Questions remain even as state's Hope Florida Foundation probe ends

Florida state lawmakers ended their investigation into the Hope Florida Foundation, an organization linked to first lady Casey DeSantis’s signature welfare assistance program known as Hope Florida, but questions about the program and the foundation remain, as she and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) chart their political future. 

The state House subcommittee investigating a $10 million donation to the charity abruptly ended its probe last week after two witnesses did not show up to testify. 

At question is whether the $10 million donation to the Hope Florida Foundation was money from a settlement agreement involving the state’s largest Medicaid contractor, Centene Corp., after Florida was overbilled for Medicaid. 

Critics say a portion of that settlement, all of which was intended to be returned to state and federal coffers, was sent to the Hope Florida Foundation and eventually ended up in the hands of political groups that campaigned against a ballot measure to legalize marijuana last fall. Ron DeSantis was among the politicians opposed to the measure’s passage. DeSantis and his allies deny the money was not from the settlement. 

The governor has also maintained the investigation was part of a “manufactured” smear campaign against him and his wife. 

“It was all political,” Ron DeSantis told reporters this week. “People smear what they fear. If Hope Florida represents a threat to their world view, they’re going to go after it.” 

Will there be a federal investigation? 

The investigation in the state House was led by state Rep. Alex Andrade (R), chair of the House Health Care Budget Subcommittee and a critic of the governor.

While the state Legislature wrapped up its investigation, many say there could be grounds for a federal investigation if Medicaid funds from the settlement with Centene made up the donation to the Hope Florida Foundation. 

DeSantis and his allies have adamantly pushed back on the notion that the funds came from the $67 million settlement with Centene, pointing to a letter from Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to Andrade, which said the $10 million given from Centene to the foundation was not Medicaid funds and was “neither illegal or illicit.”

But critics argue there are grounds for a federal investigation to determine if the money is from the Medicaid settlement. 

“I think the best avenue is probably a federal investigation because again, these were Medicaid dollars,” Andrade told The Hill last month. “AHCA that steered that $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation treated the other $57 million that they did actually receive, they treated that like Medicaid money.”

Last month, Florida media obtained a draft settlement agreement drawn up by attorneys for the state that suggested $10 million of that money was funneled through the charity connected to Hope Florida.

Following the publishing of the draft agreement, DeSantis’s press secretary Bryan Griffin called the reporting on the agreement “a coordinated hit piece.” 

“This whole article — the next in a series of coordinated hit pieces — falsely projects a plaintiff’s attorney’s aspirational assessment of a case as fact,” Griffin said. “This shady spin is why this reporter was so cagey when reaching out on this ‘story’ and wouldn’t be upfront.”

Regardless, any kind of federal inquiry appears to be unlikely at this point, given the Republican and Floridian dominance in Washington. In addition to President Trump being a Florida resident, Attorney General Pam Bondi is the former attorney general of Florida. 

What happens next in the state Legislature? 

“I know enough to know that there was a culture of deception, incompetence and a treatment of taxpayer funds as if it was their own kind of personal piggy bank,” Andrade told reporters last week. 

However, state House Speaker Daniel Perez (R), a prominent DeSantis critic, appeared to leave the door open to asking more questions regarding the case down the line. 

“At this point, all options are still on the table with Hope Florida,” Perez said last month, noting that the state House still has pending requests for documents it is seeking from other state agencies. “We don’t have the facts yet, we are not done receiving facts.”

The state House’s investigation into the case can be seen as a manifestation of this year’s rocky state legislative session. Ron DeSantis and Perez have been embroiled in a bitter rivalry going back to earlier this year, when the governor faced pushback from Perez and state Senate President Ben Albritton (R) over the governor’s calls for a special session to implement Trump’s immigration agenda.

One Florida strategist characterized Perez’s comments as sounding “more like a political threat than anything else” and noted the “war among Republicans in the state of Florida, particularly when it comes to their political aspirations.” 

How does this impact the governor’s race? 

Casey DeSantis has been mulling whether to launch her own gubernatorial bid. That could be seen as a continuation of her husband’s administration, but the first lady has created her own political brand during her time in Tallahassee. 

She has touted a number of initiatives, including the launch of Florida Cancer Connect. It followed her battle with breast cancer, which was announced in 2021. The first lady was also a regular presence on the campaign trail during the governor’s 2024 presidential bid. 

However, Casey DeSantis’s signature Hope Florida initiative has further raised her profile. Despite the scrutiny, the governor and first lady have continued to promote the initiative in recent weeks. 

This week, the governor announced that Hope Florida will begin training liaisons to be placed on campuses in various school districts in the state. The governor has also announced the organization’s liaisons will be available in state colleges and sheriffs' offices. 

Casey DeSantis said last week during a press conference that she believes there is a misunderstanding about what Hope Florida is. 

“Hope Florida is not a program. Hope Florida is an idea; Hope Florida is a philosophy. It is how can we help people in need and do better,” the first lady said. 

The first lady arguably has time to decide on a gubernatorial bid, with the GOP primary set to take place in August 2026. 

The state House investigation into the Hope Florida Foundation, which is separate from DeSantis’s welfare assistance program, has taken place as Florida’s 2026 gubernatorial primary is beginning to take shape. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) launched his campaign in March, swiftly garnering Trump’s coveted endorsement. 

When asked about the investigation this week, Donalds told The Hill there are still questions that the governor and his team need to answer. 

“The allegations from what I’ve seen are very serious. I’m going to leave all of those questions to the people who have to answer that stuff,” Donalds said. "My number one hope is, I think at this point there are a lot of questions that the governor and his team need to answer and I think they need to be forthcoming.” 

It’s unclear what impact the coverage of the investigation will have on a potential primary now that the state Legislature has wrapped its investigation. 

“With this story, I think it’s more in the political realm than it is in the legal realm. And it’s the type of stuff that gets thrown back and forth when you have a big election coming up in 2026,” said Ford O’Connell, a Florida Republican strategist.