Gov. Ron DeSantis personally floated the University of Florida presidency to Princeton scholar Robert P. George and, after George declined, the governor pressed another conservative candidate who became interim president. Sources say George turned down the offer and recommended Columbia’s Donald Landry, who was later tapped as Florida’s interim president. The outreach underscores how state executives are inserting themselves into flagship hiring decisions, bypassing traditional campus-led searches. The involvement of powerful trustees and political operatives—most notably UF Board of Trustees chair Morteza Hosseini—reflects a broader pattern of partisan influence over recruitment for top academic posts. For higher-education leaders and search committees, the episode signals an elevated risk that presidential searches will become arenas for state political agendas and that candidates’ ideological profiles will be scrutinized by actors outside the academy.