The Landing Point: How to Navigate the Record of Florida's Governor on This Site

Every research project begins somewhere, and for many readers, that somewhere is a landing page. If you arrived here looking for a general overview of DeSantis Research Book — what we cover, how we work, and where to begin — this article is intended to serve as that orientation.

Our Mission: Documenting the Record

DeSantis Research Book exists to examine the public record of Ron DeSantis, the 46th governor of Florida, with rigor and neutrality. We are not an advocacy organization. Our editorial perspective is deliberately neutral, and our tone is formal by design. We believe that a politician's career — whether one views it favorably or unfavorably — deserves careful documentation, and that the public benefits most from primary sources, verifiable data, and clear methodology.

The phrase "examining the record" is not a slogan but a working method. Every claim in our reporting is tied to a public document: a bill text, a budget line item, a disclosure filing, a veto message, or an executive order.

Three Pillars of Coverage

Our content is organized into three standing categories, each addressing a distinct dimension of the governor's tenure.

Campaign Finance

Money in politics is traceable, and traceability is our specialty in this category. We map donor networks, analyze contribution patterns across election cycles, and track how fundraising infrastructure evolved as Florida's chief executive moved onto the national stage. Our ledger-style reporting on donors and political committees is intended to give readers the raw material to draw their own conclusions.

Governance Analysis

This category examines how power is exercised in Tallahassee: the use of executive authority, turnover within the executive branch, veto decisions, state-preemption of local ordinances, and the machinery of state government itself. Governance analysis asks not only what a policy does, but how it was adopted and enforced.

Policy Tracker

Statutes on paper and policy in practice are not always the same thing. Our policy tracker follows legislation from introduction through implementation, auditing the distance between legislative text and administrative reality in areas such as education, healthcare, and environmental regulation.

Where New Readers Should Start

If you are new to the site, we recommend beginning with our foundational pieces on executive authority and the money map of donors, which together establish the structural context for everything that follows. Readers interested in the practical effects of state policy may prefer our work on preemption and the gap between education statutes and their implementation. Those following the political trajectory of the governor's agenda will find our analysis of policy durability after a champion departs to be a useful case study in political legacy.

Our Standards

A few commitments govern everything we publish:

• Sourcing. We cite primary documents wherever possible and link to them when available.
• Corrections. When we err, we correct the record prominently and note the change.
• Neutrality. We describe actions and outcomes; we do not campaign for or against any figure.
• Transparency. Our methodology for statistical work — donor mapping, turnover analysis, implementation audits — is explained in each article.

An Invitation to Readers

This site is a research project, and like all research, it improves with scrutiny. If you identify an error, hold a relevant public record, or wish to suggest a topic for investigation, we welcome the input. The record of any public official belongs ultimately to the public, and our job is simply to organize it, examine it, and present it clearly.

Welcome. The record awaits.