Here's where $10 million donation to DeSantis' Hope Florida effort went [View all]
The money to the Hope Florida Foundation went to two organizations that later gave to a political committee, records show.
Weeks after the DeSantis administration steered $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to a charity spearheaded by the first lady, the Hope Florida Foundation sent $5 million apiece to two separate organizations that gave millions to a political committee waging an anti-marijuana campaign championed by the governor.
The payments, laid out in campaign finance records and documents released to the Times/Herald by the foundation on Friday, raise questions about whether the DeSantis administration diverted Medicaid dollars through Casey DeSantis’ key initiative to a political campaign.
The $10 million — deriving from a settlement with Centene, the state’s largest Medicaid contractor — was split evenly between Secure Florida’s Future, run by the Florida Chamber of Commerce, and Save Our Society from Drugs, a drug-prevention nonprofit.
The committees sent $8.5 million that October to Keep Florida Clean, a political committee controlled by Ron DeSantis’ then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier. The committee was created to defeat Amendment 3, the failed ballot initiative that tried to legalize recreational marijuana.
https://www.tampabay.com/news/florida-politics/2025/04/11/desantis-charity-hope-florida-casey-uthmeier-legislature/
Smells like Casey DeSantis' "charity" was set up to funnel Florida taxpayer money to the Republican Party and to pay for anti-amendment initiatives. DeSantis should be forced to answer for this abuse of funding.