TALLAHASSEE – In a striking rebuke of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ growing influence over higher education, the Florida House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday that would curb his influence in picking university presidents.
The governor, visibly frustrated by its momentum, promised to swiftly veto the legislation if it passes the Senate. The companion bill is under consideration by the Senate Rules Committee before going to the full chamber. The legislative session is scheduled to end May 2.
The House bill, which cleared the Republican-dominated chamber in a 104-8 vote after a contentious floor debate, would bar the governor and members of his administration from even discussing vacant posts. The move directly challenges DeSantis’ efforts to reshape higher education, one of the governor’s marquee agenda items.
Under the bill, each university’s board of trustees would gain full autonomy to appoint a president without needing approval from the state university’s Board of Governors, which is packed with DeSantis appointees. The legislation also rolls back a 2022 law that allowed presidential searches to occur behind closed doors – a controversial measure that paved the way for the secretive selection of former U.S. Senator Ben Sasse as the University of Florida’s president.
Speaking to reporters in Fort Myers during the House vote, DeSantis said Republicans supporting the bill sponsored by GOP Rep. Michelle Salzman “want the universities to be able to pursue a leftist indoctrination agenda.”
A day earlier, at a press conference in Salzman’s Pensacola district, DeSantis argued that yanking his kingmaker status would “neuter our ability to keep universities in line” and pave the way for the unraveling of his conservative higher education reforms.
DeSantis noted that the bill was co-sponsored by Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, who he described as the “most flamboyantly left-wing Democrat in the entire Florida House of Representatives.”
“Imagine that they bring some communist in to be the president of a university and I’m just supposed to sit there and twiddle my thumbs?” DeSantis said. “That’s not how I roll.”
Salzman pushed back in an interview shortly before the House vote, denying DeSantis’ claims that House Speaker Daniel Perez directed her to file the bill and defending it as an attempt to restore transparency and local control to universities without sabotaging Republican-backed reforms.
“We are not in a cult. We are in a political party,” Salzman said. “We can disagree on how to get there, as long as the end result is transparency and accountability and good governance.”
Salzman, a supporter of DeSantis’ broader higher education agenda, said her constituents were growing frustrated by the opaque hiring practices in the selection of university leaders.
“Florida is where woke goes to die 100%,” Salzman said, borrowing the governor’s catchphrase. “But we don't have to get rid of woke ideology and get rid of transparency in government. We can do both at the same time.”
The legislation comes after a string of high-profile interventions by the governor’s office in the hiring decisions for lucrative jobs at state universities and colleges. Earlier this year, DeSantis pushed for then-Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez as interim president of Florida International University without a search. She earns $850,000 a year in the role — nearly seven times her lieutenant governor salary.
DeSantis also recently admitted his office attempted to foist former state lawmaker Randy Fine onto Florida Atlantic University – a move the governor described as an attempt to sideline one his loudest GOP foes in the Legislature. Fine has since been elected to Congress.
A similar measure to overhaul presidential searches is still advancing in the Senate, led by Sen. Alexis Calatayud, R-Miami. Her version of the bill doesn't include language barring the governor’s involvement in the selection process. The House and Senate will have to negotiate differences in the bill language.
If the Senate adopts the House’s stricter language, it would mark the latest intra-party challenge to DeSantis.
Speaker Perez has strongly backed the bill, arguing that Republican state lawmakers can’t target what they see as unmeritocratic diversity initiatives at state universities while picking presidents through a “spoils system for a select few.”
The push for reform comes amid growing unease – even within DeSantis’ orbit – over the efficacy of academic leaders backed by the governor. At the New College of Florida, where former House Speaker Richard Corcoran is leading a conservative overhaul, members of the Board of Governors have been scrutinizing the administration for financial mismanagement. Meanwhile at UF, Sasse – who DeSantis’ office has praised as a ”successful former university president, national leader and deep thinker on education policy” – is under bipartisan fire for spending flagged by state auditors.
DeSantis’ pick for University of West Florida’s board chair, Scott Yenor, recently pulled out of his nomination after facing harsh bipartisan criticism for his past comments on women and feminism.
The clash marks the latest chapter in an escalating rift between DeSantis and GOP lawmakers, who have begun pressing back against his aggressive leadership style. In recent months, the governor has sparred with members of his own party over immigration policy and the unraveling of his Hope Florida initiative.
At his Pensacola event, DeSantis complained that House Republicans were abusing their supermajority and had colluded with Democrats to “manufacture smears” against him.
Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, D-Gainesville, was one of the eight lawmakers who voted against the bill on Wednesday. Another holdout was Rep. Gallop Franklin III, D-Tallahassee, who is reportedly in the running for the presidency at Florida A&M University.
Hinson opposed language clarifying curriculum changes, but voiced support for making presidential searches more transparent.
Hinson, whose district includes UF’s main campus, said the closed search process that ended in the selection of Sasse didn’t allow for proper vetting by community members – opening the door for someone she saw as ill-suited to run the state’s flagship university.
“We’re all pretty fed up with him [DeSantis] appointing presidents just because he can and destroying the way we educate our kids,” Hinson said in an interview. Asked about the clash between DeSantis and Republican lawmakers over the appointment process, she said “we Democrats now are just kind of sitting back watching the entertainment.”
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at garrettshanley@ufl.edu.