Lilian Rodríguez-Baz: Armchair legal professionals confirmed improper once more — DeSantis doesn’t need to resign to run for POTUS – Florida Politics

Ever since Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cruised to re-election, the prospect of a DeSantis presidential candidacy has been thrilling many conservatives.

However additionally it is starting to grate on those that aren’t fairly but “Prepared for Ron.”

These days, the DeSantis detractors have been busy selling one wildly inaccurate claim, specifically that he can’t run for President in 2024 except he fingers in his resignation as Florida Governor. This concept is as deceptive as it’s harmful, and if left unchecked, it might price Republicans the subsequent election.

As a lawyer, I look to the regulation, and on this level, the regulation is crystal-clear on its face: State officeholders don’t must stop their jobs in an effort to run for federal workplace — whether or not it’s the Home, Senate, or presidency. Florida Statute Section 99.012, which governs this difficulty, has two related components: Sub-sections (2) and (3). These wrongly claiming DeSantis must resign are enjoying authorized gymnastics by improperly conflating the 2 sub-sections.

Sub-section (2) is simple. It supplies, in plain English, that an individual can’t qualify as a “candidate” (e.g., be on the poll) for 2 workplaces on the similar time, together with native, state, and federal workplaces.

This is the reason Sen. Marco Rubio was unable to run for each President and U.S. Senate in 2016. As an alternative, he needed to wait till the tip of his presidential marketing campaign to restart his Senate run. Not like Rubio, nevertheless, this situation is completely inapplicable to DeSantis given that he’s the sitting Governor of Florida and would, due to this fact, not be a “candidate” for 2 workplaces if he runs for President.

In the meantime, sub-section (3), which applies to DeSantis, makes it clear that an “officer” (as outlined by the Statute) can’t be the holder of a state-level or decrease workplace whereas operating for one more state or decrease place with out resigning.

Nonetheless, the Florida Legislature particularly and deliberately eliminated the phrase “federal” from the checklist of workplaces implicated on this part.

In different phrases, there isn’t any regulation that stops DeSantis from holding the workplace of Governor of Florida whereas operating for president on the similar time. This isn’t even speculative: In 2018, then-Gov. Rick Scott didn’t need to “resign to run” — and win — his Senate seat. Beneath the terribly flawed interpretation now being promoted, Scott’s victory merely couldn’t have occurred.

Anti-DeSantis partisans, with their quick reminiscences, are so determined to undermine the person poised to win the White Home in 2024 (see: every poll) that they may resort to shoddy lawyering. Unsurprisingly, these accusing DeSantis of trying to vary the regulation in his favor, are the very ones re-writing clear legislative directives in an effort to mislead the general public.

Thankfully for America, subpar lawyering doesn’t alter actuality. And the fact is that this: DeSantis can run in 2024 (with out resigning), our group will probably be instrumental in persuading him to take action, and his in style mandate will give Republicans their finest probability at successful the presidency.

When you don’t help DeSantis as a result of his state’s economic system is booming, or as a result of he takes on “woke” politics (and wins), and appeals to Individuals throughout the socioeconomic spectrum, then by all means don’t help him. When you’re bored with all that precise successful, there’s in all probability a shedding candidate for you. However misrepresenting the regulation to play politics is just a boundary we should always not cross.

The tens of millions of Individuals who want to see their nation succeed beneath actual management are prepared for Ron DeSantis, each time he’s.

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Lilian Rodríguez-Baz is a founder and authorized counsel for Prepared for Ron PAC.

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