Governor Ron DeSantis Pushes for Article 5 Convention of States in Kentucky

By Z. E. Kendall

18 Feb. 2026

“I think it’s a very pressing issue,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said today at the Kentucky House Committee on Elections and Constitutional Amendments. Governor DeSantis spoke in favor of House Concurrent Resolution 45 for a balanced budget constitutional amendment in an Article 5 Convention of States.

“We need the states to step up” if we want the fiscal situation for the government to go well. “I don’t think that Congress is going to fix itself,” Ron DeSantis said. The governor said that 28 states were already on board with a balanced budget amendment for the federal government.

He added that even if we did have a Congress that balanced the budget again, “The next Congress can come and undo it.” DeSantis is pushing for the Article 5 Convention of States vote in Kentucky in order for the federal government to avoid a debt crisis later on.

“All a Convention can do is propose,” Ron DeSantis said regarding this first step. “As a legislature, you can make sure who you send is faithful,” he added. In response to the question of Rep. Thomas Huff, DeSantis said, “We’ve imposed criminal penalties on the delegates if they go outside [the rules]. How popular is it going to be if they want to get rid of the 2^nd Amendment?” (Kentucky State Rep. Jennifer Decker has put forward a bill in the past to ensure faithful delegates and the state legislature to have control over who becomes a delegate.)

Loren Enns, President of the National Campaign for a Balanced Budget Amendment, also spoke in the committee. He suggested that if the Article 5 Convention of States effort got close to meeting the threshold to come up for ratification, that Congress might finally act to propose a federal Constitutional amendment on their own. “We’re borrowing more than 25% of the federal budget,” he added. “Imagine us as a permanent debtor nation: that’s what we’re facing here.”

Kentucky State Rep. Jason Petrie pointed out that interest payments may crowd out other spending items in the federal government’s budget if the federal government continues to spend recklessly. We are already paying around the same amount of money on interest payments as we are on the military in the federal government’s budget.

In explaining her intention to vote “no” in the committee, Democrat Rep. Anne Gay Donworth said she was concerned that the federal Constitution’s wording of “all intents and purposes” could be interpreted as requiring an Article 5 Convention of States to be an unlimited convention.

Regardless, the process for ratifying each individual amendment proposed requires 75% of the states to approve, either “by the legislatures” or “by conventions” from each state specifically aimed at ratification.

The House committee did not vote on the Article 5 Convention of States measure for a balanced budget amendment, because they ran out of the designated time for the committee meeting. They plan to take up this topic again for a vote later.[1]

The text of the resolution itself states, “In the absence of a national emergency, the total of all federal outlays made by the Congress for any fiscal year may not exceed the total of all estimated federal revenues for that fiscal year.[2]” This resolution is a bit weak, since it does not mention what qualifies as a national emergency, and it leaves open a loophole for Congress to avoid a balanced budget by recognizing a national emergency, instead of requiring Congress to have an “emergency rainy day fund” as a part of the whole budget every year, and then requiring the entirety of the budget to be balanced.

-----

Notes:

[1]  DeSantis, Ron. “Concurrent House Standing Comm on Elec, Const Amnd & Intergovernmental Affairs & State Gov (2-18-26).” Kentucky LRC Committee Meetings. 18 Feb. 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVOf5g2zdpE. 18 Feb. 2026. Web.

[2] Legiscan. “Bill Text: KY HCR45 | 2026 | Regular Session | Introduced.” 18 Feb. 2026. https://legiscan.com/KY/text/HCR45/id/3341594. Accessed 18 Feb. 2026. Web.