The Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump, reacts on stage with former first lady Melania Trump during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
This was another banner year for the Republican Party of Florida.
While Gov. Ron DeSantis came up short in his bid for president, the state went big for Donald Trump in the fall election and was rewarded with a bevy of state Republicans being called up to serve in his administration. The RPOF’s voter-registration advantage continued to expand, making life tougher for Florida Democrats to find any hope for coming election cycles.
Here is our Top 10 list of most and significant events of the year, in chronological order.
1) Ron DeSantis drops out of presidential race (Jan. 21)
Believe it or not, it was never inevitable the Republican Party would renominate Donald Trump, much less that he would regain the White House.
Let’s go back to the fall of 2022.
As Trump declared his candidacy, DeSantis was being hailed as “DeFuture” by the former president’s favorite newspaper, the New York Post.
“Suddenly, 2024 doesn’t feel so far away. Nor does Trump look like the only choice or the inevitable nominee,” wrote Post columnist Michael Goodwin at the time. “Chants of ‘Two more years’ captured the sense of many at the governor’s victory party that the statehouse is just a stop on the way to the White House.”
A month later, DeSantis led Trump 52%-38% among likely GOP primary voter in a Wall Street Journal poll. A USA Today/Suffolk University poll had DeSantis up 56%-33% in a one-on-one contest.
But then the campaign began. And the varied criminal indictments against Trump, which only boosted his support among Republican voters.
DeSantis wasn’t exactly a sensation on the campaign trail, either, starting with his decision to bypass a traditional announcement of his candidacy from his hometown of Dunedin and instead do a “Twitter Spaces” event with Elon Musk which was marred with glitches.
The campaign never caught fire and, after losing to Trump by 30 points in the Iowa Caucus, DeSantis realized his dream of capturing the GOP nomination for president wasn’t going to happen.
“Nobody worked harder, and we left it all out on the field. Now, following our second-place finish in Iowa, we’ve prayed and deliberated on the way forward. If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome — more campaign stops, more interviews — I would do it,” DeSantis said in a video he posted on X on Sunday, Jan. 21. “But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign,” he said.
2) Florida Democrats decide not to hold a presidential primary election (March 19)
While Democrats continue to analyze went wrong for them in 2024, a consensus has formed that Joe Biden should not have announced in spring 2023 that he would run for re-election, when even Democratic voters questioned whether he should indulge in another campaign, in part because of his advancing age.
Of course, other prominent Democrats could have challenged him in the presidential primaries, but most opted not to. A few did, however — Minnesota U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips and new age author Marianne Williamson, to be specific.
But Florida Democratic voters never had the opportunity to weigh in because party officials declined to even hold a presidential primary election.
The decision prompted a federal lawsuit (that was thrown out) but, more substantively, it resulted in Democratic-registered voters staying home in March, even though several cities held municipal elections on that same day.
That led to Republicans (who did have a presidential primary race on the ballot even though the GOP race was essentially over at that point) far exceeding Democrats in participating that day. (Florida Politics reported right before the primary election that nearly 731,000 registered Republicans had either voted by mail or at early voting sites, vs. just 45,000 Democrats.)
How did that affect down-ballot races for Democrats? Well, just look at what happened in Clearwater.
That’s where Mark Bunker, a Democratic-leaning city commissioner hoping to win re-election, fell short by just 600 votes. Several Democrats in the city said afterwards they didn’t even realize that there was a municipal “nonpartisan” election. But in the Trump era, is there any such thing?
3) Legislature passes HB 3, restricting social media access for children younger than 14 (March 24)
While a number of states have been influenced by Florida when it comes to passing culture war laws, a bipartisan measure co-sponsored by the conservative Republican House Speaker and a progressive openly queer Black Democrat has been duplicated not just by other states but other countries.
The measure prohibits children under 14 from becoming social media account holders and allows 14- and 15-year-olds to open accounts only with parental consent soon became the blueprint for other states and countries, such as Australia, which passed legislation at the end of the year that makes platforms like TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, X and Instagram liable for fines up to $33 million U.S. dollars if children younger than 16 hold accounts, according to the Associated Press.
The Florida measure was a passion project of then-House Speaker Paul Renner, who teamed up with other Republicans as well as Tampa Bay Democratic Rep. Michele Rayner to adapt the proposal after it appeared to be doomed at one point during the session.
“Social media harms children in a variety of ways,” said DeSantis as he signed the legislation. “HB 3 gives parents a greater ability to protect their children. Thank you to Speaker Renner for delivering this landmark legislation.”
The measure is set to become law in January, but two tech industry groups filed a lawsuit in October to stop its implementation, and a second lawsuit was filed against Attorney General Ashley Moody [this week] by an adult entertainment trade group, challenging the age verification portion of the law.
