Where Does Ron DeSantis Go Next?

R on DeSantis has been one of the most consequential governors in living memory, but term limits compel him to retire from office after this year. Turning 48 this fall, he’ll leave office still young and vigorous enough to have a future in politics. But right now, that future is uncertain. What will his next step be? DeSantis is being cagey.

The conventional wisdom, for much of 2025, was that DeSantis was preparing to hand off his legacy to his sharp, telegenic wife, Casey. That was certainly the mood of the pair’s joint appearances and the governor’s frequent references to needing to continue his work. That would have put DeSantis in the power-behind-the-throne role, and between conflicts of interest and the family’s small children, having his wife as the governor of the nation’s third-largest state would probably have complicated any effort on his part to either seek national office (elected or appointed) or make significant money in the private sector.

There’s still time for Casey to join the primary on August 18. But the political time is running short. Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, a DeSantis ally, ended a long delay by jumping into the race in mid-January, a step suggesting that he was waiting to see what Florida’s first lady would do and concluded that he no longer needed to defer to her. The likely Trump-backed candidate, Congressman Byron Donalds, currently enjoys a commanding lead in the polls and a huge preponderance of endorsements. DeSantis has yet to endorse Collins or anyone else, and for now, he’s once again playing his cards close to the vest, telling podcaster Julio Rosas, “I have gotten involved in some primaries, but it’s usually when there’s a candidate who’s speaking my language, that I’m really excited to get behind. And so if that happens, then people will know, if I make that judgment. If it’s not, then, you know, it just is what it is.”

For now, Casey DeSantis is spending her time on health and nutrition initiatives that seem to position her to pitch to the “MAHA” crowd.

Assuming she is not going to run, it’s possible that floating a Casey DeSantis campaign was just a head-fake to keep people in Tallahassee wondering if DeSantis would still be in power — and still a dangerous man to cross — after the lame-duck final two years of his governorship. It’s possible that Mrs. DeSantis just decided, as a recent cancer survivor with young kids, that the campaign wasn’t worth it. But it’s also possible that the extended trial balloon ended with the conclusion that it wasn’t worth it for any number of reasons.

With his many and important status quo–challenging policy victories and bare-knuckles political stances — including the most high-profile bid to replace Donald Trump as the head of the party — DeSantis has earned many rivals and enemies. These run the gamut across the Florida and national press, Democrats, corporate America, Florida academia, MAGA Republicans, former Florida Republican political consultants, and go-along-get-along Republicans alike. Many of these spent 2025 leaning hard into attacking Casey DeSantis over her signature initiative, Hope Florida, which aims to connect people in need with private and community-based as well as governmental resources. A $67 million overbilling settlement by the state in 2024 with Centene Corporation, Florida’s biggest Medicaid contractor, included $10 million routed to the Hope Florida Foundation, a private nonprofit involved in the public initiative. The grounds for attack have shifted repeatedly: The headline-grabbing claim was that this amounted to the DeSantis administration defrauding Medicaid, but the DeSantis team has argued that the settlement fully compensated Medicaid, so the federal program would have no say in what the state did with its own share of the money. There were also complaints that, money being fungible, the settlement could be connected to Hope Florida’s own political donations during the 2024 elections. Thus far, nothing much has come of all this except some left-wing talking points (such as Maxwell Frost trying to use it at a hearing to distract from widespread programs fraud in Minnesota) and the revelation of some paperwork and record-keeping deficiencies at Hope Florida, but it was well-timed to drain support and enthusiasm for a Casey DeSantis campaign, perhaps even from the prospective candidate herself.

If Casey isn’t running and the power-behind-the-throne option is off the table, that leaves DeSantis with six possible paths forward for a retiring governor who isn’t old enough to be put out to pasture:

First, he could run for president again. His 2024 campaign suffered from both some poor choices and his lack of a big, compelling personality, but in retrospect, it was also probably doomed from the outset by facing Trump, especially once Republicans rallied against anti-Trump lawfare. Still, there are plenty of examples of failed presidential candidates who went on later to win the nomination (including Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Al Gore, and Bob Dole); some went on to win the presidency (including Joe Biden, George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, and Richard Nixon). Since 1968, only three Republican nominees won it on their first try: one (Gerald Ford) was already president, one (George W. Bush) was the son of the most recent Republican president, and the third (Trump) had run a brief third-party campaign before and was one of America’s most famous men for 35 years before running.

In 2028, JD Vance has the pole position, and there are structural reasons for other Republicans to wait for 2032. At 54 in 2032, DeSantis would still be prime age to run, but he’d also be out of office for six years. While he may yet have his eye on that prize, it demands that he find something else to do in the interim if he’s not planning to run again in 2028.

Second, DeSantis could run for the Senate or the House. That’s what his predecessor, Rick Scott, did. But Scott’s still holding one of Florida’s Senate seats, and if DeSantis appointee Ashley Moody is reelected this fall, there would be nowhere for him to run. DeSantis has already served in the House and didn’t much enjoy Congress, which has only gotten more impotent since then.

Third, DeSantis could seek a job in the Trump administration. Joining the current administration in 2027 would almost certainly preclude a 2028 presidential bid. It would also require a bit more hatchet-burying between the Trump and DeSantis camps (recall that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was a former DeSantis aide who fell out with him and switched sides to help run Trump’s presidential race). A guy with DeSantis’s personality would be ill-suited for a role inside the White House, and a guy with his stature would probably not settle for a cabinet post unless it was one of the big six: State, Defense, Justice, Treasury, Homeland Security, or Health and Human Services.

It’s unlikely, for various reasons, that there will be an opening soon at State, Treasury, or HHS. Defense might be a more logical place for the Navy veteran DeSantis (there were trial balloons in that direction when Pete Hegseth’s nomination appeared to be struggling), but after a rocky start, Hegseth appears to be on sounder footing with the White House these days. One cannot say the same for Pam Bondi or Kristi Noem. If Trump reaches the point of deciding to cut bait on one or both of them by the end of this year and prefers a strong outside choice to promoting an insider such as Tom Homan or Todd Blanche, the conditions might be ripe for DeSantis to come inside the Trump tent. The chance to exercise power and make a difference at the national level may appeal to him enough to take on the risk. Whether it would be wise to take a cabinet post in the final two years of the Trump term, given how badly things so often end for people who join Trump, is another question.

Fourth, DeSantis could get a media gig. But that’s a very bad fit for his skillset, which is all about doing things; while DeSantis is a good talk show guest so long as he’s explaining and defending his own record or arguing particular controversies, he just doesn’t have the personality for hosting a TV or radio show or a podcast.

Fifth, DeSantis could just go make some money. That’s probably a tempting prospect for a man with a family who’s been in the public sector for almost the entire time since he left law school, from the Navy to Congress to the governorship. But there are also pitfalls in private-sector jobs if you expect to return to public life — ask his predecessor Jeb Bush about working at Lehman Brothers, or General James Mattis about being on the board of Theranos.

Sixth, that leaves the option of a temporary landing space: run a think tank, give speeches for money, stay in the public eye by giving interviews, or write a book. If that’s where DeSantis goes next, consider it a sign that he’s still working out the next step.