While speaking to students and alumni at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government, a student asked the Florida governor if he intended to seek a position in President Trump’s administration.

According to Florida Phoenix, DeSantis said he’s “not seeking anything.”

JUST IN: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says that he is not seeking a role in the Trump administration.

What's your reaction? pic.twitter.com/fiJseU9wLq

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) November 9, 2024

“I think for me, I’m not seeking anything,” DeSantis said, according to the outlet.

DeSantis did not directly address if he’s been in communication with Trump’s team.

“I’ve got a great job in the state of Florida,” he continued.

“How can I best make a difference? I think, you know, given where we are, I think me quarterbacking the Sunshine State is probably how I make the biggest difference,” he added.

Per Florida Phoenix:

DeSantis reflected on the GOP’s General Election performance, bragging about the solid-red shade Florida has turned. Trump won the state by more than 13%, while the party increased its supermajority in the Florida House.

“We now have a situation in the state of Florida, you notice on election night the other day, nobody was worrying about how Florida was going to come out,” DeSantis said. “In fact, the Florida Democratic Party, most recently, changed its mascot, and they chose a very beautiful, nice Florida panther. The only problem is that is an endangered species, but it’s telling because that’s what they become in the Sunshine State.”

DeSantis spent the weeks leading up to the election hosting campaign-style rallies aimed at defeating amendments 3 and 4, which both earned broad majority support but failed to hit the 60% requirement to pass and would have legalized marijuana for recreational use and secured a state constitutional right to an abortion, respectively.

The governor said GOP performance did not suffer from abortion being directly on the ballot.

“I think if you look at the election in terms of the candidates, abortion was the dog that didn’t bark,” DeSantis said.

“I mean, it did not cost Republicans any elections. I can tell you, in the state of Florida, we expanded our supermajority in the state House of Representatives and, you’ll hear, people will attack our pro-life legislation as being some somehow so extreme and yet the reality is the voters could have penalized those legislators for that, and they decided to reelect all of them and even turn out a couple Democrats.”

Although DeSantis said he’s “not seeking anything,” he pitched Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, for HHS secretary in Trump’s administration.

“Retweet if you’d like to see this man — Dr. Joseph Ladapo — serve as the Secretary of HHS in the new Trump administration,” DeSantis said earlier this week.

Retweet if you’d like to see this man — Dr. Joseph Ladapo — serve as the Secretary of HHS in the new Trump administration. cc: ⁦@FLSurgeonGen⁩ pic.twitter.com/FP6dC1sZ2W

— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) November 6, 2024

Other reports speculated that Trump could pull numerous individuals from Florida for positions in his administration.

From POLITICO:

Trump told Joe Rogan during his podcast appearance before the election that his top mistake during his first time in office was that he “picked a few people I shouldn’t have picked.” Following his hard-fought comeback to the White House, Trump is heading into office with a more organized and professional staff and with the experience of hindsight.

Florida, too, has undergone a transformation since 2016, when Trump won the state by just over one point. The 2024 election cemented Florida as a Republican stronghold, with Trump winning by 13 points and Democrats failing to flip the Senate seat. The GOP supermajority in the Legislature is still standing, and Gov. Ron DeSantis defeated amendments on pot and abortion that saw success in other parts of the U.S.

Esteban Bovo, Hialeah’s Republican mayor who’s an avid Trump supporter, said he thought Trump should look for people who “buy into his agenda and will help him fulfill his agenda” rather than “people who try to control him or try to navigate the bureaucracy.”

And Floridians could be tapped not just for high-profile secretary roles, but to become one of those thousands of political appointees across government, who are crucial at actually executing policy. Some names floated by Florida operatives include loyalists like Bovo. Others include Miami Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, who was Florida state director for Trump’s 2020 campaign, and state Sen. Joe Gruters, who was Florida co-chair of Trump’s 2016 campaign and bucked most of the Legislature by endorsing Trump early in 2024.