The office of Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the promotion of Molly Best from Deputy Secretary to Press Secretary and Casey Smith as its new Director of External Affairs on Thursday. The additions of Best and Smith follow a previous announcement by Lt. Gov. Jay Collins to his team last month.
Molly Best
Molly Best has been promoted from Deputy Press Secretary to Press Secretary for Governor Ron DeSantis. She previously served as the Communications Director for the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (FLHSMV) and the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP).
Her experience includes roles as Deputy Communications
Director for the Florida Department of Corrections (FDC), Deputy Director of Communications for the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice(DJJ), and Public Information Officer (PIO) for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE).Additionally, she has held communications roles in local law enforcement agencies throughout Florida. Best brings over two decades of experience in law enforcement communications to her new role.
Casey Smith
Casey Smith joins the Governor’s Office as their new Director of External Affairs. Despite his young age of only 26 years, Smith is among the longest-serving members of the Governor’s Office, having first joined in 2019, working for the Scheduling Department, a division of External Affairs. He takes over from his previous boss,
Savannah Jefferson, who was tapped to fill the position in October of 2021.
A Jacksonville native and the son of two Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office deputies, Smith was accepted to Florida State University and volunteered on then-Congressman DeSantis’s, his hometown representative’s, 2018 gubernatorial campaign during his sophomore year of college.
Following his inauguration, Smith applied for an internship in the Governor’s Scheduling Department, a division of External Affairs. Smith worked his way from office intern to part-time employee and was later appointed Director of Scheduling in February of 2021 while still an undergraduate at Florida State. In this role, Smith oversaw all aspects of the Governor’s logistics and calendar.
Smith went on to serve as the Deputy Director of External Affairs in July of 2022 under Savannah Jefferson before joining the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) in January of 2025 as their Communications Director. He also coordinated communications for the
Florida State Board of Immigration Enforcement’s Executive Director, Larry Keefe.
Now, Smith returns to the Executive Office of the Governor as Director of External Affairs, which oversees the Governor’s external affairs office, runs the Governor’s scheduling, and acts as a liaison for the Governor with citizens and public service groups. The office also oversees the Governor’s special assistants around the state.
