dog” that will get its way.

But things aren’t turning out that way. According to two of the three Republican Senators who had filed bills for the DeSantis session, they were not given any heads-up about the last-minute special session switchup.

“I joked that it was such a good secret that people in both legislative leadership chambers should work for the CIA because they can obviously keep secrets because we couldn’t get any information,” Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a leading DeSantis ally who filed eight of the 11 Senate bills struck down by Albritton, told reporters outside the Senate floor.

“It’s unfortunate that all those bills are dead now because of a sine die,” he added, using the popular Latin term referring to the end of a session. 

Sen. Jonathan Martin, who filed two of the now-dead bills, said that he had not spoken to “all the members” to determine “what procedural motions were going to be made.” He struck a conciliatory note, remarking that “everybody wanted the same thing” on targeting illegal immigration.

“We wanted to deal with immigration and help President Trump, and that was what we saw this morning,” he told The Floridian.

The new session will reconvene Tuesday at 9 a.m.