The Phoenix Flyer

FL Cabinet races: The primary winners for Agriculture Commissioner and Attorney General are…

By: - August 23, 2022 9:26 pm

Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson is shown during the organizational session on Nov. 17, 2020. Credit: Florida Channel, screenshot.

Wilton Simpson, who is finishing a term as the Legislature’s Senate President, is well ahead of his contender and expects to secure the Republican nomination for Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner.

On the Democratic side, Naomi Esther Blemur, appears to have captured far more votes than her competitors and expects to win the Democratic nomination, according to Florida Division of Elections data.

The two will face off in the November 8 general election.

Blemur says in her bio that she is “a first-generation Haitian-American minister, community leader, author, wife, and mother who is running to become Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner. Naomi has been involved in the North Miami community for years and has been elected to several city boards, commissions, and advisory committees.”

In the Democratic primary for Florida’s Attorney General, it appears that former Orange County State Attorney Aramis Ayala has garnered more votes than her competitors: Jim Lewis, a criminal defense lawyer from Fort Lauderdale, and Daniel Uhlfelder, an attorney from Santa Rosa Beach. Uhlfelder is perhaps best known for dressing as the Grim Reaper to protest DeSantis’ COVID policies at the height of the pandemic.

DeSantis reassigned death-penalty cases away from Ayala in 2019 after she declined to pursue the sanction to a man accused of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend and a police officer.

Attorney General Ashley Moody was unopposed in the primary.

 

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Diane Rado
Diane Rado

Diane Rado has covered state and local government and public schools in six states over some 30 years, focusing on policy and investigative stories as well as legislative and political reporting. She is married to a journalist and has three adult children.

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