Ron DeSantis PAC took $250,000 from Florida Power & Light after record-setting rate hike

Florida in Five: Five stories to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

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Welcome to another installment of Florida in Five: Five* stories you need to read from the past week in Florida politics.

Late last year, a regulatory board in Tallahassee appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis gave Florida Power & Light permission to raise electricity rates by roughly $7 billion over the next four years — a record-setting rate hike that allows the monopoly power company to pocket the highest profit margin in the country outside of Alaska.

A month later, FPL’s parent corporation gave Ron DeSantis a quarter of a million dollars.

The $250,000 donation from an affiliate of NextEra Energy Inc. didn’t go directly to the governor. It was instead channeled through “Restore Our Nation,” a federal political action committee that was established during DeSantis’ ill-fated 2024 presidential campaign. DeSantis strategists have since retooled the super PAC and have been using it to attack Republican lawmakers who cross the governor, undermine an investigation into the Hope Florida money-laundering scandal, and hawk “Alligator Alcatraz” merch.

Florida Power & Light isn’t the only big donor with business before the DeSantis administration that has been pumping money into “RON PAC.”

In October, for instance, federal records show that the Mosaic Co., the phosphate mining and fertilizer manufacturing giant, gave a $50,000 gift to the DeSantis PAC. The donation came the week after a bill was filed in the Florida Legislature that would make it harder to sue Mosaic over radioactive contamination left behind on former phosphate mines.

That mining liability legislation — which records obtained by Seeking Rents show was originally written by lobbyists for Mosaic — passed the GOP-controlled Legislature last month.

Which means Ron DeSantis must now decide whether to sign or veto it.

And in December, the DeSantis super PAC took $100,000 from the real-estate investor behind the so-called “Blue Ribbon Projects” bill — an unprecedented piece of legislation that would have enabled owners of giant tracts of rural land to build city-sized developments without any meaningful input from the people who live in the surrounding community or their local elected officials.

The $100,000 donation came from Jax-Palatka Farms LLC, an obscure company that showered hundreds of thousands of dollars on Florida politicians just before the start of the Legislature’s 2026 session.

A Seeking Rents investigation earlier this year found that Jax-Palatka Farms is one of more than a dozen land-owning entities controlled by executives at a multibillion-dollar investment firm in New York that have quietly acquired more than 80,000 acres of rural land across north Florida. Seeking Rents also revealed that executives at that same New York firm were behind a company that hired nearly 20 lobbyists in Tallahassee to push the Blue Ribbon Projects bill.

The legislation ultimately failed to pass after a tense showdown on the floor of the Florida Senate. But it may be revived again soon.

*To paraphrase Barbossa, five is more what you’d call a guideline than an actual rule.

Billionaires give back…to themselves

Florida’s Billionaires Want More Private Schools. So They’re Building Their Own. (Wall Street Journal) ($)

DeSantis is denying health insurance for kids while legislators twiddle their thumbs

Florida drops KidCare lawsuit, but expansion hasn’t happened (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

See also: Florida stalls as 42,000 Kids wait for affordable healthcare (Central Florida Public media)

See also: DeSantis administration gets pushback for its child health policies (Florida Phoenix)

See also: Florida sits on millions in unspent funds for disability care while thousands wait (Fox 13 News)

Stories to watch

Pollution Persists in the Florida Everglades Despite 40-Year Restoration Effort, Report Says (Inside Climate News)

See also: New Trump rules may fast-track Florida’s ‘anti-woke’ college accreditor (Miami Herald) ($)

See also: In Tampa, Uthmeier faces critical inquiries before bipartisan Tiger Bay crowd (Tampa Bay Times) ($)

‘She was moved to Slide Insurance’

Florida homeowners face massive insurance premium hikes after forced off Citizens (Tampa Bay 28)

Blame Danny Perez and the developer lobby

Developer-backed Florida law continues to hamstring local planning (USA Today Network – Florida) ($)

See also: Meet the Orange County woman fighting sprawl and DeSantis administration (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

Perspectives

The high cost of corporate cash in politics (South Florida Sun-Sentinel) ($)

Florida lawmakers exempted themselves from stock-trading crackdown (Orlando Sentinel) ($)

Slipshod investigation of famous Florida eagle’s death ruffles feathers (Florida Phoenix)

Miami showed up. Now let’s build what it deserves: the northeast rail (Miami Herald)