Old feuds never die in Florida politics.
Daniel Perez may have moved on from being House Speaker, but Gov. Ron DeSantis hasn’t forgotten how the Miami Republican and current Ambassador to Brazil thwarted a priority during not just a regular Legislative Session but a Special as well.
“The FL Senate passed a transformational medical freedom bill that voters had been asking for, but Republicans in the Florida House couldn’t even be bothered to vote on it. A dereliction of duty and a slap in the face of the voters who expected better,” DeSantis posted to social media Wednesday, after Perez hailed President Donald Trump for an Executive Order establishing “Gold Standard Childhood Vaccine Recommendations.”
The EO reduces mandatory vaccinations to 11 diseases rather than 18. Inoculations are required for measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type B, pneumococcal disease, human papillomavirus, and varicella. It also splits the MMR shots into three separate visits.
“Thank you, President Trump, for standing up for parents and putting our children’s health first. Protecting our kids from dangerous diseases while avoiding unnecessary over-vaccination is a common-sense approach worth supporting,” Perez said.
During April’s Special Session, Perez said the bill eliminating vaccine mandates for students was dead in the House, putting a halt to the legislation.
“I’ve spoken with many members that have come to see me on these issues, and I feel confident that the position of this body on not moving on either of those issues was the right issue,” Perez told journalists at the time.
DeSantis immediately attacked the House on X.
“Voters elected Republicans to protect freedom against both the Big Tech cartel and the medical industrial complex. Yet, when given the chance to deliver for their constituents, not a single Republican House member could even be bothered to file a bill. Typical political shenanigans,” the Governor said.
In explaining the decision to reporters, Perez pointed out that the vaccine mandate removal had previously failed during the Regular Session — both passed in the Senate before dying in the House.
“We were fairly clear on our position during Session and neither of these bills moved through the House and the Committee process,” Perez said at the time.
Florida has required public schoolchildren to get vaccinated for polio, chicken pox and other childhood diseases for decades, Perez said.
On the bill to eliminate those vaccine requirements, “that was something that I was uncomfortable with,” Perez said.
DeSantis took issue with Perez refusing to hear “medical freedom” legislation as well as the so-called “AI Bill of Rights” and kept talking about it weeks after the call was rebuffed. He said that members were told “don’t file on this,” giving Perez a pretext not to hear the measures passed by the Senate in the Regular Session.
“He is not governing in the best interests of the people of the state of Florida. He has a personal agenda. He has other things that he’s concerned about,” DeSantis said of Perez in May.
He said the House didn’t work constructively with him.
“Look at the six years leading up to this. We were more productive than any time in the history of the state of Florida legislatively. And yeah, part of it was me setting the agenda, but part of it was you had other people leading that chamber who wanted to put big points on the board and took pride in that we were leading on all these different issues for Floridians. That has just changed over the last year-plus,” DeSantis said.
Perez said DeSantis was prone to “temper tantrums,” saying he was “a Governor that is speaking one way and acting in a completely different way.”
In another bone of contention, Perez also took issue this Spring with First Lady Casey DeSantis’ charity, Hope Florida, suggesting the unfolding scandal about the $10 million that Centene gave the charity — that ultimately ended up in a political committee helmed by DeSantis’ former Chief of Staff and current Attorney General James Uthmeier — drove the House toward independence from the administration in a way previous Speakers chose not to go
DeSantis called the House probe into the charity a “total flop,” a “hoax” and a “manufactured fraud.” But the House probe had ramifications, closing the door on a potential Casey DeSantis run for Governor and providing grist for the Senate campaign of Alex Vindman as he looks to upset former Attorney General and current Senator Ashley Moody this fall, assuming he wins the nomination.
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Gabrielle Russon contributed reporting.
A.G. Gancarski has been the Northeast Florida correspondent for Florida Politics since 2014. His work also can be seen in the Washington Post, the New York Post, the Washington Times, and National Review, among other publications. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski
August 12, 2026 at 9:38 pm
I agree with DeSantis. He is an embarrassment to the state of Florida. DeSantis that is.
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