DeSantis keeps the ‘Florida brand’ going with defeat of marijuana, abortion amendments
Ron DeSantis is heading into his final two years in office with a significant boost to his political clout after two ballot measures he staunchly opposed failed Tuesday night.
DeSantis led an aggressive, months-long campaign against Amendment 3, which sought to legalize recreational marijuana, and Amendment 4, which would have broadened abortion access in the state — frequently leveraging the power of state government and using taxpayer dollars to defeat the measures.
While a majority of Florida voters supported the measures, the ballot initiatives did not reach the 60% support threshold needed to pass. With the results, DeSantis can say for the second election cycle in a row that Florida bucked national trends, this time breaking a winning streak for abortion measures across the country.
“With polls now closed in Florida — Amendment 3 has failed. Amendment 4 has failed,” DeSantis said in a post on X shortly after 8 p.m. on Tuesday.
In addition to the ballot measures, one of the two state attorneys suspended by DeSantis was reelected into office, and four of the six school board member candidates endorsed by the governor were winning their runoff elections as of 8:30pm on Tuesday.
Read more: DeSantis appointee wins Miami-Dade school board seat, securing conservative majority
The outcomes are likely to set the tone for DeSantis’ final years in office, as he plots his next move in politics ahead of his last days as governor in January 2027. Some Republicans are already saying Tuesday night’s election results will help situate the governor as a main power player heading into the 2028 presidential cycle — or at least give him a healthy start to explore such a path.
“This will continue to shape the narrative that the governor is a trailblazer in turning purple states into deep red,” said Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican who is a close ally of the governor.
“He is still the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to politics in the state of Florida,” Ingoglia added.
Others in his party are skeptical that the contests will play a big role in the governor’s future political endeavors — although they acknowledged that the failure of the ballot initiatives was “crucial” for DeSantis’ legacy in Florida.
“I think locally people will remember, but I am not sure if voters outside of the state will remember a few years from now,” said Republican state Rep. Juan Porras, of Miami, who supported Trump early in the GOP presidential primary when DeSantis was a challenger in the race.
In Miami-Dade County, which swung red on Tuesday night, Republican voters were already speculating about DeSantis’ future.
“After Trump as president, I hope we get [J.D.] Vance and then maybe DeSantis,” said Tony Wells, 73, a Cuban-American voter who said he voted against both Amendment 3 and Amendment 4.
DeSantis maintains the ‘Florida brand’
Since DeSantis flamed out during the GOP presidential primary early this year, he has spent most of his political capital this election cycle trying to defeat Amendments 3 and 4.
DeSantis spent millions in taxpayer dollars running ads against the amendments. State officials, including Florida’s surgeon general and agency spokespeople, actively campaigned against the amendments in state-sponsored news conferences and on social media. And his administration threatened to criminally prosecute television station executivess that ran political advertisements in support of the abortion-rights ballot initiative.
“He is so ambitious to stay a fixture on the national stage that he is willing to use Floridians’ own taxpayer dollars and weaponize those dollars against them,” House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, of Tampa, said.
Moving forward, she said she expects the governor to keep doing so because he has not been given “any incentive to stop behaving this way.”
DeSantis and his allies have justified the use of state resources on the campaign as a means to defend the state’s quality of life and state laws, which include a six-week abortion ban which was a main fixture in DeSantis’ short-lived presidential campaign.
If approved, the ballot measure would have turned Florida into California “through the back door,” DeSantis said in an interview with Fox News last week. The amendments needed at least 60% of support to pass in Florida.
With 10.3 million votes counted, Florida’s abortion measure had 57% support, and the marijuana amendment had 55% of approval.
Republican state Rep. Alex Andrade, of Pensacola, said defeating the ballot measures will allow the governor to maintain the “Florida brand.”
How he fared out in other issues
Overall, DeSantis did virtually no campaigning for Trump, U.S. Sen. Rick Scott or Florida Republicans on the ballot. But he did travel to Ohio to campaign for GOP candidate Bernie Moreno as Republicans worked to win the Senate majority in Congress.
Moreno was in a neck-to-neck race against Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown as of 8:30pm on Tuesday night.
In local school board races, DeSantis did not spend much time helping school board members he endorsed earlier this year and who faced runoffs on Tuesday. Yet the majority of the DeSantis-backed school board candidates won their elections on Tuesday. In total, 10 of 23 school board candidates DeSantis endorsed this year won their races.
Voters also rebuked the governor’s suspension of Democratic Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell.
DeSantis removed Worrell and Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren from office, claiming they were “woke” and not aggressively pursuing crimes.
On Tuesday, Worrell was elected back into office, winning more than 55% of the vote in both Orange and Osceola counties. Warren was defeated by DeSantis-appointed State Attorney Susy Lopez, who received 52% of the vote, according to election results posted at 8:30pm.
Miami Herald reporter Jacqueline Charles contributed to this report.
This story was originally published November 5, 2024 at 9:40 PM with the headline "DeSantis keeps the ‘Florida brand’ going with defeat of marijuana, abortion amendments."