Tampa Bay 28 invited more than 200 candidates running in the Aug.18, 2026, primary election across our five-county area to submit the following: a candidate photo, a 100-word biography, and responses to three questions:
- Why are you running for office?
- In your own words, what differentiates you from your opponents?
- Explain what you see as the most important issue facing our community and how you are uniquely qualified to address that issue?
The following candidates responded to our questionnaire.
James Uthmeier
Background (provided by candidate):
James Uthmeier is Florida's 39th Attorney General and has devoted his career to fighting for freedom. After growing up in the Florida panhandle, he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Florida and his law degree from Georgetown, then practiced at an international law firm, advocating for First Amendment and religious freedom. He served as counsel to President Trump's 2016 campaign and as senior advisor to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, then returned home to serve Governor Ron DeSantis as general counsel and later chief of staff, helping keep Florida open and free. As Attorney General, he's fighting every day to keep Florida safe, strong, and free — protecting kids, backing law enforcement, and enforcing the law. He and his wife Jean have three kids.
Why are you running for office?
Because the job isn't finished. When I became Attorney General, I told Floridians my priorities were simple: protect kids, back the men and women who wear the badge, and enforce the law without apology. In eighteen months, we've arrested nearly 2,000 child predators, recovered missing children, stood up Florida's immigration enforcement partnership with the Trump administration, and taken on the tech and pharmaceutical giants that treat Floridians as products instead of people. Every one of those fights has a next chapter, and every one of them has powerful people on the other side who are counting on Florida to blink. We won't. I'm running to keep fighting on behalf of all Floridians and finish the work.
In your own words, what differentiates you from your opponents?
I've been in the arena. Since day one, I've picked the tough fights: against activist judges, against tech companies with more money than our entire state budget who were putting predators in front of our kids, against the traffickers operating in our communities. I've taken Florida's case all the way to the United States Supreme Court. I've been sued, attacked, and told to back off more times than I can count - which tells me I'm doing my job. My opponent can tell you what he'd do with this office. I have a track record of getting results. I’m also honored to have the endorsement of over 60 Florida Sheriffs, the Florida Police Benevolent Association, the Florida Fraternal Order of Police and the National Association of Police Organizations.
Since taking office:
1. Statewide criminal prosecutions are up over 50%;
2. Criminal convictions are up over 30% and human trafficking convictions are up over 30%;
3. Fentanyl and large drug trafficking prosecutions are up over 500%;
4. Fentanyl deaths are now down over 40% and
5. Violent crime and murder rates are down over 16%
Explain what you see as the most important issue facing our community and how are you uniquely qualified to address that issue?
There are people in this country who think the rule of law is optional. Judges legislating from the bench. Companies that treat our laws as the cost of doing business. Florida is where they find out otherwise. Everything Floridians care about runs through whether the law actually means something - a predator doesn't get a second victim, a criminal alien doesn't get released back onto our streets, a company doesn't get to aim an addiction machine at your daughter. I fight every day, on behalf of all Floridians, and I've taken the incoming that comes with it. As a father of three and the Attorney General of the third-largest state in America, I know what's at stake.
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