4) Florida Supreme Court votes to puts amendments on recreational cannabis and abortion rights on the ballot, while affirming the state’s six-week abortion ban (April 1)
Because the majority of the Florida Supreme Court has been handpicked by DeSantis, it could never be a sure thing that the high court would approve the ballot language for the state’s two most provocative constitutional amendments that otherwise had qualified for the November ballot — legalizing recreational cannabis use for adults and enshrining abortion rights in the Florida Constitution.
On April Fool’s Day, the Carlos Muñiz-led crew of jurists voted to put both measures on the ballot, much to the consternation of the governor.
Those two measures would dominate election news coverage throughout the year, as polls showed that both gathered close to or more than the 60% threshold required for passage, which in the case of legalizing recreational cannabis had only been accomplished in three other states before 2024.
The governor invested significant political capital to see that neither measure achieved that threshold, and while he couldn’t stop the majority of voters from supporting both, neither did get to 60% (the cannabis measure received nearly 56%, while Amendment 4 received 57%).
5) DeSantis vetoes a bill that would have prohibited certain THC-infused hemp products in Florida. The hemp industry pays him back by putting money and energy towards a common opponent — Trulieve and “Big Marijuana.” (June 8)
This is a bit tangled, so let’s explain.
During both the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions, a bill that would limit the THC content in certain hemp products and ban others (such as Delta-8) drew concerns from members of the hemp industry, who testified against the proposal in committee meetings in both years.
In 2023, the bill sponsors themselves ultimately ended up stripping out those controversial provisions and instead focused on limiting their scope to a ban on marketing hemp products to children. In spring 2024, however, the measure did include a crackdown on hemp-THC products. It won narrow approval in the House of Representatives before making its way to the governor’s desk (it moved easier in the Senate).
But with hemp entrepreneurs pleading for him to veto the measure, the governor ended up doing just that. Many of those same hemp industry officials contributed big dollars to fight against what they perceived to be a mutual enemy: Trulieve, the biggest medical marijuana company in the state. That support helped keep the measure below the 60% required for passage.
6) Hurricanes Debby (Aug. 5), Helene (Sept. 26), and Milton (Oct. 9) wreak havoc
The 2024 hurricane season left a trail of devastation, casualties, and massive economic losses, with Helene and Milton in particular dealing a devastating one-two punch to the Tampa Bay area.
Hurricane Helene roared ashore as a massive Category 4 hurricane and would ultimately claim more than 200 lives across six states, the second-deadliest hurricane in the past half-century, behind only 2005’s Hurricane Katrina. More than 42 trillion gallons of rainfall fell on the Southeast, according to the Associated Press. For the Tampa Bay area, it was the worst storm in a century. Days after the storm, Pinellas County officials reported that 260 homes had been destroyed and nearly 16,000 had suffered major damage.
Less than two weeks later, Hurricane Milton prompted the largest mass evacuation since Hurricane Irma in 2017. Although it appeared to be coming directly towards the Tampa Bay area, it ended up making landfall near Siesta Key off the coast of Sarasota as a Category 3 Hurricane. The reported value of insurance claims due to the storm is now over $3.4 billion, according to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. That’s compared to $1.9 billion in losses from Helene and $130 million from Hurricane Debby.
In the immediate aftermath of Helene, Republicans such as Trump and Pinellas U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna questioned whether the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was running out of money to support disaster relief because it had diverted hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations providing humanitarian assistance to undocumented immigrants. Those charges were vehemently denied by FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and Democrats like Tampa U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor.
However, weeks later Attorney General Ashley Moody reacted quickly upon learning of reports that FEMA workers in the Highlands County city of Lake Placid were directed to ignore storm victims in households that displayed Donald Trump signs or flags, filing a complaint in federal court arguing Criswell and a FEMA employee had violated the civil rights of Floridians who supported Trump.
In terms of the coming 2025 session, some Tampa Bay lawmakers like Pinellas County Republican state Rep. Linda Chaney say they want to address FEMA’s “50% rule,” which prohibits improvements to a structure exceeding 50% of its market value unless the structure is improved to current flood regulation standards.
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7) The DeSantis administration tries to build golf courses and hotels in state parks — sparking public outrage (Aug. 21)
A plan by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to construct lodges, golf courses, pickleball courts, and disc golf courses in nine state parks — dubbed the “Great Outdoors Initiative” — was met with a rare burst of bipartisan criticism from elected officials, environmentalists, and regular citizens after the proposal was initially reported by the Tampa Bay Times in August.
The plan, as reported by the Times, was to build a golf course at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County and 350-room lodges at Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine and Topsail Hill Preserve State Park on Santa Rosa Beach. There would be up to four pickleball courts built at Honeymoon Island State Park in Pinellas County and Hillsborough River State Park.
“The motivation behind these changes and the rushed secretive process is not only bad government, but it reeks of corruption,” said Pinellas County Democratic Rep. Lindsay Cross at a rally at Honeymoon Island. The proposal was “too large and too risky to be fast-tracked outside of extensive study and through public research,” she added.
