Gov. Ron DeSantis is demanding that elected Florida Republicans join him in opposition to the proposed amendment that would enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution. And he wants some of their campaign money to help fund the effort to defeat Amendment 4.
DeSantis laid down the political law for Republicans on Saturday night in Broward County: His party’s elected officials must publicly oppose the proposed referendum on the November election ballot. Some haven’t, which DeSantis depicted as a sign of weakness.
“It’s important that all of our political leaders, you know, stand up and be counted. Right now. You know, there’s some people that just, it’s like the political winds. Like if the winds are against you, you run and hide. That’s not leadership, that is not what’s going to make this state great,” DeSantis said. “You’ve got to stand up even when it’s not easy, even when you’re taking the arrows, stand up and do what’s right.”
Speaking to hundreds of activists, donors and elected officials at a Republican Party of Florida fundraising dinner at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, he offered a litany of criticisms of the abortion-rights amendment and another proposed amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana for adults.
His opposition to the amendments isn’t new, but it was intense. Half of his 25-minute keynote address to the party’s Victory Dinner was devoted to the two amendments.
The governor described the marijuana legalization proposal, Amendment 3, as “creating a corporate marijuana cartel.” He labeled the abortion-rights proposal, Amendment 4, the “abortion till birth amendment.” Both are so bad, he said, that even supporters of abortion rights and legalized marijuana should vote “no.”
Calling out Republicans
One element of the speech stood out: his criticism of fellow Republicans.
DeSantis praised Republican elected officials, by name, who are standing with him in opposition to Amendment 4 on abortion rights and contributing financially to the effort aimed at defeating it.
The Republican governor was also sharply critical of Republicans who aren’t publicly opposing the amendment.
“Every one of our elected representatives needs to say where they stand on this. And obviously it would be a ‘no.’ All these people that have run [for office] have all run saying they’re pro-life, right? And so now you have an amendment that is the most extreme in the other direction you can go, and some are not saying anything or not offering to help us to defeat this,” DeSantis said.
At one point, he divided 22 Republican U.S. senators and U.S. representatives into three categories.
Of the 22, he named 10 and praised who he said are publicly opposed to Amendment 4 and have supported the opposition financially. That group included U.S. Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Gimenez from Miami-Dade County.
DeSantis listed six more who he said are publicly opposing Amendment 4 but haven’t contributed financially, a tier that includes U.S. Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar of Miami-Dade County.
Finally he called out the other six — though he didn’t say their names from the stage at the Republican event — for not declaring public opposition to the abortion-rights amendment. That category would include U.S. Rep Brian Mast, whose district includes northern Palm Beach County, and U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Marco Rubio.
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The governor said it is “untenable to just sit here and let George Soros run amendments in our state and not be willing to stand up and say no. Not on our watch. that’s the least you can do as Republicans.”
He also charged that Soros, a wealthy liberal financier, was bankrolling the Amendment 4 effort, something that amendment supporters said Sunday isn’t true. Republicans frequently use Soros as a shorthand to rile up Republican audiences.
Political capital
DeSantis has a lot riding on the outcome of the abortion rights and marijuana referendums.
He’s widely expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2028 following his unsuccessful candidacy for president this year. If he can’t prevail in his home state on something he’s so clearly staked so much political capital on — defeating the amendments — that could tarnish his image as a master of politics and policy in Florida.
Half the speech was was a recitation of his accomplishments in Florida since he became governor. “On issue after issue, Florida has not only led the way we have delivered over and over again,” he said.
Besides the Soros warning, DeSantis said that if the amendments pass, the stage would be set for ominous, far-reaching changes in Florida.
“If we have a state where one entrenched interest can spend $100 million and amend the Constitution to benefit themselves and their pockets, you’re gonna see more and more people do that,” he said, referring to heavy spending by proponents of the marijuana amendment.
“If Soros can come in and run these amendments and have success, you are gonna see more left wing groups decide to do that. So you end up after three or four election cycles, you end up being California through the back door. Does anybody think that’s good for the state of Florida?”
California is also frequently used as a negative example by Florida Republicans.
Further complicating his efforts are that some leading Republicans — including former President Donald Trump — support the marijuana amendment and have said they’d vote for it.
Polling shows both amendments enjoy the support of majorities of Floridians, including many Republicans. But passage requires 60% of the vote, a difficult threshold to reach, and polls show both are hovering around that threshold.
A survey released Friday by Emerson College Polling/The Hill found the abortion rights amendment was supported by 55% of the state’s voters, with 26% opposed and 20% unsure. Emerson said 30% of surveyed Republicans support the referendum.
The proposal to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults has support of 64% of Florida voters and opposition from 27%, with 9% unsure. The poll found 51% of Republicans support the marijuana referendum.
Abortion
DeSantis said the abortion rights amendment was “intentionally deceptive and misleading.”
“Here’s what’s going on: This is an amendment that will effectively green light abortion all the way to the moment of birth. They do it indirectly, they use loopholes, and that’s obviously very bad,” he said.
