FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Jim Lewis, the Fort Lauderdale lawyer who has run many times for many local, county and state offices, will not be on the ballot in 2026.

And, he said Thursday, he may never run for office again.

“I’m very disappointed,” he said in a telephone interview. “At some point, you have to resign yourself to fate, but I’m really disappointed about how the (Florida) Department of State and the Division of Elections handled this.”

Lewis had intended to run for the Democratic nomination for state attorney general, but the Division of Elections, which is a unit of the Department of State, said he did not legally qualify to run for the office by the June 12 deadline.

It would have been his 11th time running for office — not counting one race he began and withdrew from — and his third time running for attorney general.

Lewis said he did what was necessary to qualify, but said Thursday he has no realistic options to successfully challenge the state determination that kept him off the ballot. “I contemplated filing a lawsuit, but at this rate it seems like it’s not an option. I’m kind of resigned to it at this point that I’m not going to qualify.”

Vote-by-mail ballots are already being sent to military and overseas voters; under state law they have to be sent to those voters by July 4.

Last time?

Lewis most recently ran for mayor of Fort Lauderdale. He came in fourth in the 2024 race, receiving 9.5% of the vote.

In his most recent campaign for state attorney general, he finished in third place with 26.9% of the vote in the 2022 primary for the Democratic nomination.

He’s also unsuccessfully run — as a Democrat, as a Republican and as an independent/no party affiliation candidate — for state attorney general, Broward state attorney, Broward public defender, Fort Lauderdale city commissioner, circuit judge and state representative.

“I believe Abraham Lincoln is the only person who has run more times for political office than me, but it turned out OK for him, at least for a while,” Lewis said in 2022. “My father told me long ago that if your heart is in the right place and you have the strength to fight, you never give up.”

He said Thursday he keeps running because “at some point people are going to realize that you don’t gauge candidates based on the amount of money that they can raise. … I’m going to be that little voice in the wilderness screaming in the forest when nobody’s listening to stop backing candidates that put up the most money.”

He added, though, that he might not run again. “I’m 68 years old. This is probably it for me.”

AG race

Democrats have a candidate for attorney general, former state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, who will face James Uthmeier, a Republican appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis to fill a vacancy in the office.

Lewis wanted a primary, but he said he supports Rodriguez. “I think he’s a good guy. I think he’s very qualified. I think I’m qualified as well. I think I have a lot to say about the direction of this state. I thought a primary would be helpful.”

Lewis said he heard from people connected to the state Democratic Party urging him not to run so Rodriguez would not have to spend time or money on a primary. “But that’s not the reason I didn’t qualify.”

Perhaps, he said, it would work out. “Maybe it’s for the best. Maybe this is divine intervention. And maybe it gives (Rodriguez) a better chance to beat Uthmeier. Somebody needs to beat Uthmeier. And if it’s not me, I hope it’s him.”

Lewis, who was a prosecutor decades ago and has spent most of his career as a defense lawyer, wanted to make the case against Uthmeier. “This guy is a cancer on the office. He is totally not qualified. He is a political guy. He has no business being in criminal law or law enforcement.”

Uthmeier was DeSantis’ chief of staff and the final manager of his unsuccessful campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Uthmeier’s campaign website says that “From prosecuting dangerous criminals to combatting illegal immigration to suing corporations that jeopardize shareholder value by sexualizing and indoctrinating our children, James is focused on keeping Florida safe, strong, and free.”

At the Republican Party of Florida’s “Sunshine State Showdown” in Hollywood on June 27, Uthmeier emphasized conservative approaches to the office.

He said he wants Florida to use state charges to go after anyone who was pardoned and released from federal prison during the final days of former President Joe Biden’s term. “We’re not going to stop until every one of them is behind bars.” He also pledged to push for impeachment of state judges he sees as displaying poor judgment when it comes to dealing with violent criminals.

What happened

Lewis said his paperwork and check for the qualifying fee arrived in Tallahassee early during qualifying week. He said on June 11, the day before the deadline, he got a voicemail from a Division of Elections representative alerting him that he didn’t sign the check with the qualifying fee.

He said he signed and overnighted a check to a friend in Tallahassee who hand-delivered it before the noon deadline on June 12. Just before the deadline, he said he received a call that state records didn’t show Lewis was authorized to sign a campaign check.

Lewis said he had long ago filed paperwork designating himself as the deputy campaign treasurer, which would allow him to write a campaign check. He said, and his bank, have copies of the form, which is dated Nov. 20, 2025.

He doesn’t have a time-stamped copy to prove the form was received by the agency, and it isn’t posted with all of Lewis’ other candidate forms on the Elections Division website.

Lewis said he has emailed and called multiple times, including trying to reach Secretary of State Cord Byrd, to make his case that he properly qualified but has never gotten any response.

And, he said, the state cashed the check for $8,399.28 even though he was told the agency determined he wasn’t authorized to act as a deputy treasurer.

The state Division of Elections website shows Lewis’ status as “did not qualify.” A spokesperson for the agency said Wednesday in response to a series of questions confirmed only that “he failed to qualify.”