As a rule, Florida’s lieutenant governors usually make little news, but that could change as Gov. Ron DeSantis continues to traverse the country in his bid to become president in 2024.
Depending on how successful DeSantis is in his attempt to win the Republican nomination for the White House, the opportunity exists for Lt. Gov. Jeanette Nuñez to emerge as a significant actor in Florida’s governance, setting her up to perhaps make history and become the first woman and first Cuban-American to serve as governor in the Sunshine State.
“I think she would make an amazing governor if [DeSantis] is in fact elected to be president of the United States,” says Deb Tamargo, the former president of the Florida Federation of Republican Women. “She’s well respected. She’s got an amazing reputation. She’s well spoken, she’s well educated and experienced in all of the issues. She would have no problem running the state of Florida.”
That said, Democrats and other progressives may not feel the same way.
Over the years, Democratic women have tried to win the Governor’s Mansion — with no success.
In 2010, Alex Sink, the state’s Chief Financial Officer at the time, easily won the party’s primary election but ultimately lost by a single point against Rick Scott, who went on to serve two terms as governor and is now a U.S. senator.
In addition, former Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, now chair of the Florida Democratic Party, had hoped to break the state’s glass ceiling in Tallahassee but lost in the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2022. (A spokesperson for the Florida Democratic Party said Fried did not want to comment for this story.)
Nuñez, who turned 51 earlier this week and has already made history by becoming the highest-ranking Latina elected official in Florida, has by all measures performed well in her role as DeSantis’ second in command, ready to continue the governor’s policies if his absences from Tallahassee become more apparent in the coming months.
And if DeSantis becomes president in January 2025 and Nuñez takes over in Tallahassee at that time, she would be the unofficial incumbent going into the governor’s race in 2026, with her chances in that election likely getting a huge boost.
The daughter of Cuban exiles who was born and raised in Miami (Nuñez told the Associated Press in 2020 that her father left Havana after learning he could face house arrest for politically opposing Fidel Castro), she served for eight years in the Florida House before being selected by DeSantis to serve as his running mate in 2018.
“She was very effective at generating the Hispanic votes for DeSantis at a time when he really needed it,” says Susan MacManus, political science professor emerita at University of South Florida.
What does Nuñez do?
Although she doesn’t get a lot of publicity, Nuñez has been given a portfolio larger than what many other Florida lieutenant governors have had to work with: She oversees the Florida Department of Health (she worked in the hospital industry for years before being named Lt. Gov.), serves as the chair of both Space Florida and the state’s Cybersecurity Task Force, and has been a frequent voice for the DeSantis administration making cable hits on Fox News, Fox News Business, Newsmax, as well as on local news outlets throughout the state.
With DeSantis likely to be an absentee governor for significant stretches of time — at least through next January, when the Republican presidential caucuses and primaries commence — Nuñez could become a much more public presence in Florida government. In turn, that could boost her visibility for a potential 2026 run for governor.
“I’ll probably look to be more involved in the legislative priorities as we get those underway, but again nothing is going to change from the standpoint of all will be well in Florida, nobody should panic, the governor is still very focused on Florida,” Nuñez recently told E.W.Scripps television reporter Forrest Saunders. (The Phoenix’s requests to interview Nuñez did not receive a response).
“Floridians should rest in knowing that he has been confident in me, and he’s selected me to be his lieutenant governor not once but twice, and so I think that they should also be confident in knowing that I have their best interests at heart as well.”
Opinions vary
Will Nuñez be able to seize the Governor’s Mansion and become more prominent in media coverage in Florida?
Opinions vary.
“She should take advantage of the opportunity if she’s even looking at 2026,” says April Schiff, a longtime Republican political strategist and a Hillsborough County committeewoman. “She just has to be out more in the public, speaking out on issues and taking advantage of his absence and her ability to weigh in on issues of legislation and where things are going in the state.”
But Tara Newsom, a professor of political science at St. Petersburg College, says that while she initially thought that DeSantis’ run for president could present a bigger platform for Nuñez, her opinion changed after the Legislature clarified in an elections bill this year that the governor would not have to resign to run for president.
“Now that the resign to run law has been overturned, he’s going to use Florida and his desire to make Florida’s blueprint America’s blueprint as a major component of his national campaign,” she says. “So, remember the lieutenant governor has no job description in the state of Florida. She has no reach. So, I’m not so sure she’s going to get any play.”
During her time in the state House, Nuñez voted with the majority of her GOP colleagues on issues such as allowing people with concealed weapons permits to openly carry a firearm (better known as “open carry”), as well as allowing for the open carrying of a concealed weapon or firearm on a college or university campus. Both measures were approved in the state House but died in the Senate. In 2015 she joined the majority of House Republicans in opposing an alternative to Medicaid expansion.
In 2014 she sponsored the measure in the House to allow for in-state tuition rates for undocumented students and fought back efforts to repeal the measure in the lead-up to the 2017 legislative session — but then notably reversed herself earlier this year after it became part of the package of anti-illegal immigration measures called for by Gov. DeSantis. (While the controversial bill was signed into law last month, the in-state tuition provision was not included).
That position drew condemnation from Democratic groups such as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in Washington, which wrote in a statement in April, “It is also disappointing to see Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez turn her back on immigrants and support the elimination of in-state college tuition for undocumented students and DACA recipients despite once sponsoring the bill when she was in the Florida House.”
Nuñez supported the 2014 bill that authorized certain non-citizens to be admitted to the Florida Bar, a measure that was included as part of the immigration bill.
What about Trump?
She was in the “Never Trump” camp before she became a supporter of the former president, speaking for his re-election at the Republican National Convention in 2020.
But she’s firmly behind DeSantis’ presidential candidacy in 2024, calling him “a great governor and an even better man” in an endorsement she tweeted last month.
“I think she will have more visibility over the next year, but not in a high-profile way,” says Brad Coker, the pollster behind Mason Dixon Polling & Strategy.
“DeSantis got most of his priority issues addressed during this year’s legislative session, so there’s not much meat on the bone to pick right now,” he says. “But if something major develops, DeSantis will be only a plane ride away. Hard to score points only via ceremonial functions. Her best opportunity would be to find a niche issue that doesn’t conflict with the DeSantis agenda and try to spin that into something that generates media coverage.”
Democrats strongly opposed to Gov. DeSantis’ agenda aren’t about to cut much slack to Nuñez.
Carolina Ampudia, president of the Progressive Caucus of Broward County, was part of a group that protested Nuñez earlier this week when she visited an elementary school in Doral. “I’m not expecting really great things for her,” she said. “My being at that protest was to remind her that she’s not welcome as long as she keeps on attacking our people.” Ampudia adds that her reversal on the in-state tuition issue “tells you a lot about her convictions.”
For sure, Nuñez would be among the top tier Republican possibilities for governor in 2026, but there could be other candidates as well, such as Attorney General Ashley Moody, CFO Jimmy Patronis, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, and U.S. Reps. Matt Gaetz and Byron Donalds.
“If [DeSantis] becomes president and leaves, she’s going to be governor 10 ten years,” St. Petersburg political strategist Barry Edwards predicts, noting that then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat from New York, took over in August 2021 when Gov. Andrew Cuomo resigned amid sexual harassment allegations. In 2022, Hochul ended up winning a full term.
According to the New York governor’s website, “Kathy Hochul is the 57th and first female governor of New York State.”
This article originally appeared in florida phoenix