Days after a civil rights group sued him, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday set special election dates for two legislative districts that are, or soon will be, vacant.
The executive orders scheduling elections for House District 3, represented by Rep. Joel Rudman, and Senate District 19, represented by Sen. Randy Fine, came twelve days after the ACLU of Florida sued DeSantis for waiting over a month to schedule the election dates.
"I, Ron DeSantis, as Governor of Florida...do hereby promulgate the following Executive Order[s] to take immediate effect," the documents read, declaring the special primary elections for Rudman's and Fine's districts to be on April 1. The general will be June 10.
Both Fine and Rudman, Republicans, announced their resignations shortly after President Donald Trump eyed Congressmen Mike Waltz and Matt Gaetz for his administration. Though Gaetz ultimately withdrew his cabinet nomination, both Florida men resigned from Congress, charging DeSantis with scheduling special elections for their replacements.
DeSantis did so within weeks, lending credence to the ACLU's lawsuit demanding he do the same for the state lawmakers' seats. He faced similar lawsuits in 2021 and 2023 for waiting over a month to schedule elections for state legislators, considering the average time past governors waited to announce these dates was 7.6 days.
Rudman, from Navarre, resigned his seat on Jan. 1 to pursue Gaetz's old seat in North Florida's Congressional District 1, which stretches from Escambia to Walton Counties. He faces a crowded Republican field in the Jan. 28 special primary election, including Jimmy Patronis, the Trump-endorsed Chief Financial Officer.
Fine, from Melbourne, will officially cede his seat on March 31 to run for Waltz's former seat in Congressional District 6, which oversees populous counties like Volusia and Marion. Endorsed by Trump, Fine is expected to easily win the party nomination on Jan. 28.
A likely candidate for Fine's Senate seat is current Rep. Debbie Mayfield, the Republican lawmaker who represented SD 19 until she was termed out last year.