DeSantis also outlined several other consequences: that it “may” require taxpayer funding of abortions, would eliminate parental consent for minors to get abortions, and allow any “healthcare provider” to OK an abortion.
“They didn’t use the word physician…. This is any healthcare provider. Well, that could be a chiropractor, that could be a clerk at Planned Parenthood. You are opening Pandora’s box. You’re gonna create a really grisly industry of people that are not trained medically,” DeSantis said.
And, DeSantis warned, if the amendment passes, Florida “will become the No. 1 abortion tourist destination in the United States of America. Is that what we want to be known for in the State of Florida? No.”
Emma Collum, founder of the Reproductive Freedom Coalition of Broward, which collected petition signatures to help get the referendum on the ballot and is now working to win passage, said DeSantis comments amount to “fear mongering and scare tactics” and “flagrant lies” in service of a campaign that “continues to play politics with the women of Florida’s lives.”
“There is not abortion up until birth. There never has been. This is not a platform that anyone has discussed or will be discussed, and the flagrant disregard for women’s health and safety in order to make ludicrous assertions … is disgusting and dishonest,” Collum said Sunday.
Collum said the abortion rights amendment isn’t some kind of plot from Soros or other outside forces. “There is no secret, dark money. It is simply women and allies who want to keep women’s healthcare safe.”
Keisha Mulfort, senior communications strategist of the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida, which supports Amendment 4, said several other DeSantis claims are not true.
She said the assertion that unqualified people would be making health care decisions with women is among the “ridiculous and false claims [that] are only meant to scare voters. We know who performs abortions.”
It’s absurd to think that chiropractors or Planned Parenthood clerks would take the place of physicians, Mulfort said. “You wouldn’t go to a dentist for heart surgery. You would not go to an orthopedist to get your tonsils taken out.”
“It is not true. It actually is really ridiculous,” Mulfort said.
Mulfort also said the amendment does not change parental rights already in the Florida Constitution. To her, the opponents of the abortion rights amendment are the ones standing in the way of parental involvement, because they would prohibit virtually all abortions even when a parent agrees it’s the best course of action.
Mulfort also said there is nothing in the amendment that would require the government to pay for abortions.
Marijuana
DeSantis said it was misleading to depict Amendment 3 as leading to “the legalization of recreational marijuana.” Rather, he said, it is aimed at creating a “corporate weed cartel.”
“This is not about weed as much as it’s about corporate greed,” DeSantis said, adding that one company is trying to “hijack the state of Florida.”
“This amendment is being funded by one weed company, Trulieve. They have put $75 [million], $80 million and counting into getting this on the ballot and to getting it passed and they’re trying to get a 60% threshold,” he said.
“Are they doing that because they care about your rights and your health or are they doing that because they’re gonna be able to profit off of it? Of course,” DeSantis said. “And so they wrote it so that they get basically a benefit from a monopoly and they create a corporate weed cartel…. So you have a right to possess and smoke it, but only if you buy it from them.”
Steve Vancore, a spokesman for Trulieve, said Sunday that DeSantis’ claims aren’t true.
“To be clear, the amendment itself, and I know he’s read it, does not give us exclusive access. In fact, quite the opposite,” Vancore said.
He said there are currently 25 active marijuana licenses in Florida and the governor’s office has the authority to issue 22 more, which is “hardly a monopoly.”
Vancore said DeSantis has “been the one creating impediments to the market, and now he’s the one complaining about the lack of competition in the market. It makes no sense. And it’s flat out untrue.”
DeSantis also said the amendment would immunize the company from civil liability. “So if they sell you reefer and you have seizures, you can’t sue ‘em for that,” he said. Vancore said there’s nothing in the amendment that addresses limits on liability. “It’s untrue,” he said. “There’s nothing the amendment does that immunizes anybody for anything.”
DeSantis said implementation of legalized marijuana under the amendment would be more lax, and worse for Florida, than other states, saying New York City, Denver and San Francisco are models of the disaster that would befall Florida.
“If it passes, you will have rampant public use all across the state of Florida,” he said. “You think that that’s good for tourism? Is that good for families, is that good for all those things?”
“I really don’t care what people are doing in the privacy of their own home, but I do not want to see it near schools, on our beaches, in restaurants or any of these other things,” DeSantis added.
Vancore said it’s “not true” that there would be no restrictions on where people could smoke marijuana. “The Legislature has the authority to implement time, place and manner restrictions,” and the amendment doesn’t change that, he said.
DeSantis attempted to sway people who favor legalizing recreational marijuana to vote no.
“And oh, by the way, this amendment allows [the company] to grow and sell it. But if you want to grow it in your backyard, they don’t let you do that. So what is this about? Is this really about freedom? No, it’s about them,” he said. “If you’re against marijuana generally, obviously you vote no. But even if you’re somebody that’s a little more nuanced or even if you like it, this is a bad amendment.”
Anthony Man can be reached at [email protected] and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
