Back to the swamp for Ron DeSantis… (just not the one he thought he would be in!): Florida Governor launches initiative to save Sunshine State’s endangered manatees

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was back at work in his state on Tuesday, two weeks after withdrawing from the presidential race.

DeSantis, 45, was in Orange City to promote his work to protect endangered manatees. The Florida manatee, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, is considered endangered, with an estimated population of 8,810 in the state.

DeSantis’ office boasted that he has spent more than $50 million protecting manatee habitat, such as in Florida’s coastal waters and rivers, and improving water quality since he became governor in 2019.

Nearly 2,000 manatees died in Florida in 2021 and 2022, representing more than 20 percent of the state’s population. But DeSantis’ office said Florida manatees had the lowest mortality rate in 2023 since 2017.

The former presidential candidate has returned to state affairs after dropping out of the Republican primary on January 21, two days before the New Hampshire primary, and endorsed Donald Trump.

Florida’s manatees are considered endangered, but some experts say they should be upgraded to endangered

DeSantis is seen in Iowa with his wife Casey and son Mason on the campaign trail on January 12

But he has not appeared on the campaign trail with Trump and has insisted he has no interest in being Trump’s vice president.

“I’m running for president because I think we need someone who can win and get the job done,” DeSantis said in January while campaigning in Iowa.

“I would much rather do my last two years as governor in 25 and 26 than become vice president. I don’t think it’s a position that offers much.”

DeSantis will instead likely make another presidential bid in 2028, biding his time as governor until then.

His current term ends on January 5, 2027 and he will not be eligible for a third consecutive term.

Some in Tallahassee, Florida’s capital, worried that DeSantis will use his remaining time as governor to retaliate against those he believes did not provide enough support in his presidential bid.

DeSantis’ campaign has been remarkably lackluster, despite high expectations that he would be the 2024 nominee.

DeSantis dropped out of the Republican primary in a video posted to Twitter less than 48 hours before voters began casting their ballots in the New Hampshire primary

Casey and Ron DeSantis embrace during a caucus night party on Jan. 15 in West Des Moines, Iowa, after the governor finished in second place in the first primary state

Never Back Down super PAC spent $130 million supporting Ron DeSantis in Republican presidential primaries, FEC records show

Donald Trump takes the stage during a caucus night party in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 15

The Florida governor’s standing in the polls gradually fell after he formally entered the fray with a chaotic, technically disastrous campaign launch on X, hosted by Elon Musk.

According to FiveThirtyEight, his polling averaged 35 percent a year ago, but had dropped to 12 percent by January 21 — just one point higher than former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley.

“You have a choice: You can accept responsibility or you can blame others,” said state Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican who shifted his support from DeSantis to Trump and found himself drawing the ire of those in the governor’s inner circle .

He told Politics: ‘I don’t know which one he will choose. I hope he uses it as a learning experience.”

Another Tallahassee political operative told the site, “Will it be the prickly, vengeful, thin-skinned man we’ve learned to love, or can he learn to build instead of burn bridges?”

Jeremy Redfern, a spokesman for the DeSantis administration, told Politico that the idea that DeSantis was bitter and seeking revenge was “kind of ridiculous.”

“Governor DeSantis was re-elected by a historic margin in 2022, and he is delivering results as he promised, with the most substantive legislative session in Florida history in 2023,” he said in a statement.