Joel Rudman said he felt unwelcome in a House ‘itching for a fight’ with Ron DeSantis

Former state Rep. Joel Rudman said he knew a run for Congress was a long-shot. But he also felt within hours of being sworn into a legislative term that House leadership itched for a fight with Gov. Ron DeSantis, and he wanted no part in it.

That fight appeared to unfold after DeSantis called a Special Session on immigration, which Speaker Daniel Perez quickly concluded Monday before opening another Session on the legislatively led bill.

“This was an argument waiting for an excuse,” Rudman said. “If not for immigration, they would have fought over new hours for the cafeteria.”

The Navarre Republican told Florida Politics he likely wouldn’t have run in the Special Election in Florida’s 1st Congressional District, where Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis beat Rudman on Tuesday in a Republican Primary, but the first training Session of the year in Tallahassee swayed him otherwise. For starters, he could tell right away that the House seemed primed for conflict with DeSantis.

At a Nov. 19 session only open to Republican lawmakers, held the same day as a ceremonial swearing in of representatives, Rudman said members of Perez’s leadership team stressed several things about what the House would do the next two years, and what it would not do.

First off, the House wanted to firmly establish itself as a co-equal branch of government both to the Governor’s Office and to the Florida Senate. In the latter, that meant House members expected to speak directly to Senators, not simply speak through staff. As far as the Governor, Rudman said one member of leadership said the House “would not be the Governor’s bitch.”

To Rudman, the hostility seemed startling. He considered himself a loyalist to DeSantis, the “most popular Republican Governor in America.” DeSantis’ positions on medical freedom had allowed Rudman to keep his medical license in the pandemic, the physician said.

He also was upset leadership said there should be no caucuses within the Republican caucus. Rudman hoped to see a Freedom Caucus, much like that in the U.S. House, form within the Florida House and focus on libertarian policy. While that already seemed less likely when two senior members of the House, Reps. Mike Beltran and Spencer Roach, opted against serving fourth terms in the chamber, Rudman said the leadership approach seemed chilling.

Finally, leadership told members that Representatives were not “mini-Congressman,” hinting that people using the platform to seek higher office would not have a warm relationship with leadership. That seemed odd on the day lawmakers took an oath in a chamber with former House Speaker Marco Rubio, now the nation’s Secretary of State, hanging on the wall.

“We know there are people who served in the House who went on to bigger and better things,” he said.

Rudman said at the time, he had hoped Rep. Michelle Salzman would continue a run for Congress, but already heard rumors Patronis may jump in with the endorsement of President Donald Trump. That eventually happened, prompting Salzman to drop out and back Patronis. But by that point, Rudman said he no longer had a positive feeling about what the next two years would look like in the House.

“Before that day, I never got an inkling we were itching for a fight or what we are witnessing this week,” he said. “I still love Speaker Perez, and believe he has the potential to be one of best speakers in modern era, loved and respected and certainly has support of his party. But I never saw this coming.

“I’m not sure who is advising him in this, but it puts most of the Legislature in a bad position to try and score points for the legislative body at (the) expense of a person extremely well loved not just in Florida but across the nation, Gov. DeSantis.”