“It was not approved by me, I never saw that,” DeSantis insisted at an Aug. 28 news conference in Winter Haven.
In the last days of 2024, Southeast Florida GOP state Sen. Gayle Harrell introduced legislation for the 2025 session (SB 80) called “The State Park Preservation Act,” which would ensure that state parks prioritize “conservation-based public outdoor recreational uses” including fishing, camping, bicycling, hiking, nature study, swimming, boating, canoeing, horseback riding, diving, birding, sailing, jogging, and similar activities.
“State conservation lands must be managed to ensure the conservation of this state’s plant and animal species and to ensure the accessibility of state lands for the benefit and enjoyment of all people of this state, both present and future,” the bill states.
8) Monique Worrell wins, Andrew Warren loses in battle of Democratic suspended state attorneys attempting to win their seats back (Nov. 5)
Among the most controversial moves made during Ron DeSantis’ six years of governor were his decisions to suspend Democratic state attorneys who had been elected by healthy majorities in their respective jurisdictions.
Following their suspensions, both Andrew Warren in Hillsborough and Monique Worrell in Orange/Osceola counties went to the courts, but neither had succeed by the time the 2024 election cycle rolled around, so both announced that they would run again for those seats.
Warren came up short against Republican Suzy Lopez, DeSantis’ hand-picked opponent. Worrell, on the other hand, defeated Andrew Bain by 15 points in Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit.
In Warren’s case, several factors — such as the fact that the once-70,000-plus registration advantage for Democrats in 2020 had dissolved into fewer than 5,000 by Election Day, plus the large fundraising advantage enjoyed by Lopez — made the race more challenging than he could have imagined. Under an onslaught of negative ads, Warren lost to Lopez by more than five percentage points.
Worrell however, enjoyed a strong victory over Andrew Bain, DeSantis’ hand-picked appointee to replace her in 2023.
Now questions that hovered throughout both campaigns emerge in Worrell’s case — will DeSantis suspend her again? And what would be his reason to do so this time around? Presumably, the voters were aware of the claims the governor made in suspending her the first time and voted for her anyway. Thomas Feiter, a Republican who ran for state attorney in the circuit this summer, said in an election complaint and a lawsuit (which was later tossed out of court by a judge) that James Uthmeier, Desantis’ chief of staff, told him the governor would indeed suspend Worrell if she were re-elected in November.
After Warren announced in April that he would run for re-election, the Phoenix asked the governor during an appearance in Pinellas County whether he would suspend either him or Worrell if either or both were voted back into office in November.
“If ifs and buts were candy and nuts everyday would be Christmas,” he replied. “I think it’s all going to work out, and I think it’s going to be good.”
9) Trump raids Florida’s political talent to fill Cabinet and other roles in his next administration (post-Nov. 5)
Following the election, Donald Trump began selecting Florida Republicans to fill his administration, including Marco Rubio, Mike Waltz, and Pam Bondi. Two others — Matt Gaetz and Chad Chronister — he initially nominated but later withdrew after it was apparent they wouldn’t be confirmed by the GOP-controlled Senate.
And for one brief, shining moment, Trump dangled Ron DeSantis’ name as a potential pick for defense secretary when the confirmation of Pete Hegseth appeared in trouble. That scenario briefly became tied in with DeSantis selecting the president-elect’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to replace Rubio, doing a solid for the incoming president.
But Trump seemed to dismiss any such notion when he announced at a press conference that he didn’t believe DeSantis would pick Ms. Trump for the Senate seat. Meanwhile, the cascade of Floridians being selected to go to Washington continues.
10) Hillsborough County state Rep. Susan Valdes bolts the Democratic Party to become a Republican (a month after being elected to her final two-year term as a Democrat) (Dec. 9)
To say the past several election cycles have gone progressively worse for the Florida Democratic Party would be belaboring he obvious.
The party’s modest goal of escaping their superminority status in the Legislature went awry last month, and adding insult to injury was Hillsborough County Democratic Rep. Susan Valdes’ stunning decision to bolt the party and become a Republican just a month after her constituents reelected her for a fourth term, and exactly a week after her bid to lead the Hillsborough County Democratic Executive Committee fell short.
“In the House, I have long known that no one has a monopoly on good ideas,” Valdes explained in her statement announcing her political conversion on X. “I will not waste my final two years in the Florida Legislature being ignored in a caucus whose leadership expects me to ignore the needs of my community.”
Her flip means there will be 86 Republicans in the Florida House and just 34 Democrats, an all-time record for GOP superiority in the Legislature’s lower chamber. Republicans will continue to control the Senate with a 28-12 lead. Valdes was just named vice chair of the House Budget Committee (headed by fellow Hillsborough County GOP Rep. Lawrence McClure). And all eyes will remain focused on her next session to see whether any of her bills and budget line items will find an easier path to passage.
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