TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of violating “his mandatory statutory duty,” the American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday filed a lawsuit asking a judge to order DeSantis to set special elections for two legislative seats that opened as part of a political shakeup after President-elect Donald Trump’s win in November.

Former Rep. Joel Rudman, R-Navarre, stepped down from the state House District 3 seat last week, and state Sen. Randy Fine, R-Brevard County, will exit his Senate District 19 seat on March 31 as they run in special elections for congressional seats.

The lawsuit filed in Leon County circuit court Thursday argued that DeSantis not setting special elections for the legislative seats will leave voters in Rudman’s district without representation “for the entirety of the 2025 session” and voters in Fine’s district without representation for about half of the 60-day legislative session, which begins March 4.

Voters “have a clear legal right to have the governor fix the date of a special election for each vacancy,” and the governor “has a clear legal duty to fix the dates of the special elections,” attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Florida wrote in the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs in the case are Christina Forrest, a voter in House District 3, and Janet Laimont, a voter in Senate District 19.

“When a vacancy arises in legislative office, the people have the right to fill that vacancy in a special election,” the lawsuit said, pointing to a Florida law. “The reason is obvious: No Floridian should be deprived of representation because of the death, resignation, or removal of their representatives. But left to his own devices, the governor would deprive the residents of SD 19 and HD 3 of their constitutionally protected voice in the Capitol.”

The lawsuit said DeSantis “clear legal duty is ministerial and nondiscretionary in nature.” It seeks what is known as a “writ of mandamus” ordering DeSantis to set the special election dates.

“Each resident of the state has the right to be represented by one senator and one representative. These legislators are their voice in the halls of the Capitol,” the ACLU lawyers wrote. “The vacancies in these districts arose over 40 days ago. No other governor in living memory has waited this long to schedule a special election.”

Mark Ard, a spokesman for the Florida Department of State, said in an email that the agency “continues to work with the supervisors of elections to identify suitable dates for special elections” in the legislative districts.

“The election dates will be announced soon,” Ard wrote.

Fine and Rudman announced their plans to run for Congress in late November, as Trump began to fill out his administration.

Rudman is seeking to replace former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, who resigned in Congressional District 1 after being tapped by Trump to serve as U.S. attorney general. Gaetz later withdrew his name from consideration for attorney general amid intense scrutiny related to a congressional ethics report.

Fine is running to replace U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz, who will serve as Trump’s national security adviser. Waltz will step down in Congressional District 6 on Jan. 20, the day Trump is sworn into office.

DeSantis quickly ordered special elections to fill the vacancies created by Gaetz and Waltz, the lawsuit noted. Special primary elections for the congressional seats will be held on Jan. 28, and special general elections will take place on April 1.

Rudman’s former state House district is made up of parts of Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties, while Fine’s Senate district consists of part of Brevard County. DeSantis’ delay in setting special election dates in the districts also has drawn attention because they are in areas dominated by Republicans.

Previous governors’ “routine practice” was to “quickly call a special election for the resigning legislator’s seat and hold it concurrently with the special election for the higher office,” the lawsuit said, referring to the congressional seats as being the higher office.

In the two decades before DeSantis took office, 15 legislative vacancies occurred because a state lawmaker resigned to run for another office, according to the lawsuit. DeSantis’ predecessors set special elections to fill the resigning legislators’ seats on the same dates as the elections in which the legislators resigned to run, or earlier.

“But lately, Governor DeSantis has more often chosen to deviate from Florida’s longstanding practice of timely special elections, in violation of his mandatory statutory duty,” the lawsuit said.

As an example, the ACLU lawyers pointed to DeSantis’ drawn-out response to the 2021 death of U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Broward County Democrat.

DeSantis “failed to call a special election for 30 days — longer than any Florida governor had ever taken to call a special election in at least the prior 22 years, and possibly ever in the history of the state” to fill Hastings’ seat, the lawsuit argued.

DeSantis ultimately ordered a special election to fill Hastings’ seat — more than nine months after the congressman died.

DeSantis in 2021 also waited more than 90 days to order special elections to fill three seats vacated by legislators who sought to replace Hastings.

“The governor did not call special elections until he was forced to — after residents of the districts petitioned this court for mandamus relief,” Thursday’s lawsuit said. “Following months of inaction, the governor called elections within days of this court ordering him to show cause why the writ should not issue.”

In 2023, DeSantis waited 38 days to set a special election for a legislative vacancy.

“Yet again, the governor did not call the election until he was forced to — after this court ordered the governor to show cause why mandamus should not issue in a lawsuit brought by a district resident,” the ACLU’s lawyers wrote.

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Jesper Boqvist’s two goal game led the Florida Panthers to a 4-1 victory over the Utah Hockey Club. The win kept the team within four points of the Atlantic Division lead and it also put Boqvist one goal behind his career best at just the halfway point of the 2024-2025 campaign.

Boqvist’s performance continues a trend for the Panthers. Over the past few seasons, they’ve gotten the absolute most out of their depth forwards, with many of them posting their best offensive seasons while playing in Florida. In Boqvist’s first season with the Panthers, he’s the latest in the long line of bottom-six forwards powering the team to another playoff run.

