A.G. Gancarski
First Lady Casey DeSantis is battling back against a persistent narrative that the Hope Florida Foundation shifted $10 million of Medicaid settlement money for political purposes.
But she’s somewhat less committal on the question of what her next political move will be.
“It’s just really disheartening and very sad, but not surprising, to see these slanderous false accusations hurled at Hope Florida in an attempt, really, to undermine all of the meaningful progress that we’ve made on behalf of so many families across the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.
“Floridians all across the state … don’t care about someone’s personal agenda … don’t care about somebody’s political calculations.”
Striking a defiant pose, the First Lady said “we are not going to waver on our commitment at all.”
“We are not going to be dissuaded by the critics who have been captivated by willful ignorance, and we will not allow any petty politics to drown out the voices of families who have told us over and over for the first time they actually feel a sense of hope.”
DeSantis continues to stay in the public eye as doubts mount about her running for Governor in 2026. But her Wednesday comments sidestepped the actual controversy surrounding the Hope Florida Foundation, the charitable arm of an organization run by the First Lady to connect Floridians in need to various services.
At issue is a $10 million donation from Centene, Florida’s largest Medicaid contractor, stemming from a 2023 settlement with the state for $67 million as a result of overbilling. Centene wired $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation as part of that settlement.
That money, which Gov. Ron DeSantis famously called a “cherry on top,” was then sent out by the Foundation and split between Save Our Society from Drugs and Secure Florida’s Future.
Those groups then provided millions into the campaign to oppose a statewide amendment seeking to legalize recreational marijuana, which the Governor fiercely advocated against. The Governor’s then-Chief of Staff James Uthmeier chaired the anti-pot political committee, Keep Florida Clean, that advocated against Amendment 3 along with the Republican Party of Florida.
On Wednesday, the Governor again defended the routing of money to the political committee via pass through accounts.
“Anything that has gone has gone to fulfill the Hope Florida mission,” Gov. DeSantis said, saying that people “with political agendas” and “axes to grind” were the ones pushing “intentionally fraudulent and contrived” narratives to “obliquely hit the First Lady even though she wasn’t involved” in the Agency for Health Care Administration settlement agreement.
Wednesday’s roundtable was scheduled just hours after a major newspaper suggested Casey DeSantis might not run for Governor after all, and the First Lady’s comments on both Hope Florida and her potential campaign could be seen as an attempt to stabilize the wavering market for her political future.
” I get why this is a big conversation, but I will also say, it’s more than a year away from qualifying,” the First Lady said, after lauding the Governor as a “steely eyed missile man” and noting that people were “very concerned” about a future without Ron DeSantis in the Governor’s Mansion.
The Governor chimed in, talking about battles against COVID and Disney.
They followed up on an official source rebuking the claims that DeSantis 2026 is done.
“More anonymous political quarterbacking from unnamed sources? There’s nothing changed or new to report at this time. These sound like bad ‘sources’ who just want to see their names in print,” said DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin to the Miami Herald.
