Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is a big supporter of term limits, doesn’t appear to be willing to give up the power he wields as “America’s Governor,” appears to be be traveling to Washington, D.C. to meet with President Donald Trump in support of First Lady Casey DeSantis running to replace him in the 2026 Republican gubernatorial primary election.
The Floridian has learned from several influential lobbyists/donors who support Gov. DeSantis, that DeSantis will be flying to Washington in the coming days to meet with President Trump in hopes to prevent him from endorsing Rep. Byron Donalds, the odds-on favorite of the MAGA movement.
Donalds has already received the support of top Trump-supporting lawmakers like Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Cory Mills.
The aforementioned lobbyists, who asked that we protect their identities for this article, said that Governor DeSantis has been calling top donors and urging them not to donate to Rep. Donalds instead asking them to hold their powder in support of Mrs. DeSantis.
This could be a tactic to buy some DeSantis time to make a final decision on whether or not to allow his wife to run to replace him.
The beef between Gov. DeSantis and President Trump, that was created when DeSantis made the ill-advised move to challenge Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primary election, appears to have shelved, but is it?
Earlier this year, Trump appeared to show his support for Donalds after he posted a meme of a public opinion poll showing the popular Florida congressman leading the pack of potential Republican gubernatorial candidates.
The poll conducted by Victory Insights posted on January 29th to X (formerly Twitter) suggested Rep. Donalds would win a Republican primary against Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nunez (R-FL), Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez with 31% of the vote, while Nunez, the closest competitor, only held 4% of the hypothetical vote.
The only two realistic gubernatorial candidates would be Donalds and current Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, considering that Suarez has stated that he wasn’t interested in the job.
Nuñez just took the job as interm President of Florida International University (FIU) and would probably wouldn’t be giving up the $1 million a year job close to home.
Remember, like he did with just about every single member of Florida’s congressional caucus, DeSantis took issue with Donalds after Donalds endorsed Trump for president over DeSantis in 2023.
During his term in the House of Representatives, DeSantis always held the belief that lawmakers need to be term limited.
DeSantis recently underscored his belief of term limits when former President Joe Biden asserted that he supported term limits for Supreme Court Justices.
"Why aren't we doing term limits for members of Congress? That's what would make the biggest difference!" DeSantis said during his Tampa press conference. "[Democrats] don't like the court now because they're on the wrong side of rulings...If they're willing to support term limits for members of Congress, that would be a trade that I would make."
If Mrs. DeSantis runs and wins, for all intents and purposes, it would serve as her husband’s third term in office.
Technically, a Casey DeSantis governorship would not be a Ron DeSantis third term, but it would be, and many state lawmakers don't appear to be keen on the idea that another DeSantis will be calling the shots in Tallahassee.
Mrs. DeSantis already has her own office within the Governor’s executive office, and has sat in on many meetings regarding governance, so it can be said that she is well-acclamated with the role and she could easily follow in her husband's footsteps.
But with that said, is she qualified to follow in the governor’s footsteps?
Mrs. DeSantis does have her own pair of cowboy boots, so that box is checked, but one member of Congress, who also doesn’t want his or her name share in this article, doesn’t believe she is qualified to be governor of Florida.
“She is no less qualified to be governor than Kamala Harris was to be president,” said the congressional source. “What has she done to make her qualified?”
The Republican Governor’s Association (RGA) will holding a meeting this week in Washington.