Last year, it was center Kevin Stenlund. The fourth-line center plays a gritty and feisty game, but he found a scoring touch with the Cats during their Stanley Cup-winning campaign last year. Over 81 regular season games, he netted 11 goals and parlayed that into a new contract with the Utah Hockey Club.

Before that, it was Ryan Lomberg and Nick Cousins. During the 2022-2023 season, Lomberg reached new offensive heights and scored 12 goals in the regular season. Similarly, Cousins matched his best offensive campaign with nine goals and 27 points over 79 games.

Now, it’s Boqvist’s turn to be the breakout depth forward. He has some competition, however. 22-year-old Mackenzie Samoskevich, the team’s 2021 first-round pick, is getting his first full-time gig with the NHL club and looks like a fit. He has seven goals and 12 points through the first 37 games and will likely be the second bottom-six forward to score 10+ goals for the Panthers this season.

Either way, the trend continues in Florida. Their star power at the top of the lineup is on par with the best in the league and receives the majority of the attention from opposing teams and media. Understandly so, but their depth is what continues to power them towards a repeat of their Stanley Cup championship.

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Florida is one of the least affordable states in the country to buy a home, according to the latest data from the Mortgage Bankers Association, as high mortgage rates keep buyers out of the market.

Why It Matters

With its sunny weather, relaxed lifestyle, and relatively cheaper cost of living and housing, Florida attracted a flow of new residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. But those markets that boomed during the health emergency have experienced a rapid cooldown over the past year as inbound migration weakened and new inventory poured into the market.

The affordability strain caused by high mortgage rates and historically elevated prices, combined with the growth in inventory and skyrocketing homeowners insurance premiums, is likely to cause a cooldown in demand and a drop in prices across Florida, experts have said.

What To Know

The Mortgage Bankers Association uses the Purchase Applications Payment Index, also known as PAPI, to measure how affordable it is to buy a home in each state based on how much a mortgage plus interest on loans costs a household in relation to its income.

In November, Florida had a PAPI of 209.9, lower only than that of Nevada (248.7), Idaho (244.2) and Arizona (220.7). The national PAPI, for comparison, was 163.3 in the same month.

While Florida has one of the least affordable mortgage payments in the nation in relation to residents’ wages, the interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage in the state are slightly lower than at the national level, according to Bankrate data. As of Tuesday, the national average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was at 7.09 percent. In Florida, it was 7.06 percent.

How Are High Mortgage Rates Affecting the Florida Market

According to Nick Gerli, a real estate analyst and the CEO of Reventure App, the lack of affordability in Florida explains “the big market slowdown” in the state.

“Home sales are down 40 percent from their pandemic peak. Inventory is at the highest level in nearly 10 years. And now prices are starting to drop. But not fast enough for homebuyers,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday.

“Florida’s mortgage payment as a % of income is one of the highest in America at 40 percent,” Gerli wrote. “For the average buyer, they need to spend around $30,000 on mtg, tax, insurance. Median household income across the state is $75,000.”

What People Are Saying

Nick Gerli, the CEO of Reventure App, wrote on X: “Today’s 40 percent mtg payment/income ratio is unprecedented. The only other time it was close was the mid-2000s housing bubble. Before the big crash.”

The Senate Budget Committee wrote in a report published last month: “In certain communities, sky-high insurance premiums and unavailable coverage will make it nearly impossible for anyone who cannot buy a house in cash to get a mortgage and buy a home. Property values will eventually fall—just like in 2008—sending household wealth tumbling. The United States could be looking at a systemic shock to the economy similar to the financial crisis of 2008—if not greater.”

Sean O’Dowd, a real estate investor in Chicago, previously told Newsweek: “There’s not a single lender out there that I’m aware of that will give you a mortgage without proof of insurance. The problem is, if you have an insurance payment that’s just as much as the principal and interest payment for the mortgage, if you’ve got an insurance payment that’s five hundred bucks a month, you get to a situation where a homebuyer—especially a first-time homebuyer that doesn’t have a lot of capital to put down for the down payment—has such a weedy monthly payment with this huge insurance premium that they cannot afford to buy a house.”

What Happens Next

For Gerli, the combination of these factors—cooling demand, less inbound migration and growing supply—means the Florida market “is now turning.” His company is forecasting price declines across all of Florida’s housing market this year.

“These price declines will be welcome news to homebuyers, and finally start returning affordability to a housing market that sorely needs it,” he wrote.

Other experts agree that prices will drop in parts of Florida throughout 2025. Redfin economist Chen Zhao previously told Newsweek that the best places to buy a home this year will be “markets in the Sun Belt, especially Florida and Texas,” which are “the weakest at the moment.”

Norada Real Estate Investments also identified three metropolitan areas in Florida—Gainesville, Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville and Lakeland-Winter Haven—as at “very high risk” of experiencing a downturn this year, with prices potentially dropping by as much as 15 percent.