The GOP-controlled Florida Senate and its Republican president, Wilton Simpson, bucked DeSantis recently on a series of high-profile priorities for the governor. They have refused to go along with DeSantis’ proposed congressional maps, resisted fulfilling his $100 billion-plus state budget and rejected his attempts to reign in tech and social media companies.

In a sign of how personal the clash has become, Republicans haven’t agreed to fund a $100 million request from the governor’s wife for cancer research. DeSantis’ wife, Casey, was diagnosed with breast cancer last year and recently completed chemotherapy.

According to more than a dozen state lawmakers, members of the governor’s administration and Florida political operatives, the conflicts stem from DeSantis using hard-nosed tactics to strong-arm the Legislature, disagreements between lawmakers and the governor’s new chief of staff and DeSantis’ lobbying campaign to pressure Simpson to pass a long-stalled anti-union bill. That effort peaked after conservative groups contacted by the governor’s team bought $75,000 in ads against Simpson in his own district.