DeSantis faces growing storm over Hope Florida controversy

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is facing growing backlash over allegations involving an organization linked to his wife’s signature welfare assistance program Hope Florida.

The controversy concerns a $10 million payment to the Hope Florida Foundation, which is tied to first lady Casey DeSantis’s welfare assistance program Hope Florida and has led to criticism from some state House Republicans. Critics argue that this money was inappropriately used to help campaign against a ballot measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state last November.

That money, critics say, was part of a settlement agreement involving the state’s largest Medicaid contractor, Centene. According to them, a chunk of that settlement, all of which was intended to be returned to state and federal coffers, ended up in the hands of political groups that campaigned against the ballot measure, which Gov. DeSantis was also opposed to.

DeSantis has denied the allegations. But on Tuesday, Florida media obtained a draft of an agreement that seemed to contradict the governor, a development that threatens to raise pressure on DeSantis and comes as the Florida governor and his wife mull their next political steps in the coming years.

“It’s certainly not good for the first family,” said one Florida Republican operative. “I think it has a greater impact on her ability to run for governor more than anything else.” 

The controversy surrounding the Hope Florida Foundation goes back to last year, when the state of Florida discovered they were owed $67 million in a settlement with the Centene Corporation after the state was overbilled for Medicaid. The draft agreement obtained by media on Tuesday suggested that $10 million of that money was funneled to two nonprofit groups involved in the campaign against the ballot measure. One of those groups gave money to a PAC tied to DeSantis’s then-chief of staff James Uthmeier.

That seemed to contradict the DeSantis administration’s insistence that the $10 million given to the nonprofit groups was separate from the money received as part of the settlement. 

In a statement to Florida media, DeSantis’s spokesperson Bryan Griffin noted the negotiations were handled by the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).

“Centene proactively made the state aware of a billing issue in 2021 and the state worked for years to ensure it was resolved,” Griffin told the outlets, adding the agency’s “settlement was a great benefit to the state.” 

In a Tuesday post on the social platform X, Griffin called the reporting on the agreement a coordinated hit piece. 

“This whole article — the next in a series of coordinated hit pieces — falsely projects a plaintiff's attorney's aspirational assessment of a case as fact,” Griffin said. “This shady spin is why this reporter was so cagey when reaching out on this ‘story’ and wouldn't be upfront.”

The controversy has sparked anger from members of DeSantis’s own party. Recently, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) suggested that Florida state House Republicans could move to impeach Uthmeier over the handling of the money amid the campaign against Amendment 3, the marijuana-related ballot measure. Gaetz and many Florida Republicans were opposed to Amendment 3 last year. 

DeSantis’s critics, including a number of state House Republicans, had maintained prior to the reporting on Tuesday that the money sent to the nonprofits was Medicaid money. 

“The fact that AHCA knew they were steering $10 million in Medicaid funds to this foundation is a serious issue,” state Rep. Alex Andrade (R) told The Hill. “It’s just galling. It’s shocking to me that he was that sloppy and that brazen to do what he did with that money.” 

Andrade, the chair of the state House’s Healthcare Budget Subcommittee, has been investigating the $10 million transfer and questioned the Hope Florida Foundation earlier this month during a hearing with the group’s chair. 

During that hearing, the foundation’s chair, Joshua Hay, said “the public reporting has made evident that mistakes were made” with the foundation’s recordkeeping. 

“There are lapses in reporting procedures. The foundation was not provided with the staffing support necessary to ensure all matters were being quickly and appropriately handled,” Hay told the panel. 

DeSantis has hit back against Andrade, accusing him and other state House Republicans of sabotaging their own party during a press conference in Andrade’s district earlier this month. 

“We have this almost 3-to-1 supermajority of Republicans in the Florida House of Representatives and it is rotten,” DeSantis said last week. “They are behaving more like Democrats. They are colluding with the left. They are colluding with the media to try to sabotage all of the great success that Florida has had over these last six years.”

The governor went on to call out what he said were manufactured smears against him and his wife. 

“Some people feel threatened by the first lady. Let’s just be clear about that,” the governor said. “They know this; you saw her up here. You know, if you’re looking at 2026 and you’ve got some horse, you don’t want her anywhere near that. You’re very worried because she runs circles around their people. Everybody knows that.” 

Casey DeSantis has been considering a run for governor next year. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), who already has a frosty relationship with the governor, entered the race with the coveted endorsement of President Trump. 

Early polling shows the first lady with high approval ratings. A Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy survey released in March showed Casey DeSantis with a 53 percent approval rating, slightly higher than that of Donalds, who came in at 48 percent. 

Republicans are mixed on whether the controversy will do anything to hinder her chances at winning the governor’s mansion. 

“It gives the MAGA world yet another reason besides Donald Trump to line up behind Byron Donalds,” the Florida Republican operative said. 

Other operatives and strategists pointed to the complexities of the controversy, arguing that much of it could go straight over most voters’ heads. 

“It’s got so many moving parts to make it stick. It’s not something that lends itself to a talking point or a bumper sticker. So if you’re DeSantis, politically, it just doesn’t lend itself to something that people can easily understand and pick up,” said Ford O’Connell, a Florida Republican strategist. 

Another Republican strategist likened the controversy to a “Tallahassee parlor game.” 

“If the objective was to keep her out of the race for governor, launching this attack was the absolute worst thing they could have done. Instead of leaving Casey DeSantis off to the side, they instead handed her a megaphone … and she took it and ran with it,” the strategist said. 

Andrade pushed back on the notion that the efforts to investigate the foundation had anything to do with the first lady’s political aspirations. 

“I don’t care if she files to run for governor. I haven’t endorsed anybody to run for governor,” Andrade said. “Given how much credit she gets for the Hope Florida Foundation and the Hope Florida program, I’m just kind of shocked at how incompetent she’s been in managing all of it.”

The controversy can also be seen as the manifestation of what has already been a contentious legislative session in Florida that has seen the governor pitted against state House Republicans. Gov. DeSantis and state House Speaker Daniel Perez (R) have been embroiled in a bitter rivalry going back to earlier this year, when the governor faced pushback from Perez and Senate President Ben Albritton (R) over the governor’s calls for a special session to implement Trump’s immigration agenda. Perez has also raised a number of questions about Hope Florida. 

Meanwhile, in the state Senate, Ethics and Elections Committee Chair Don Gaetz (R), the father of the former congressman, has said the committee will not consider DeSantis’s nominations for AHCA secretary and Department of Children and Families secretary before the end of the legislative session amid the ongoing House investigation into Hope Florida. 

“It’s a very divided government right now in Florida,” the Florida GOP operative said.