DeSantis urges Florida lawmakers to ban cousin marriages, links practice to 'stealth jihad'
Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken pride in making Florida a leader among red states, but he acknowledged Monday that it was behind in banning cousin marriages, which he is hoping will be outlawed in the near future.
"Florida doesn’t ban cousin marriage: That’s a hanging curveball for us to do; we need to do that," DeSantis, famously a fan of baseball, said at a Tampa signing ceremony on another new law empowering state officials to designate groups as terrorist organizations and expel students who support them.
DeSantis urged state lawmakers to ban marriage between first cousins, reopening debate over a practice that remains legal in Florida but is barred in most states.
"Other states have done it," DeSantis continued. "I don’t know why we wouldn’t, but obviously that feeds into some of the stealth jihad that we see, when you’re allowing things like that. It’s things that are coming in from other cultures that are not consistent with the United States culture, and certainly our culture here in Florida."
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Florida already bans marriages involving close relatives such as siblings, parents, grandparents, nieces and nephews, but first cousins are not on the prohibited list.
The governor’s push follows the failure of HB 733, a 2025 proposal that would have added first cousins to the ban starting July 1. Supporters of such a measure cite public health concerns tied to a higher risk of genetic disorders, while critics argue the issue falls under personal freedom and private family decisions.
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DeSantis teased future action on a cousin marriage ban last month.
"For some reason the ban on cousin marriages was dropped during the legislative process," DeSantis wrote on X. "Stay tuned."
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This is DeSantis' last legislative session as governor, as he terms out at the end of this year, but there remains the possibility he could call for a special session to reintroduce the effort, if not HB 733, Florida Politics reported Monday.
"Now, there were some things that were a part of this package that we may need to add in upcoming, because I think there were some things that we really need," DeSantis said, calling it an "important" issue for American culture and immigration law.
"We have got to stop as a country importing people that reject the values of this country, and that's just been going on for a long time," he added.
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DeSantis pointed to the recent arrest of the niece and grand niece of late Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani by federal agents following Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s termination of their lawful permanent resident (LPR) status.
"How do they get to where she was even here to begin with?" the governor asked. "What is it about our laws or administrative bureaucracy over what, I think, a period of four or five years?"
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DeSantis' newly signed law empowers the state's chief of domestic security, governor and cabinet to designate any organization they determine engages in extremist acts as a "terrorist organization."
After such a designation, the group can be forcibly dissolved and face a freeze on state funding, according to the legislation. It also says students shall be expelled from their institution if they "promoted a domestic terrorist organization or a foreign terrorist organization."
Reuters contributed to this report.