Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is facing growing backlash over allegations involving an organization linked to his wife’s signature welfare assistance program Hope Florida.

The controversy concerns a $10 million payment to the Hope Florida Foundation, which is tied to first lady Casey DeSantis’s welfare assistance program Hope Florida and has led to criticism from some state House Republicans. Critics argue that this money was inappropriately used to help campaign against a ballot measure that would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state last November.

That money, critics say, was part of a settlement agreement involving the state’s largest Medicaid contractor, Centene. According to them, a chunk of that settlement, all of which was intended to be returned to state and federal coffers, ended up in the hands of political groups that campaigned against the ballot measure, which Gov. DeSantis was also opposed to.

DeSantis has denied the allegations. But on Tuesday, Florida media obtained a draft of an agreement that seemed to contradict the governor, a development that threatens to raise pressure on DeSantis and comes as the Florida governor and his wife mull their next political steps in the coming years.

“It’s certainly not good for the first family,” said one Florida Republican operative. “I think it has a greater impact on her ability to run for governor more than anything else.”

The controversy surrounding the Hope Florida Foundation goes back to last year, when the state of Florida discovered they were owed $67 million in a settlement with the Centene Corporation after the state was overbilled for Medicaid. The draft agreement obtained by media on Tuesday suggested that $10 million of that money was funneled to two nonprofit groups involved in the campaign against the ballot measure. One of those groups gave money to a PAC tied to DeSantis’s then-chief of staff James Uthmeier.

That seemed to contradict the DeSantis administration’s insistence that the $10 million given to the nonprofit groups was separate from the money received as part of the........

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