This year, DeSantis won’t be as big in the Florida legislative session

When the Florida Legislature begins its annual session Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis will be present — fleetingly. After delivering his State of the State address, he will head to Iowa, where he has a busy campaign schedule ahead of the Republican presidential caucuses on January 15. Few in Tallahassee expect to see much from him in the months that follow.

His absence will be a marked change from years past, when Mr. DeSantis loomed large over the Legislature and all his grand wishes were granted by friendly lawmakers. Republicans who control both chambers were eager to curry favor with the state’s political superstar, who appeared poised to lead their party’s presidential field.

Instead, Mr. DeSantis’ presidential bid has struggled. His plea to make America more like Florida has lost much of its vibrancy as the frenzied culture wars that have gripped the state prove less appealing to a national audience. So far, the governor has lagged far behind former President Donald J. Trump in the polls.

Mr. DeSantis’ approval among Floridians has fallen, polls show. He remains a powerful figure, who can destroy the dreams of lawmakers with his veto. But everyone in the Capitol knows that Mr. DeSantis is not as invincible as he once seemed.

“If he were the frontrunner in the presidential race, things would be very different,” said state Rep. Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat and House Minority Leader. “He’s finding out that all these culture wars he’s been fighting in Florida aren’t getting him any votes.”

So lawmakers have been preparing for a different kind of session, one that could feel like a breather from Mr. DeSantis’ decision over the past two years to reshape state policy in high-profile ways that he hoped would appeal to Republican primaries.

It is fair to say that Mr. DeSantis has proposed a budget that prioritizes some of his most important issues during his campaign. He has asked for more money to fly newly arrived migrants from the southwestern border to states like Massachusetts and California, and to pay teachers extra if they take a state-sanctioned social studies course with a decidedly conservative ideological slant.

“The state is in really good fiscal shape,” Mr. DeSantis said last month when he announced his budget plan. “We are doing well here in Florida.”

But while in previous years he stormed nearly every corner of Florida in search of his proposals, unveiling new ones almost every day as the Legislature prepared, Mr. DeSantis spent the weeks leading up to this session crisscrossing early voting states.

It is unclear how long Mr. DeSantis will stay in the race if he does poorly in those contests. But by March 8, when the legislative session is scheduled to end, about half the states will have held their primaries.

“It will definitely be a different session,” said state Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican from Brevard County. But he added that a slower pace would only reflect the governor’s success in transforming Florida over the past two years, noting, “He’s gotten everything done.”

Mr. DeSantis has implemented so many major, divisive policies since 2021 that these policies — and the lawsuits challenging many of them — have become difficult to watch.

Private school tuition vouchers for all public school students who want them. Abortion restrictions after six weeks of pregnancy. Banning diversity and equity programs at public universities. Death sentences without unanimous juries. Carrying concealed weapons without a permit. Redrawn congressional districts to further favor Republicans. Banning transition care for transgender children. Weaker tenure protections for professors at public universities. An agency that investigates election crimes. Stripping Disney of some of his powers.

But a month before the new session was set to begin, as lawmakers gathered in Tallahassee for committee meetings, few could articulate the governor’s 2024 priorities. (A sex scandal surrounding the chairman of the Florida Republican Party, who is expected to be replaced Monday, didn’t help).

Privately, some lawmakers say they have no problem with a slower session, especially heading into an election year when many politicians prefer to end up in Tallahassee quickly and then be free to campaign. In fact, that’s why Florida’s legislative sessions start in January every four years instead of March.

New bills proposed by lawmakers include one that would lift state restrictions on when 16- and 17-year-olds can work, and others aimed at expanding the health care workforce.

Nick Iarossi, a Tallahassee lobbyist and co-chairman of Mr. DeSantis’ campaign finance committee, said lawmakers and the governor have done more than just focus on culture war issues in recent years, but that these issues have attracted the most attention. With fewer of Mr. DeSantis’ controversial proposals on the table, “the things that made him popular in Florida,” such as raising teacher salaries and funding Everglades restoration, could get more attention, Mr. Iarossi said.

Democrats, who have little influence in Republican-controlled Tallahassee, are accusing the governor of being an absentee executive as he campaigns for higher office. They say he and Republican lawmakers have failed to help Floridians get relief from high housing and insurance costs.

Floridians “are wondering why the government is so focused on banning books,” Ms. Driskell said. “They want to know, ‘What is the Legislature doing for me?’ And we don’t have an answer to it, because everything was about DeSantis’ ambitions.”

In his new budget, Mr. DeSantis recommended a one-year exemption on taxes, fees and assessments on property insurance for homes valued up to $750,000. Floridians’ rates rose an average of 57 percent in 2022, the highest in the nation.

Kathleen Passidomo, the Senate president, said Mr. DeSantis is still in Tallahassee often — “He’s here more than you think” — and even when he’s gone, he keeps in regular contact.

And lawmakers know that even if the governor withdraws from the presidential race, he will remain a political force in the Capitol with three years left in his term.

“He still has his veto,” Ms. Driskell said.