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Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration diverted more than $35 million in taxpayer funds as part of its brazen agenda last year to defeat two ballot amendments he staunchly opposed, a Miami Herald/Tampa Bay Times investigation has found.

Much of the state money was intended to assist needy Floridians, including children. Instead, it paid for political consultants, lawyers and thousands of advertisements that helped DeSantis and his supporters win at the ballot box, in amounts far greater than the diverted Hope Florida Medicaid funding that has ensnarled top administration officials and the governor’s wife in scandal this year.

The ads purchased with the diverted money blanketed TV, social media and radio stations in the weeks before the election. T

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