As the Pink Floyd song goes, “Smoking a cigar, you’ll go far.” Just look at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis, who was recently spotted smoking a cigar while golfing at Trump Doral, is on the cover of the June issue of Cigar Aficionado and has been interviewed internally. He also attended the magazine’s “Big Smoke Florida” event in Miami Beach on May 8.
Ron DeSantis appears on the June 2026 cover of Cigar Aficionado magazine.
Now, he’s using his cover story to raise money for his political action committee, Renew Our Country (RON PAC). For donations of $25 or more, contributors will be entered into a drawing to receive one of 10 signed copies, according to a May 14 email.
DeSantis is term-limited as governor this year but has left the door open to another run for the White House after losing his bid in 2023-24. “You never know,” he said at a conference in Los Angeles in early May, Politico reported.
The fundraising email noted that “Florida has the largest number of cigar companies in the country,” including Oliva, Padrón and Fuente. Cigar making is a 150-year-old Florida tradition that began with Cuban immigrants who made Tampa’s Ybor City the cigar capital of the world, the email said.
In an Instagram video of him playing golf posted by the “sarge4golf” account, the cigar he smokes is a Padrón: “It’s a real cigar, not a communist cigar,” he said when asked if he was smoking a Cohiba (originally a Cuban brand).
The email also boasted that DeSantis “has been a staunch ally of the Florida cigar industry since day one.”
In 2022, DeSantis signed a bill allowing cities and counties to ban smoking on their public beaches and parks, except for “unfiltered” or premium cigars. He was also the beneficiary of the cigar industry’s generosity in terms of political donations.
Ron DeSantis is interviewed in the June 2026 issue of Cigar Aficionado. The magazine photo was posted on X by his chief of staff, Jason Weida.
As of May 15, the June issue is not yet available on the Cigar Aficionado website. But some people posted on social media this week that they were able to purchase a cigar at their local cigar shop. Cover price is $8.99.
As seen in a photo of the first page of the interview posted on
He said he usually smokes on the patio of the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee after the kids go to bed, often with a glass of scotch.
The interview was accompanied by a photo of him wearing a blue sport coat and jeans, playing golf and smoking a cigar on the lawn in front of his mansion.
Jim Rosica is a member of the USA TODAY Network– Florida Capital Bureau. Contact him at jrosica@tallahassee.com and follow him on X.com: @Jim Rosica FL.
This article originally appeared in Tallahassee Democrats: Florida’s Ron DeSantis uses cigar lover’s profile in fundraising
