Rodrigues was born in Pensacola and attended Berry College in Rome, Georgia, where he received a scholarship from the WinShape Foundation and graduated in 1992.

Following graduation, he moved to Estero, where he became an active member of the community, eventually working as the Budget Manager for the College of Arts and Sciences at Florida Gulf Coast University and getting his MPA there in 2017.

As Southwest Florida continued to grow in 2014, Rodrigues sponsored a bill to incorporate the Village of Estero as Lee County's first new city in 15 years, which provided local control and direct representation for its residents.

Rodrigues, who has a son with special needs, added a personal sentiment to this bill stating that with the creation of ABLE, “I know that my son will have the opportunity to pursue his potential and to do his very best with the full knowledge that if he’s successful that’s great, and if he’s not successful at achieving independence, he won’t be punished for trying.”[11] The bill passed both the House and Senate and was signed into law by the Governor.

In 2016 Rodrigues sponsored House Joint Resolution 193 which placed an amendment to the Florida Constitution on the 2016 General Primary Ballot to remove tax barriers from businesses when they install solar panels or other renewable energy devices on their properties.

[15] During the 2016 Session, Rodrigues also passed legislation to repeal a statutory monopoly given to an AdvoServ facility housing 30 percent of all state residents who are in group homes because of developmental and intellectual disabilities and challenging behavior.

The facility had multiple allegations of abuse on its residents brought against them, including the death of Paige Elizabeth Lunsford, a 14 year old non-verbal autistic child due to dehydration while restrained to her bed.

First, in 2017 Rodrigues sponsored the legislation implementing the solar and renewable energy constitutional amendment that passed the previous August.

This prohibition of smoking led to a lawsuit filed in July 2017 by John Morgan, the author of the medical marijuana constitutional amendment.

[22] In May 2018 Morgan prevailed in his lawsuit as Circuit Judge Karen Grievers found the ban on smoking medical marijuana to be unconstitutional.

[24] In filing the bill, Rodrigues recognized Florida was joining a number of cities, school boards and other government agencies across the nation who are suing people seeking documents — forcing them to decide whether it's worth fighting for their request in court — at their own expense.

In 2018 Rodrigues was also the Prime Co-Sponsor on a House Resolution that requested the U.S. Congress to maintain the ban on offshore drilling in the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

[31] After his reelection to the Florida House of Representatives in 2018, Ray Rodrigues was appointed by Speaker Jose Oliva to chair the Health and Human Services Committee.

[37] As he had done in previous sessions Rodrigues again sponsored on a House Resolution that requested the U.S. Congress to maintain the ban on offshore drilling in the federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The first justification he cited was a study published in 2019 by The Lancet that found that daily smokers of high THC (greater than 10%) cannabis were 5 times for likely to have a first episode of psychosis than non-smokers.

[43] According to Staci Gruber, director of the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery (MIND) program at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital in Belmont Mass., “The negative effects of cannabis have been primarily isolated and localized to THC ……the higher levels of THC may in fact confer a greater risk for a negative outcome.” [43] As Chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, Rodrigues worked with Republican House members to guide 5 major healthcare reforms through the process during the 2019 Session to pass both the House and Senate.

This legislation aided Florida by increasing Floridians access to care and introducing free market forces to bring down the costs of healthcare.

The bill also increases the option for Bright Future Scholars the eligibility to receive an award for 100% tuition starting in the fall of 2021 for an associate degree at a Florida College System Institution.

Finally, the bill modifies state university funding-based metrics to focus on the success rate of Pell Grant eligible as well as 2+2 associates in Arts (AA) degree transfer students.

The bill prohibits social media platforms from willfully deplatforming a journalistic enterprise or candidate for political office.

[46] Rodrigues argued that the proposal was necessary to defend freedom of speech against the monopolies that various social media companies hold on online expression.

Following a hearing, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle granted a temporary injunction, preventing the law from taking effect.

[50] Rodrigues’ primary justification for the proposal was the need to curb the growth of the FRS’s unfunded actuarial liability (UAL), valued at $36 billion as of July 1, 2020.

Rodrigues and the bill’s House sponsor, Representative Cord Byrd, cited examples of local governments enacting unwritten gun policies that resulted in lawsuits against the governmental entities.

[56] Under the law, businesses that donate to organizations that provide services related to child welfare are eligible for tax credits capped at $5 million per fiscal year.

The bill provides governmental agencies the option to publish certain legal notices on a newspaper website in-lieu of print publication.

After working with these groups and a number of legislators, Rodrigues amended the bill, which lead to its unanimous passage in the Florida Senate.

In addition to the survey, the bill also prohibits these institutions from shielding students, faculty, and staff from protected free speech.

[62] Rodrigues also successfully passed CS/CS/CS SB 52 that clarifies that postsecondary tuition and fee exemptions apply to a student who is currently in the custody of the Department of Children and Families or a specified relative or nonrelative, or who was at the time he or she reached 18 years of age.

[63] Senator Rodrigues’ CS/CS/SB 1954 Statewide Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience was a priority of Governor DeSantis and legislative leadership.