Q&A – About Daniel Perez & How Florida Selects a House Speaker - Driven By Braman Motorcars
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Today’s Entry: Hi Brian, Governor DeSantis has repeatedly referenced the House rebellion against his agenda as being led by RINOs. Is Daniel Perez a RINO? Also how is it that Florida selects a House speaker? If he is a RINO isn’t that the fault of other Republicans for allowing him to lead? I enjoy listening, it’s a good use of time as I always learn something.
Bottom Line: I’m happy to hear it and to address these questions. I’m going to take your second question first, as it’s the most straight forward. When it comes to the U.S. House of Representatives most people who’ve paid attention to what goes on in congress get it (especially after the drama of electing House speakers in recent years). Every member of the House has a vote, and the House votes on a speaker until someone has a majority of the votes. Florida’s process for arriving at a state house speaker is surprisingly similar. It just doesn’t tend to get much attention. It works like this...
Step 1: Nomination within Party Caucus: The selection begins within the majority party's caucus. Members of the majority party nominate candidates for Speaker during a closed caucus meeting often years in advance for planning purposes.
Step 2: Caucus Vote: The majority party caucus holds a vote to choose its nominee for Speaker. The candidate who secures the most votes wins the nomination.
Step 3: Formal Election by the Full House: During the organizational session of the Florida House, which is held after general elections every two years, the full House votes to elect the Speaker with the person receiving the majority vote becoming speaker. The nominee of the majority caucus has won every vote in Florida’s history.
Just as many Floridians have recently seen, Florida’s House Speaker has significant influence over the House. This includes controlling committee assignments, setting legislative agendas, and floor debates. Daniel Perez was nominated Speaker-designate in September of 2023 and elected House speaker on November 19th of last year with unanimous support.
Historically there have been significant dividing lines between the state house and governor during times of split party leadership, however what we’re seeing right now is the most public division between a governor and house speaker of the same party. So, about Daniel Perez and whether he’s a ‘RINO’.
The Miami Republican was first elected to the Florida House in 2016 having won his district with bigger margins in each election victory. Over the course of his legislative career Perez has amassed scores with conservative organizations that might provide a bit of insight into Perez’s ideological bend in comparison to his peers and the governor.
The American Conservative Union has given Perez a lifetime score of 90%. Governor DeSantis’s lifetime score with the ACU is 99% (with DeSantis having been ranked as the most conservative member of congress prior to his run for governor of Florida). What’s known as the “Florida Legislative Scorecard” maintained by The Freedom Index currently ranks Speaker Perez with a 79 rating (they don’t provide a rating for the governor). Perez’s rating is lower than prior House Speaker Paul Renner’s score and ranks 25th overall in the Florida legislature. What these suggest is that Perez’s record is about middle of the road as far as Florida’s Republicans go, while being less conservative than his predecessor and the governor, he’s at odds with. The term RINO is subjective. On that note if you view the average elected Republican in Florida to be a RINO, he would probably qualify. If you don’t, he probably wouldn’t. Still, while there may have been hints that he’s not as inclined to govern as conservatively as we’ve seen, there wasn’t a glaring indication that he’d become a key DeSantis adversary.
I suspect that what’s primarily at play is that Perez, who’s only 37, is politically ambitious. His time as Florida House Speaker is short, only two years, and it coincides with Governor DeSantis’s final two years as governor. Rather than serving to feed DeSantis’s agenda as his predecessors have done, he has his own ideas and agenda he’d like to get done. In the process, taking on DeSantis helps him gain notoriety, which he may potentially find useful too.
I’m not one to wade into conjecture but there are certain knowns that he’s wanted to take back perceived power from the governor to proceed with his own agenda. That was clear with the stunt that he pulled in ending DeSantis’s special session only to immediately call his own and it’s been clear based on the accounts of sources I’ve heard from legislators that he’s used his influence to attempt to exact his political outcomes that are at odds with the DeSantis in the House (including one Panhandle Republican who won reelection resigning before the session because he didn’t agree with Perez’s agenda or tactics).
So, to sum it all up, Perez’s record suggests he’s a middle of the road Republican by Florida’s standards who appears to be politically ambitious. That does stand in contrast with a governor who is one of the most conservative politicians in the country – not just this state – and that is also politically ambitious.