Florida Governor Ron Desantis and his spouse are coming underneath rising scrutiny over their obvious use of tens of millions in public settlement funds to bankroll a crucial anti-cannabis legalization marketing campaign.
In November 2024, amidst the presidential race, Florida went to the polls to vote on Modification 3, which might have legalized the possession and sale of leisure hashish for adults doubtlessly creating the second-largest US hashish market behind California.
Nevertheless, whereas the initiative acquired a transparent majority of 57.8% of the vote, it fell wanting the 60% ‘supermajority’ threshold required to go a constitutional modification within the state.
This was largely due to a high-profile marketing campaign to oppose the modification, which new paperwork reveal was intently linked to the DeSantis household.
On Friday, marketing campaign finance data and paperwork had been launched to the Miami Herald and Miami Instances, elevating worrying questions over whether or not Medicaid {dollars} meant for the state had been not directly used to fund the anti-cannabis marketing campaign.
This murky monetary pipeline stemmed from a settlement between the Florida Company for Well being Care Administration (AHCA) and medical health insurance large Centene in September 2024.
Centene agreed to pay $67m to resolve allegations involving its pharmacy profit administration practices underneath the state’s Medicaid programme. The state directed $10m of that to the Hope Florida Basis, a charitable initiative based by Mrs Casey DeSantis.
Based on inner board minutes and public filings reviewed by the Miami Herald and Politico, the Hope Florida Basis awarded grants of:
- $5 million to the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Safe Florida’s Future initiative
- $5 million to Save Our Society from Medication, a St. Petersburg-based nonprofit centered on drug prevention
Whereas each grantees claimed the funds had been meant for consciousness campaigns and neighborhood engagement, they subsequently turned the biggest donors to the anti-Modification 3 effort.
Inside days of receiving the grants, each teams contributed tens of millions to Maintain Florida Clear, a political committee chaired by then-DeSantis chief of workers James Uthmeier, which led the cost in opposition to the hashish initiative.
Maintain Florida Clear in the end transferred over $11.5 million to the Republican Occasion of Florida, which ran an aggressive tv marketing campaign opposing the measure.
The case has drawn criticism from contained in the Republican get together, and will have main implications for Mrs DeSantis’ fledgling political profession amid studies she is exploring a bid for governor in 2026, as soon as her husband’s time period ends.
