Florida Republicans Just Declared War On Each Other

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida’s Republican era of good feelings appears over.

President Donald Trump’s home state is caught up in a never-before-seen power struggle between Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature. It’s led to insults, promises of political payback and a mounting media offensive by the governor.

The scene is unlike any since Republicans gained control of state government nearly three decades ago. While past dustups between a GOP governor and Republican legislators have been fought over policies such as medical malpractice insurance or government subsidies for businesses, the current fight hits a top-tier issue crucial to Republican voters: illegal immigration.

DeSantis, in a move he said was meant to support the Trump administration’s efforts to squelch illegal immigration, called legislators to come to Tallahassee on Monday. And when they arrived, they promptly closed his special session, called their own and passed a bill that did not contain all of the asks the governor had requested. Legislative leaders insisted their bill was crafted after consulting with the White House.

So far neither side is backing down, and there’s a chance that the fight will drag on through the regular session that starts in early March and beyond. More than a dozen lobbyists, consultants and legislators who talked to POLITICO varied on how they think things will end up, but all can agree: What really matters is if and when Trump — who has been uncharacteristically quiet — chimes in.

“I don’t think the public cares about the procedural machinations,” said one longtime Republican lobbyist, granted anonymity to speak candidly. “They just want to see who’s standing at the end of the knife fight, and it’s going to be the Legislature because they have Donald Trump.”

State Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a strong supporter of DeSantis, countered Thursday night in a discussion on the social media site X: “If you are going to have a rebellion and you claim you are asserting the independence of the chamber, you don’t do it on an issue like immigration because you will get crushed.”

The bruising power struggle over the immigration bill appears to already have reverberations into the 2026 midterms. DeSantis promised this week to raise money for candidates who challenge his rivals in legislative primaries and for a preferred candidate for governor.

As the debate over the bill has unfolded, one of the potential GOP candidates for governor, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, has come under withering criticism by DeSantis and his allies. The Legislature wants to shift immigration enforcement to Simpson away from the governor, a move that DeSantis has said is probably unconstitutional. The governor and his supporters have asserted Simpson can’t adequately enforce immigration laws because of his long-running ties to the agriculture industry.

DeSantis even suggested that Simpson continues to have sway over the state Senate, where he used to be president. Simpson, who did not respond to a request for comment, has also exchanged verbal jabs with some DeSantis staffers who have criticized him online.

It’s an almost unthinkable situation after DeSantis rose to become one of the state’s most powerful governors ever. DeSantis was first elected in 2018 with help from a Trump endorsement. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, he became a rising conservative star who waded into battles over gender identity and race ahead of his entry into the presidential race.

But frustration slowly began to mount, with legislators growing weary of the demands of a governor who ultimately limped out of the 2024 presidential primaries after he was badly beaten by Trump in Iowa. And when state House Speaker Daniel Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton entered office last November, they signaled they would push back against the governor.

“The governor for the past four years has used the Legislature as a tool to promote his own political ambitions to the detriment of the real issues and problems Floridians want to face,” said state Rep. Juan Carlos Porras, a Miami Republican who endorsed Trump instead of DeSantis back in 2023. “In the year or two prior to the governor officially running for president, there was a clear sentiment that he was the person who made all the decisions in both branches of government.”

Still, the showdown came much faster and with a sharper escalation than previously expected. DeSantis wanted to move quickly on passing immigration-related measures and a long line of other items, including making it harder to pass ballot initiatives. Legislative leaders weren’t on board when DeSantis called a Jan. 27 special session, and the governor told them only minutes before he announced it publicly.

At first, lawmakers said it was “premature” but then opted to put together their own immigration measures that DeSantis subsequently derided as “weak” and “ridiculous.” The Legislature passed out the bill this week but not without several Republican defections.

The governor has vowed to veto the measure and has flown around the state this week denouncing the bill, calling on Republican voters to register their displeasure. The fact that legislators first said the session wasn’t needed only to come up with their own bill, DeSantis noted, showed that they weren’t serious.

“We need to deal with illegal immigration once and for all,” DeSantis said during a press conference he held in Destin on Friday. “I'm so sick of passing the buck. I’m so sick of politicians campaigning, telling you they’re going to be tough on it and then they get into office and they squish out and they don’t do what needs to be done.”

Republican lawmakers, including Perez, insist that their bill does what Trump wants. But they have also accused DeSantis of trying to remain politically relevant after being soundly defeated by Trump.

But DeSantis remains tremendously popular among Florida GOP voters. Ryan Tyson, a pollster with close ties with DeSantis, and his polling company did a phone survey among 600 likely Republican primary voters in mid-January that found that the governor had 91 percent support — and their biggest concern is illegal immigration and securing the border. More than 80 percent supported his call for a special session and said they wanted something done immediately.

One GOP consultant said the Legislature made a tactically bad decision to confront DeSantis over illegal immigration — which is also Trump’s signature issue.

“The governor is playing by the rules of the jungle that the president wrote,” said the consultant, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

Perez, a Miami Republican, has dared DeSantis to veto what he called the “most conservative illegal immigration bill” in the country, noting for example that the measure requires a mandatory death sentence for any immigrant in the country illegally who is convicted of a capital offense such as murder. Perez told POLITICO that DeSantis wanted the power to deport migrants out of the United States — a job he said belongs to the president, not the governor.

He added that if DeSantis wanted to truly “collaborate” on a bill, he would not have “ambushed us with a special session.” Perez also called it “sad” that DeSantis was talking about raising money for primary opponents of GOP legislators. Perez acknowledged that a veto override effort was possible, although the bill did not pass by a veto-proof majority in the Senate.

But such a move may only increase tensions between the governor and the Legislature.

“He is still the governor of the state of Florida, he is still a successful governor,” Perez said. “If he’s not willing to collaborate and he just wants to spread lies, then I’m going to move forward.”

The question now: How long will the standoff go on?

“I think this breach will take a long time to heal,” said one longtime GOP lobbyist, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive internal dynamics. “Unless something drastic happens to make peace, this session will be nasty.”

A Florida Republican consultant, also granted anonymity to speak candidly, said that “it’s a standoff where frankly I don't think anyone is budging, and the only person who could move the needle in one direction or another is not in the state of Florida but in the White House right now … The lame duck factor in all this is very real.”

Kimberly Leonard contributed to this report.