Senate President-Designate Jim Boyd Names Leadership Team, With Ana Maria Rodriguez as Pro Tempore and Nick DiCeglie as Majority Leader

Florida Senate President-designate Jim Boyd, a Bradenton Republican, named the senators who will run the chamber's most powerful posts for the next two years on Thursday, Nov. 5, tapping Sen. Ana Maria Rodriguez of Miami-Dade as Senate president pro tempore and Sen. Nick DiCeglie of Indian Rocks Beach as majority leader, CBS News Miami reported.

Boyd also chose Sen. Danny Burgess of Zephyrhills to chair the Rules Committee, Sen. Jay Trumbull of Panama City to chair the Appropriations Committee and Sen. Colleen Burton of Lakeland to chair the Fiscal Policy Committee. All five are Republicans. The team takes over when the Legislature meets for its organizational session on Nov. 17, when new members are sworn in and Boyd is formally elected Senate president.

The announcement comes two days after an election that reshaped the Legislature. Republicans kept control of both chambers but lost their two-thirds supermajority in the House, while holding onto a narrower edge in the Senate. The new leaders will soon face their first test: a special session Gov. Ron DeSantis says he will call to put Amendment 3, the voter-approved property tax overhaul, into effect.

Who got what

The five posts announced Thursday cover the Senate's floor operations, its scheduling gatekeeper and its two money committees. Here is how the team lines up, according to CBS News Miami:

The roles and why they matter

The president pro tempore is the Senate's second-ranking officer and presides when the president is absent. CBS News Miami reported that Rodriguez will work closely with Boyd and the Rules Committee leadership. Her appointment keeps a South Florida senator in the chamber's top tier.

The Rules Committee is the last stop for many bills before they reach the floor, which makes its chair one of the most influential members of any Senate. Burgess, an attorney, is also an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve and was expected to be promoted to lieutenant colonel the following week, according to CBS News Miami.

Trumbull will oversee the Senate's side of the state budget, the only bill lawmakers are constitutionally required to pass each year. He previously served as the House's budget leader before moving to the Senate, giving him experience on both sides of the annual budget negotiations between the chambers.

Burton's Fiscal Policy Committee provides an alternate route to the floor for bills with a fiscal impact, a role that is likely to grow as lawmakers sort out the cost of Amendment 3 to local governments. She chaired the Health Policy Committee and served as Judiciary vice chair last session.

DiCeglie, as majority leader, will be the Republican caucus's chief floor leader and political strategist. Boyd said DiCeglie "came up through the local political party structure," making him a natural choice to lead the caucus.

A changed Legislature

Boyd's team inherits a Legislature in which Democrats will have a bigger say than at any time in recent years. Democrats gained enough House seats in Tuesday's election to end the Republican supermajority there, and will hold either 49 or 50 of the 120 seats depending on a pending recount, according to WLRN. In the Senate, Democrats flipped one seat but fell one seat short of breaking the Republican supermajority.

The difference matters for a narrow set of votes. Two-thirds majorities are needed for actions such as waiving legislative rules, overriding vetoes and placing constitutional amendments on the ballot. House Democratic Leader Christine Hunschofsky told WLRN that "there will be Democratic votes needed on certain things."

Because the Senate retains its two-thirds Republican majority, Boyd's chamber will be able to act on those measures without Democratic support, while the House will not. That shifts some leverage toward the Senate in negotiations between the chambers.

Boyd and his House counterpart

Boyd, who owns Boyd Insurance & Investments in Bradenton, served in the House from 2010 to 2018 and was elected to the Senate in 2020. Senate Republicans unanimously chose him as president-designate for the 2026-28 term in October 2025, when he was serving as majority leader, the post he is now handing to DiCeglie. He succeeds Senate President Ben Albritton of Wauchula.

His House counterpart is Speaker-designate Sam Garrison, a Fleming Island Republican and attorney who represents House District 11 in Clay County. House Republicans designated Garrison in October 2025 to succeed Speaker Daniel Perez of Miami. Garrison is set to take the gavel at the same Nov. 17 organizational session, leading a House Republican majority that no longer holds two-thirds of the seats.

Boyd and Garrison will also be working with a new governor. Republican Byron Donalds won Tuesday's governor's race and takes office in January, replacing the term-limited DeSantis, whose public clashes with Perez colored the last two sessions.

Amendment 3 special session

The first big assignment for the new leaders is likely to be Amendment 3. Voters approved the property tax measure with 62 percent of the vote, two points above the 60 percent threshold for constitutional amendments. It raises the homestead exemption from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and to $250,000 in 2028, with school district taxes excluded from the larger exemption.

DeSantis said Wednesday he will call a special session within the next two months, before his term ends in early January, and coordinate the dates with legislative leaders, according to CBS News Miami. No dates had been announced as of Friday. The governor said the session would set a schedule for future homestead exemption increases and limit local governments from what he called "an end run around the amendment" by raising revenue in other ways. DeSantis has also called for a pool of state money to help local governments, particularly small rural counties, absorb the revenue loss.

Trumbull's Appropriations Committee and Burton's Fiscal Policy Committee are the panels most likely to handle any state aid to local governments, putting two of Boyd's new chairs at the center of that fight.

What's next

The Legislature convenes for its organizational session on Nov. 17, when members are sworn in and the chambers formally elect Boyd as Senate president and Garrison as House speaker.

The timing of the Amendment 3 special session remains to be set between DeSantis and the incoming presiding officers. The 2027 regular session, the first under Boyd, Garrison and Donalds, is scheduled to begin March 2.