Ron DeSantis says FAU job played role in Randy Fine's defection to Donald Trump
State Rep. Randy Fine announced Tuesday that he is no longer endorsing Gov. Ron DeSantis for president, a turnabout that DeSantis blamed on the fact that Fine “didn’t get” the top job at Florida Atlantic University.
In announcing that he will now endorse Donald Trump, the firebrand Republican legislator from Brevard County said his move was motivated by the two presidential candidates’ track records on Israel and antisemitism.
“The past two weeks have made me realize our choice as Jews is simple,” Fine wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “We can vote for the Governor who says all the right things or we can vote for the President who actually does them. When it comes to action, Donald Trump has never ever let us down.”
More: Randy Fine breaks with DeSantis over handling of Jewish concerns, throws support behind Trump
But DeSantis dismissed the move as posturing from a legislator who tried to win the presidency at FAU and was now seeking elected office once again. Fine has announced he is running for a Senate seat on Florida’s Space Coast.
“He was up for a presidency of FAU. He didn't get it. Now he's running for (state) Senate,” DeSantis said at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, according to TheMessenger, a news website.” He's trying to ingratiate himself. Totally ridiculous.”
Fine’s potential candidacy for the Boca Raton university’s top job has been a major focus of attention on campus since he announced in March that DeSantis had approached him about it. A DeSantis spokesperson at the time called him “a good candidate for the role.”
Fine was not among the three finalists named by a search committee in July. But when state university officials halted the search two days later, claiming they needed to investigate potential rules violations, faculty members suspected DeSantis’ administration may have been behind it.
Nearly four months later, the search remains halted, and people on campus are wondering whether Fine’s brazen reversal means he has given up hope of getting the job.
Professor William Trapani said faculty members have taken notice of Fine’s move but were uncertain what it might mean for the university.
“Today’s news is a little shocking from a political standpoint, but for a lot of us this is not a world we know,” he said. “We’ve been through such confusing times, but we continue to be hopeful that our search will be allowed to go forward.”
The state university system’s inspector general is said to be reviewing the school’s search process for potential rules violations by the committee and its search firm.
The potential violations: the search committee's use of a "straw poll" to develop consensus about which candidates to consider and questions about gender and sexuality that were included on a questionnaire that the private search firm asked candidates to complete.
But the chancellor of Florida’s universities is scheduled to give an update on the search to the state Board of Governors Nov. 9, a signal that the inspector general’s review might be concluded.
Trapani said that Tuesday’s developments had provoked much theorizing on campus, and that it underscored the importance of keeping partisan politics out of universities.
“When you let politics in the door, you don’t know where it will take you,” he said.
@AMarranara
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Randy Fine turns on Ron DeSantis, raising questions about FAU
