Republican gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds is brushing aside calls from his Democratic opponent to open a new investigation into how the DeSantis administration used the state’s Hope Florida charity to divert millions of dollars from a Medicaid settlement into a campaign to defeat recreational marijuana.
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Campaigning at a Las Vegas Cuban Cuisine in Doral Saturday, Donalds said the administration’s financial maneuvering during the 2024 campaign season has already been looked into by the Florida House and a Tallahassee grand jury, and told reporters that it’s not an issue on voters’ minds as they prepare to elect a new governor in November.
“I’m telling you, when I travel the state of Florida, it doesn’t matter if I’m here in Doral or in Pensacola,” he said. “What people are concerned about is: How am I going to put food on the table? How am I going to keep the lights on?”
Donalds’ remarks came days after CBS News Miami published a leaked copy of a sealed January report by a Leon County grand jury that found the DeSantis administration had “misappropriated” taxpayer money when the governor’s aides modified a $67 million settlement with Medicaid contractor Centene to move $10 million into the Hope Florida Foundation.
The charity, created to support first lady Casey DeSantis’ anti-welfare program, quickly gave the money to two nonprofits, which within days donated most of the cash to an anti-marijuana political committee run by the governor’s chief of staff, James Uthmeier.
The campaign worked, and the effort to amend the Florida Constitution to create a recreational marijuana market in the state fell just short of the required 60% support.
The grand jury finished its work without recommending criminal charges, saying most the people involved in the settlement testified that they couldn’t remember who came up with the idea to change the settlement with Centene to involve the Hope Florida Foundation. The report, however, notes that Uthmeier was in a position of authority over the aides leading the negotiations.
“While we can’t prove who is responsible, we can plainly see that taxpayer money was misused for political purposes,” the grand jury report states.
Uthmeier, appointed attorney general by Gov. Ron DeSantis months before the grand jury began investigating, is on the ballot this November. So is his predecessor, Ashley Moody, whose office signed off on the agreement before DeSantis made her a U.S. senator. Both have said they did nothing wrong, with Moody adding her office did not know how the Hope Florida Foundation would spend the money.
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Former Congressman David Jolly, Donalds’ Democratic opponent, vowed this week to open a new investigation if he wins the governor’s race. He characterized the movement of funds as “money laundering.”
Some Republicans have expressed alarm about the findings in the report, which was filed under seal and withheld from the public by the courts. Sen. Rick Scott called it “deeply disturbing.”
“Money designated to help poor kids was diverted to political ads,” he told the Tampa Bay Times. “Florida families deserve accountability, not more finger pointing in Tallahassee.”
Donalds, though, said Jolly is “just playing politics,” emphasizing again that his priority was more on “affordability issues that are the true concerns of the people of Florida.” He committed to run “a transparent government.”
With Democrats hammering Hope Florida on the campaign trail, Donalds will appear Tuesday with Uthmeier and DeSantis at a Tampa event intended to unify the state’s top Republican officials following a bruising primary campaign, during which DeSantis criticized Donalds.
Donalds said Saturday that DeSantis has done a great job leading Florida, and that part of his campaign is about his promise to keep the state going in the same direction. He said Tuesday’s event is “about maintaining those wins.”
“Having the governor involved and making sure we keep Florida going in the same direction, I think it speaks well of all the work he’s done in our state,” he said.
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