Gov. Ron DeSantis uses last state-of-state address to tout Florida's accomplishments

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis used his final state-of-the-state address Tuesday to tout his accomplishments during his nearly eight years in office, while also signaling that there is lots more he wants to get done before he leaves office next January.

“I have a lot more in the tank but you guys only have 60 days so we better get on with it,” DeSantis told a joint session of the Legislature on the opening day of its regular session.

The address — which clocked in at under 30 minutes and was short on details and long on rhetoric — had more of the feel of a stump speech than an outline of his legislative goals, however. He did not enumerate specific legislation he wants to see passed this session, other than noting he wants to see some form of property tax relief.

DeSantis didn’t mention redistricting, a hot-button national issue that will be the subject of a four-day special session he called for April 20-24 — just over a month after the regular session is scheduled to end March 13. The House has appointed a select committee on redistricting to discuss the issue, but the Senate has no counterpart.

And he avoided mentioning last year’s contentious battles with lawmakers over key policy goals, including immigration enforcement, property and sales tax relief, the state budget, condo safety and hemp regulation.

Instead, the governor’s address cataloged many familiar themes and topics from his stump speeches when he ran for president before crashing and burning at the Iowa Republican caucus two years ago. He referred to the 250th anniversary of the United States and peppered his speech with quotes from Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Calvin Coolidge.

“Florida proved freedom can be maintained and opportunity can be expanded,” he said, adding that the state’s economic success and fiscal responsibility outshine states run by Democratic administrations. “Results are what matters the most, and we, more than any other state, have delivered those big results.”

Shortly after he finished, State Rep. Angie Nixon, the Jacksonville Democrat chosen to respond on behalf of her party, said the DeSantis speech “described a Florida that exists only in his press releases and doesn’t reflect the reality most Floridians are dealing with,” including “sky-high rent, doubled insurance rates, and childcare costs that exceed monthly incomes.”

Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, touched on last session’s controversies lightly during his opening-day remarks, focusing more on what he perceived as a positive result for Floridians and claiming to have a hands-off style of leadership.

“I’m not the King of the Senate,” Albritton said. “Collaboration and communication are the driving forces here.”

But House Speaker Danny Perez leaned into last year’s spats, noting that the House found its voice in 2025, “and used it with resounding clarity” to push its own immigration reforms, budget and tax proposals and an investigation into the Hope Florida charity, a pet project of the governor that is under a criminal grand jury investigation.

“We stood firm on our principles, and we insisted on our independence,” Perez said. “We learned lessons along the way. We learned that words without truth have no meaning. We learned that actions without humility lack consequence.”

During his time at the podium, DeSantis cataloged successes. He mentioned tripling the state’s rainy day fund, doubling its budget reserves and retiring almost half of the taxpayer-supported debt. He also mentioned the state’s Everglades restoration program, the $6 billion it provided to raise the starting salary for teachers, and its participation in President Donald Trump’s beefed up immigration enforcement efforts.

He did not mention that overall teacher pay is ranked last in the nation.

He also said that Florida also ranks as one of the lowest, if not the lowest, state in government per capita spending and has trimmed its government workforce to the bone.

At the same time, he said, Florida has delivered huge tax breaks on diapers, disaster supplies, guns and ammo, and business rental tax. And he said the state has done much to stabilize its property insurance market, which was on the brink of failing after years of devastating hurricanes and litigation over claims.

He also touted the expansion of school choice options. “Today we have universal school choice,” he said, referring to a controversial policy that opened school vouchers to parents who can afford private school for their children.

He reiterated the fight against so-called woke ideology in both K-12 and secondary education, the fight against gender ideology, the battle to prohibit “boys in girls sports,” and other culture wars policies that win support from the MAGA base.

And he harkened back to the COVID-19 pandemic to tout the so-called medical freedom agenda that emerged, including rules preventing masking and vaccine mandates, banning discrimination based on vaccine status and reducing the number of required vaccinations for school children.

He did acknowledge that “many great ideas” have already been filed in the Legislature this session, including bills to place further restrictions on DEI program and block “the creep of Sharia law,” but provided few specifics on what he wanted passed in the next 60 days.

“My message is simple. Get the bills to my desk, and in the Spirit of 1776 I am happy to put my John Hancock on those pieces of legislation,” he said.

Nixon said DeSantis was not seeing the reality of many Floridians’ lives. “It takes a rare form of delusion and self-importance for DeSantis to stand up there and celebrate the economy and Florida’s ‘savings’ when many Floridians can’t make ends meet or afford to eat.”

The real state of Florida, she added, is one of “underfunded public schools, overextended nurses, and seniors crushed by this affordability crisis right along with the rest of us.”

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