Thread by @NLVWarren

As much as I hate disagreeing with Jon Mills, my textualist take is that the governor need not resign to run for prez because R2R limits people who “qualify” for office – and you don’t “qualify” to run for president in Florida. 1/6

https://twitter.com/MaryEllenKlas/status/1585015893549289472

R2R: “Any officer who *qualifies* for federal public office must resign from the office he/she presently holds if the terms, or any part thereof, run concurrently with each other.” (F.S. 99.012(4)(a)). 2/6

To get on the prez primary ballot, candidates don’t “qualify” but rather the parties submit lists of people to be on the ballot (F.S. 103.101) 3/6

For the general, elector slates are appointed by the governor. The name of their party’s candidate is listed on the ballot, but the candidate sort of arises organically as the party nominee and never “qualifies” (F.S. 103.021) 4/6

Exception: write-in candidates have to qualify to run for president! So if DeSantis runs for prez as a write-in he’d have to resign (effective Jan. 20, 2025). (F.S. 103.022) 5/6

The @MaryEllenKlas story mentions an FAQ on the @VotePinellas website saying that R2R doesn’t apply to people running for federal offices. This is outdated language. The law was only amended in 2018 to apply to federal offices. laws.flrules.org/2018/126 6/end

P.S.: To belabor the point, “qualify” means something specific in the Fla Election Code. There’s a whole dang statute on what candidate qualifying is and how it happens, and it does NOT mention or apply to prez/VP. leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index…