{"id":365160,"date":"2026-08-07T10:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365160\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T10:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T10:08:14","slug":"desantis-praises-renner-but-stops-short-of-endorsement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/365160\/","title":{"rendered":"DeSantis praises Renner but stops short of endorsement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Self-declared<\/p>\n

Former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner speaks with the Miami Herad at the Hilton Miami Downtown hotel on Thursday, Sept. 18, 2025.<\/p>\n

Carl Juste<\/p>\n

cjuste@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

Gov. Ron DeSantis has continued to withhold any endorsement in the heated gubernatorial Republican primary. But on Thursday, he gave a nod to former House Speaker Paul Renner, saying Renner would make a good governor.<\/p>\n

When Renner first announced his campaign in 2025, DeSantis quickly called it<\/a> \u201cill-advised.\u201d<\/p>\n

But at a news conference Thursday in Lehigh Acres, DeSantis, who is term-limited, said his comment was based on whether Renner had the resources and deep pockets to win.<\/p>\n

\u201c[It] wasn\u2019t because I didn\u2019t think he would be a good governor; I think he\u2019d be really good,\u201d DeSantis said.<\/p>\n

Renner did not immediately respond to a request for comment but reposted a clip of the news conference on X and solicited donations to his campaign.<\/p>\n

Any of the four GOP front-runners would benefit from DeSantis\u2019 endorsement.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds leads the race and has the backing of President Donald Trump and a heavy war chest. But even as prominent DeSantis allies have endorsed Donalds<\/a>, DeSantis himself has refused to do so.<\/p>\n

DeSantis on Thursday also appeared to take a veiled attack at Donalds, saying, \u201cWhat goes into winning it [the race] doesn\u2019t necessarily mean you\u2019ll be a good governor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, who frequently makes known that he was appointed by DeSantis, is still hoping for his boss\u2019 support. The governor has also stayed quiet on the candidacy of businessman James Fishback, one of the other high-profile Republicans running.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published August 6, 2026 at 5:20 PM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner speaks with the Miami Herad at the Hilton Miami Downtown hotel on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-365160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}