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The DeSantis Surveillance State, Revisited

Amid the recent reckoning over expenses and cutbacks, some close to DeSantis wonder if he and Casey can get past their paranoia and let the political pros do their jobs—so that the candidate can do his.

At the outset of his campaign, Ron DeSantis made a conscious decision to bring as much of his political apparatus in-house as possible, avoiding vendors and other third parties.
At the outset of his campaign, Ron DeSantis made a conscious decision to bring as much of his political apparatus in-house as possible, avoiding vendors and other third parties. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images
Tina Nguyen
July 20, 2023

Back in 2022, I profiled Casey DeSantis, the telegenic and ambitious wife of Florida governor Ron DeSantis and his closest political advisor. One of the leitmotifs that kept reappearing in the reporting process was the couple’s paranoia over being targeted by unscrupulous political contractors or betrayed by disloyal insiders. Rising political stars attract big money, after all, and big money attracts graft-hungry, leak-prone operatives. “It’s very smart on the one hand,” one G.O.P. operative told me at the time. “It’s also not very smart on the other hand. It requires a surveillance state that requires a lot of resources and energy to keep up.”