Ron DeSantis signs law clearing the path for his presidential run

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping elections bill Wednesday that will make it easier for him to run for president, a move that comes hours after he formally filed to make a bid for the White House.

The most discussed provision in the election package is a change to the state's "resign-to-run" law. It was unclear if the change was needed to allow DeSantis to continue to be governor of the third-largest state in the country while simultaneously running for president, but Republican legislative leaders have long said they would change it to ensure there were no legal concerns.

DeSantis quietly signed the bill Wednesday, with no fanfare, hours before his formal presidential launch, which will come in during an interview with Twitter owner Elon Musk during a 6 p.m. ET Twitter Spaces event on Wednesday.

His office did not respond to requests seeking comment.

The resign-to-run changes are among a handful Republican lawmakers passed that will make it easier for DeSantis to run for president.

They also created exemptions to state public records laws to make DeSantis’ travel and potential donor meetings more opaque, and, in a last-minute move, gave him an additional $1 million for staff raises to help keep his core team together ahead of a likely presidential run.

The resign-to-run proposal became the subject of early attacks from former President Donald Trump, who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination by a wide margin, according to several recent public polls.

“I couldn’t care less if Ron DeSanctus runs, but the problem is the bill he is about to sign, which allows him to run without resigning from being governor, totally weakens election integrity in Florida,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on April 30. “Instead of getting tough, and doing what the people want (same day voting, voter id, proof of citizenship, paper ballots, hand count etc.) the bill guts everything.”

Trump has tried to frame the underlying bill, which includes several Florida election law changes, as DeSantis weakening “election integrity,” a term that has become a mainstay in the conservative lexicon when discussing election reforms. Florida, for three years in a row, has passed sweeping election bills that have prompted lawsuits and concerns of voter suppression from Democrats and voting rights groups.

SB 7050, the legislation that includes the resign-to-run provision, also includes, among other things, increasing the total annual fine from $50,000 to $250,000 that the state can levy on outside voter registration groups for infractions like late-filed registration applications, or using people who have felonies on their records or cannot prove they are United States citizens as part of voter registration drives.

Heavier penalties for voter registration groups, opponents charge, will disproportionately affect registration of minority voters, who are generally Democratic-leaning.

“Black and Hispanic voters are five times more likely to be registered to vote by these organizations than white voters,” Kirk Bailey, political director of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement. “Lawmakers know this is a bill that would disproportionately impact many Black and brown Floridians who rely on community-based groups to keep them updated on voting rules, which are already difficult to understand.”

The resign-to-run provision tucked into that larger election bill has been a central focus as a DeSantis’ bid for president came into closer view, but a Republican-led Legislature signed off on several other changes that will make it harder to track DeSantis’ official actions.

Separate legislation would allow DeSantis’ use of state planes to be secret, a move viewed by Democrats as paving the way for the governor to use the state’s taxpayer-funded plane in a way that’s nearly impossible to track, as is allowed currently under Florida law. The proposal would also apply to legislative leadership and other top government officials, but the focus had been on the implications for DeSantis because of his expected presidential campaign rollout.

Republican supporters argued the provision, which would also apply to past travel, is needed for safety reasons.

“A very simple bill that is truly about safety and security of our most senior elected officials has become politicized,” Republican House sponsor Jeff Holcomb said just before the bill’s final passage.

Democrats, though, charged that the bill is pure politics.

“I have seen a lot of bills this session that have been specifically allocated for a single individual who wants to run for president,” said Democratic state Rep. Anna Eskamani when the House passed the legislation. “And I just don’t think we should bend laws to benefit one individual and their political aspirations.”

Separate language in the bill would also shield from public record laws the names of people who visit Florida’s governor’s mansion on issues not related to official government business. In recent weeks, DeSantis has held meetings with potential donors at the mansion ahead of his presidential run.

Because the creation of a public records exemption requires a two-thirds vote of both chambers of the state Legislature, the bill’s passage came about only because the GOP holds supermajorities in both the House and Senate. Democrats were in near universal opposition to the bill.

The $1 million for salary boosts for top DeSantis staffers was added as part of what’s informally known as the “sprinkle list,” because such late allocations are seen as sprinkles on top of what at that point is an already mostly finished proposal. Senate budget chief Doug Broxson, a Republican, told reporters the money would allow DeSantis to keep top staffers.

“He will be able to keep people that are valuable to him, and they will not be tempted to go to the private sector,” he said.