Desantis Finds A New Political Foe: The Gop Speaker Of Florida’s House

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ most formidable political foe these days isn’t a national Democrat such as Kamala Harris or Gavin Newsom.

Instead, DeSantis has gotten into a brutal feud with the 37-year-old GOP state House Speaker, who is not only derailing the governor’s agenda in a chamber that usually has bent to his demands but has raised legal questions about a nonprofit associated with a key initiative of first lady Casey DeSantis.

Daniel Perez, an attorney from Miami who rapidly rose to power and personal success, has frustrated DeSantis so much that the governor regularly lambastes House Republicans, and by extension Perez, as a tool of the “left” who just want to undo the governor’s conservative agenda. Perez’s response? Calling the governor “emotional.” DeSantis has also railed against Perez for his friendship with John Morgan, the famed trial lawyer who was once a major Democratic donor.

DeSantis’ continued status as a national conservative star — and a potential 2028 candidate to succeed President Donald Trump — along with his heavy sway over Florida Republican politics, has now found a local hurdle in the form of Perez, himself a quickly rising GOP leader in Tallahassee.

The tension has steadily intensified during this year’s Florida legislative session. But it may have reached a peak this past week, when DeSantis lashed out at the House GOP over a budget plan he asserted was “treacherous” because it includes cuts to state law enforcement agencies. It came a day after the governor pledged to veto several House bills, claiming House members were a “cabal” and “stabbing” voters in the back.

Perez responded by accusing the governor of “lying” about House legislation and having “temper tantrums.”

“Just because our opinion is different than his doesn’t mean we have to be enemies. He is choosing to be enemies,” Perez said. “I don’t want to be his enemy. I want to be his partner.”

The governor’s broadsides come amid a growing House probe into a nonprofit foundation that is aligned with Hope Florida, a program launched by the first lady to help transition people away from government assistance.

Perez and other Republicans have questioned the legality of and circumstances through which $10 million from a settlement between the state and a Medicaid vendor wound up going to the foundation — which then gave the money to two nonprofits last October. Those nonprofits, within days of receiving the money from the Hope Florida Foundation, transferred millions to a group led by DeSantis’ chief of staff battling a ballot proposal to legalize marijuana.

DeSantis has called the criticisms a “hoax” and suggested that the House may be doing it to harm the political prospects of Casey DeSantis, who is weighing a bid for governor.

“I think it’s politically motivated,” DeSantis said.

But while DeSantis trashes Perez and other House Republicans, those in top positions in the state House effusively praise their leader.

“I think he is the single most talented political person I have dealt with in political office,” said state Rep. Sam Garrison, a northeast Florida Republican who holds a top post in the House and is slated to succeed Perez as speaker.

Sen. Rick Scott, the former governor who has had his own frosty relationship with DeSantis, said Perez is “doing the right thing.”

“He’s trying to take care of taxpayers,” Scott said. “My job in D.C. as a legislator and his job here as a legislator is to hold the executive branch accountable. So that’s what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to watch out for taxpayer money.”

‘His gift is relationships’

Perez’s pathway to chief DeSantis antagonist began in the aftermath of a Miami political scandal, when a sitting Republican state senator resigned after making a racial slur in front of colleagues. An established Miami House member resigned to run for the Senate, leading to the special election in 2017 that Perez won.

In a state with term limits, this made Perez a “redshirt freshman” who was positioned to start campaigning for House speaker earlier than those who were elected in the fall of 2018. Perez would secure enough pledges in the summer of 2019, a feat that Garrison said reflected his “superhuman” ability to connect to fellow legislators.

“He knows their stories, he knows their spouses, he knows their kids,” Garrison said. “I’ve never known anything like it. … His gift is relationships. And with the challenges of the last few months, he has had to draw on it.”

But his route to speaker was almost derailed in 2020, when Perez found himself under fire from an unexpected foe: outgoing House Speaker Jose Oliva, also a Miami Republican. Oliva’s political committee steered money into other political organizations that hit Perez ahead of that year’s elections. The Miami Herald reported that mailers and social media ads targeted Perez, who is Cuban American, over a trip he had previously taken to the island nation. The ads called Perez a “disgrace” to the exile community in Miami.

