{"id":231175,"date":"2026-04-14T12:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231175\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T12:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:32:08","slug":"uthmeier-grows-his-fundraising-lead-in-florida-attorney-general-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/231175\/","title":{"rendered":"Uthmeier grows his fundraising lead in Florida attorney general race"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Attorney General James Uthmeier<\/a> raised $1.91 million in the first quarter of 2026, surpassing the $336,000 raised by Democratic challenger Jos\u00e9 Javier Rodr\u00edguez<\/a>, according to numbers posted by the Division of Elections website.<\/p>\n

The quarterly total, generated through his personal account and a political committee, increased Uthmeier\u2019s overall effort to $8.26 million as he seeks to retain the Cabinet office he was appointed to by Gov. Ron DeSantis in February 2025. Of the overall haul, Uthmeier had $7.43 million on hand as of March 31.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Rodriguez, a former legislator from Miami who was assistant secretary for employment and training in the Department of Labor under President Joe Biden, has now raised more than $1 million. Of that, $489,700 was available on March 31.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe support we\u2019re seeing across the state makes clear Floridians are ready for accountability, to take on corruption, and to lower costs for families,\u201d Rodriguez said in a release.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez\u2019s quarterly totals include $137,163 raised through his personal campaign account and $198,900 through the political committee Floridians for JJR.<\/p>\n

The largest contributions to Floridians for JJR were $50,000 from the Miami Beach-based political committee The Florida Project, which has backed other Democratic candidates over the past year, and $75,000 from Jacksonville personal injury attorney Steve Pajcic.<\/p>\n

Another Democrat in the contest, Jim Lewis, a former state prosecutor from Fort Lauderdale, raised $1,600 during the quarter and loaned his campaign $3,000. Lewis earlier put $2,000 of his own money into the campaign.<\/p>\n

Lewis received 381,575 votes in the 2022 Democratic primary for the Cabinet office, 26.9% of the vote, finishing third in a three-way contest.<\/p>\n

The political committee Friends of James Uthmeier raised $1.62 million in the quarter, while Uthmeier brought in $288,843 for his personal campaign account in the same time.<\/p>\n

Uthmeier\u2019s quarterly totals included $125,000 from the political committee A Stronger Florida, which is linked to the lobbying firm Rubin Turnbull & Associates.<\/p>\n

The tobacco company RAI Services Company of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, wrote a check for $100,000, as did the Republican Party of Florida. The gun manufacturer Sig Sauer Inc., which was behind a failed effort<\/a> in the 2026 legislative session to shield gun makers from liability lawsuits over a defect that isn\u2019t required by federal law, gave the political committee $50,000.<\/p>\n

By Jim Turner, News Service of Florida<\/p>\n

\u2022 \u2022 \u2022<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay Times Election Coverage<\/p>\n

Congressional midterms: Can Democrats retake the US House? It could depend on Florida<\/a><\/p>\n

Voter issues: These 4 issues make Florida\u2019s midterms a tougher slog for Republicans<\/a><\/p>\n

Race for the Governor\u2019s Mansion: Is the Florida governor\u2019s race set?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Attorney General James Uthmeier raised $1.91 million in the first quarter of 2026, surpassing the $336,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[103507,28,7912,30,29,85255,8853,4260,102823,69896,95539,9867,2573,32373,412],"class_list":{"0":"post-231175","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-democratic-candidates","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-attorney-general","11":"tag-florida-headlines","12":"tag-florida-news","13":"tag-florida-project","14":"tag-floridians","15":"tag-james-uthmeier","16":"tag-jim-lewis","17":"tag-jose-javier-rodriguez","18":"tag-personal-injury-attorney","19":"tag-political-committee","20":"tag-president-joe-biden","21":"tag-republican-party-of-florida","22":"tag-ron-desantis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}