Florida Legislature passes bill allowing DeSantis to run for president as governor

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature on Friday approved sweeping election law changes, including a provision that clears the way for Gov. Ron DeSantis to run for president without having to resign his current position.

It marks the third straight year that Florida Republicans, who hold supermajorities in both chambers, have pushed through alterations to the state’s election laws.

Democrats and critics decried parts of the bill they contend could upend voter registration efforts and called out the change that would guarantee that DeSantis wouldn’t have to resign his current job if he becomes the GOP nominee for president.

“Many in this body are doing the governor’s bidding,” state Rep. Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat, said on Friday during the final legislative debate on the measure. “If someone wants to run for president, let them. But don’t let the governor hold our state or hold Floridians hostage because of blind and drunk political ambition.”

Lawmakers introduced the provision to change to Florida’s “resign-to-run” law just days ago, although legislative leaders first announced their willingness to make changes last November right after DeSantis rolled to a crushing re-election victory and Republicans picked up a supermajority in the Legislature.

The move by GOP legislators comes shortly before DeSantis is expected to jump into the race for president in the next few weeks, even though he insisted to reporters during a visit to Israel on Thursday that he has not made a final decision. He has, however, traveled to many key early or battleground states like Ohio, New Hampshire, Georgia and South Carolina and has more than $110 million in donations.

Republicans pushed back on the sharp criticism over the “resign-to-run” tweak, noting most other states don’t have such laws and they were trying to clear up any legal ambiguity on whether it applies to someone who wants to run for president.

But some GOP legislators also hailed the idea of a potential DeSantis candidacy.

“I can’t think of a better training ground than the state of Florida for a potential future commander in chief,” said state Rep. Tyler Sirois, a Merritt Island Republican.

The final House vote to send the legislation to the governor’s desk was 76-34 and comes days after a strictly 28-12 partisan vote in the Florida Senate. Democrats filed dozens of proposed changes to the bill but the GOP majority rejected each one, including an attempt to keep intact the “resign-to-run” law for any Florida official who runs for president.

Florida law currently requires anyone running for a new office to submit an irrevocable letter of resignation ahead of qualifying if the terms of the two offices overlap. The law has been changed twice in the past two decades, including once to help then-Gov. Charlie Crist when he was a potential nominee for vice president.

But the elections bill covers much more than just than the state’s “resign-to-run” law. It represents yet another round of election administration changes since the 2020 election, which former President Donald Trump has falsely contended was marred by widespread voter fraud.

While Florida lawmakers have pushed back on Trump’s call to end early voting or drastically reduce the use of mail-in ballots, they have placed restrictions on drop boxes and how voters can gather mail-in ballots.

This year’s bill includes a provision that would put a disclaimer on voter registration identification cards that explains the receipt of the card does not mean they are eligible to vote. Last year the state arrested 20 people for voter fraud for illegally vote, but several of those charged said they thought they could vote because they had gotten a card from their local elections supervisor.

The legislation, S.B. 7050, also changes campaign finance deadlines and speeds up when local officials must scrub voter rolls for dead and ineligible voters.

Democrats were especially critical that the legislation includes steep new fines for outside voter registration groups as well as requirement that these organizations must now give a receipt when someone fills out a voter registration application. They said the new legislation was just another in a line of recent bills to discourage minority voters since many minorities register through these third party groups.

“This bill would move Florida backwards,” said state Rep. Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat who serves as the House minority leader.

Republicans rejected the Democratic arguments that the changes would harm turnout or voter participation. And they pushed back on arguments that the bill was potentially discriminatory by pointing to a Thursday decision by a U.S. appeals court to uphold a 2021 law that Democrats also argued unfairly targeted minority voters.

“Many of the same attacks were heard today we heard back then,” said state Rep. John Snyder, a Stuart Republican who noted the appeals court concluded that previous measure was not discriminatory. He added that, “there is no more sacred thing than our vote. And in this state, when it comes to elections, we want to be crystal clear: It should be easy to vote and hard to cheat.”