Oliva was — and remains — a close ally to DeSantis. The governor appointed him in 2023 to the state board that oversees the Florida state university system. POLITICO previously reported that Oliva was on the governor’s short list for the U.S. Senate post that became vacant when Marco Rubio became secretary of State. That job eventually went to then-state Attorney General Ashley Moody.

When reached by POLITICO, Oliva declined to comment on Perez. But in late March, he responded to a social media post by Perez with his own post that stated: “Beware of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. If you claim to be a conservative all you have done is support overriding spending cuts and obstruct the efforts of the country’s most conservative governor, you have nothing to be proud of. Do not cloak yourself in the work of others to shield your malice.”

Another former state House speaker who had helped push through a raft of bills pushed by DeSantis took aim at the Florida House this spring. Paul Renner, who was also appointed recently by the governor to the state panel that oversees universities, faulted Perez on social media over bills he contended would reverse steps the House took to limit lawsuits.

State Rep. Lawrence McClure, a Plant City Republican who has been Perez’s Tallahassee roommate, said Perez is confused by DeSantis and Oliva’s complaints that he has been insufficiently conservative.

McClure pointed out that the House has crafted a budget that is billions below what DeSantis has recommended, has recommended a $5 billion cut in taxes, and passed a bill to lower the legal age to buy a rifle from 21 to 18.

“Those are not liberal policies,” said McClure, who is also the House budget chair.

A swift rise

Perez's ascension to the one of the most powerful spots in Florida government happened relatively quickly. He earned his law degree from University in New Orleans just 13 years ago, and he was working as an attorney for health care companies at the time he mounted his first run for office.

In 2023 — the same year he was formally designated as the Republican nominee for speaker — his financial disclosures show that he took on two new jobs: one as an attorney with a firm set up by Robert Fernandez, who was once former deputy general counsel under Gov. Jeb Bush, and another with a Florida-based private equity firm called Assurance Capital.

Perez’s disclosures, which included his joint tax returns with his wife, showed that his family income increased from $261,000 in one year to more than $1 million. This included more than $166,000 from Assurance and more than $534,000 with RHF Law Firm.

When asked how he came to work for both that year, Perez stated in an email, “I am a guy in my thirties with three kids so working hard to support my family is a requirement at this stage of my life.”

Perez said he no longer works for Assurance, although he said the firm is still a legal client. Perez’s picture and background was listed on the Assurance website until a few days after a reporter asked about his employment with them.

He also said he had not been involved in any investor relations with the firm.

Assurance’s own website also showed that the equity fund invested in a Largo, Florida-based company that has contracts with the state-funded Department of Transportation. Perez said he had never heard of the company — Turtle Infrastructure Partners — and that he did not know anything about their work.

He also said that his compensation with Assurance was “not contingent on any external metrics. I am paid for the legal work I perform for the company.” Perez added in his email that it was “insulting” to raise questions about the highway maintenance company because the House is looking this year to redirect money away from the transportation trust fund.

Perez said asking questions about Assurance “suggests these questions are being pushed by political operatives trying to distract from actual questions of malfeasance by their client.”

‘We are far from the end’

Perez’ relationship with DeSantis first became tense after the speaker and Senate President Ben Albritton pushed back against the governor’s call for a special session earlier this year to craft a law designed to aid Trump’s mass deportation plans. It took legislators three tries before they came up with a bill that DeSantis was willing to sign.

Coming into this year’s session, Perez asserted he would not play the “game” of pushing his own priorities and he encouraged House members to assert their own agenda. During the course of the session, the House has held hearings grilling agency heads, questioned why information on insurance industry practices was kept from the Legislature when it cracked down on lawsuits against insurers, and launched the probe into Hope Florida and its nonprofit arm.

This week, Perez said the inquiries and probes would go on even after the regular session ends early next month, saying that “we are far from the end.”

“We are getting towards the end of our first session, but we still have a good amount of time left on the clock before I have to pack my box and head back to Miami,” said Perez. “And anything and everything is on the table on what can come before the House over the next year and a half.”