{"id":328481,"date":"2026-07-03T14:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/328481\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T14:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:39:14","slug":"perennial-candidate-state-error-keeping-him-off-2026-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/328481\/","title":{"rendered":"Perennial candidate: State error keeping him off 2026 ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

And, he said Thursday, he may never run for office again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very disappointed,\u201d he said in a telephone interview. \u201cAt some point, you have to resign yourself to fate, but I\u2019m really disappointed about how the (Florida) Department of State and the Division of Elections handled this.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

It would have been his 11th time running for office \u2014 not counting one race he began and withdrew from \u2014 and his third time running for attorney general.<\/p>\n

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. \u201cI contemplated filing a lawsuit, but at this rate it seems like it\u2019s not an option. I\u2019m kind of resigned to it at this point that I\u2019m not going to qualify.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Last time?<\/p>\n

Lewis most recently ran for mayor of Fort Lauderdale. He came in fourth in the 2024 race, receiving 9.5% of the vote.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also unsuccessfully run \u2014 as a Democrat, as a Republican and as an independent\/no party affiliation candidate \u2014 for state attorney general, Broward state attorney, Broward public defender, Fort Lauderdale city commissioner, circuit judge and state representative.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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,\u201d Lewis said<\/a> in 2022. \u201cMy 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Thursday he keeps running because \u201cat some point people are going to realize that you don\u2019t gauge candidates based on the amount of money that they can raise. \u2026 I\u2019m going to be that little voice in the wilderness screaming in the forest when nobody\u2019s listening to stop backing candidates that put up the most money.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, though, that he might not run again. \u201cI\u2019m 68 years old. This is probably it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

AG race<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Lewis wanted a primary, but he said he supports Rodriguez. \u201cI think he\u2019s a good guy. I think he\u2019s very qualified. I think I\u2019m qualified as well. I think I have a lot to say about the direction of this state. I thought a primary would be helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201cBut that\u2019s not the reason I didn\u2019t qualify.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps, he said, it would work out. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s 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\u2019s not me, I hope it\u2019s him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uthmeier was DeSantis\u2019 chief of staff and the final manager of his unsuccessful campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Uthmeier\u2019s campaign website says that \u201cFrom 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Republican Party of Florida\u2019s \u201cSunshine State Showdown\u201d in Hollywood on June 27, Uthmeier emphasized<\/a> conservative approaches to the office.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s term. \u201cWe\u2019re not going to stop until every one of them is behind bars.\u201d He also pledged to push for impeachment of state judges he sees as displaying poor judgment when it comes to dealing with violent criminals.<\/p>\n

\"RepublicanRepublican James Uthmeier, left, and Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez are 2026 candidates for Florida attorney general. (Carline Jean\/South Florida Sun Sentinel, David Santiago\/Miami Herald via TNS)
\nWhat happened<\/p>\n

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\u2019t sign the check with the qualifying fee.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t show Lewis was authorized to sign a campaign check.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"JimJim Lewis, who has run for many state and local offices in Florida over three decades, will not be on the ballot in 2026. (Jim Lewis campaign\/courtesy)<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t have a time-stamped copy to prove the form was received by the agency, and it isn\u2019t posted with all of Lewis\u2019 other candidate forms on the Elections Division website.<\/p>\n

Lewis said he has\u00a0emailed 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.<\/p>\n

And, he said, the state cashed the check for $8,399.28 even though he was told the agency determined he wasn\u2019t authorized to act as a deputy treasurer.<\/p>\n

The state Division of Elections website shows Lewis\u2019 status as \u201cdid not qualify.\u201d A spokesperson for the agency said Wednesday in response to a series of questions confirmed only that \u201che failed to qualify.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com and can be found @browardpolitics on Bluesky, Threads, Facebook and Mastodon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jim Lewis, the Fort Lauderdale lawyer who has run many times for many local, county and state offices,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,112,2715,28,29,249,251,250,114,266,373,5741,5742,115,557,99,109],"class_list":["post-328481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-elections","tag-florida","tag-florida-news","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-miami-dade-county","tag-national-news","tag-national-politics","tag-news","tag-palm-beach-county","tag-politics","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328481","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=328481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}