TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The Florida Senate on Tuesday confirmed two top DeSantis administration officials tied to the Hope Florida program, closing a politically charged chapter of the controversy after a tense floor debate that repeatedly revisited questions about a $10 million Medicaid settlement.
Lawmakers voted to keep Shevaun Harris as secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration and Taylor Hatch as secretary of the Department of Children and Families — two agencies connected to the Hope Florida initiative backed by First Lady Casey DeSantis. Supporters praised the officials’ work leading major state agencies.
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Sen. Jason Brodeur, a Republican, highlighted Harris’s efforts on Medicaid funding.
“She's gone to Washington, DC, and secured millions and millions of additional funding for us,” Brodeur said.
Sen. Gayle Harrell, another Republican, said Hatch had been responsive to lawmakers’ concerns.
“I always found her very responsive and really addressed the issues that we brought to her from my local constituents,” Harrell said.
Still, the Hope Florida controversy resurfaced repeatedly during the debate. Democrats argued the administration has not fully explained how $10 million from a Medicaid settlement flowed through the Hope Florida Foundation and into political committees opposing the 2024 ballot amendment that sought to legalize recreational marijuana.
“Ms. Harris failed to provide oversight of the Hope Florida Foundation,” Senate Minority Leader Lori Berman said on the floor.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General James Uthmeier — who previously served as the governor’s chief of staff and oversaw the political committee that received most of the funds — have repeatedly defended the arrangement as legal.
“If it's a contribution to a 501c3 entity, that is not state dollars, that is not Medicaid dollars,” Uthmeier said in April of last year. “Does anybody have a question about protecting our kids? I'm kind of tired of the politicized narratives.”
The Senate also voted separately to confirm Jeff Aaron, an attorney who advised the Hope Florida Foundation, to the state’s Public Employee Relations Commission.
That vote was closer and sparked some of the sharpest debate of the day. Sen. Don Gaetz, the Republican chair of the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee, defended Aaron.
“I don't think that you can hold a lawyer responsible for actions of his client that you don't like, especially since there has been no complaint and no action taken by the Florida Bar,” Gaetz said.
But Democratic Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith argued Aaron played a central role in the transactions.
“Mr. Aaron helped orchestrate and advise on all of this,” Smith said. “Senators, this is not okay.”
Outside the Senate chamber, Rep. Alex Andrade, a Republican who led a House investigation into the Hope Florida controversy last year, said Harris and Hatch likely benefited from the governor’s limited pool of potential replacements. But Andrade was far more critical of Aaron’s confirmation.
“That's a pretty pathetic brain trust, if that's their legal minds,” Andrade said. “I mean, there was nothing legal about this transaction. 501c3s cannot give money to political campaigns.”
Despite the political fallout, the broader controversy has cooled somewhat. The U.S. Department of Justice has declined to pursue allegations tied to the transfers, though the results of a state grand jury investigation remain unclear.
For now, Harris and Hatch will remain in their posts. But their tenure may be short-lived. Florida will elect a new governor in 2026, meaning a new administration in 2027 could replace many agency heads and reshape the leadership overseeing the programs at the center of the Hope Florida debate.
