Ron DeSantis

Ron DeSantis has served as the 46th Governor of Florida since January 2019, and before that represented Florida's 6th congressional district in the U.S. House from 2013 to 2018. Born September 14, 1978, in Jacksonville, Florida, DeSantis graduated from Yale University in 2001 and Harvard Law School in 2005, then served as a U.S. Navy JAG officer including deployment to Iraq as an advisor to SEAL Team One. His combination of elite academic credentials, combat deployment, and a governing record of aggressive pro-Israel action makes him one of the most operationally serious pro-Israel executives at the state level in America.

DeSantis established early in his governorship that Florida-Israel relations would be a first-order priority, not a symbolic attachment. In May 2019, he made history by holding Florida's first-ever Cabinet meeting outside the United States — in Jerusalem. The meeting, attended by the full Florida Cabinet, was held at the Tower of David Museum and produced official actions on Florida-Israel trade, education, and cybersecurity cooperation. No other American governor had used a Cabinet meeting as an instrument of foreign policy alignment with Israel before. DeSantis signed Florida's anti-BDS law while in Israel during that same trip, making the symbolic statement explicit: Florida's commitment to Israel is governed policy, not political theater. He has also sanctioned Airbnb and Ben & Jerry's parent company Unilever over BDS-related actions, directing Florida's state pension fund to divest from companies engaged in Israel boycotts — backing the rhetoric with the full weight of Florida's $200 billion public investment portfolio.

Florida under DeSantis has become the most aggressively pro-Israel state government outside Texas, and in some respects has surpassed Texas on the financial enforcement dimension. His administration fast-tracked educational initiatives against antisemitism in Florida schools, making Holocaust education mandatory in K-12 and expanding requirements following October 7. DeSantis signed an executive order in November 2023 directing Florida state agencies to take all available action against Hamas and its financial networks, framing the response not as foreign policy commentary but as a state law enforcement and procurement obligation. At Rank 11, DeSantis represents the model of a governor who treats the U.S.-Israel relationship as an active governing mandate — demonstrated not through resolutions but through Cabinet meetings, pension fund directives, and legislative signings conducted on Israeli soil.