{"id":439268,"date":"2026-10-27T10:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T10:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/439268\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T10:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T10:30:14","slug":"what-to-know-about-the-florida-agriculture-commissioner-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/439268\/","title":{"rendered":"What to know about the Florida agriculture commissioner race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida’s agriculture commissioner <\/a>oversees a lot, from farming policy to things like concealed carry permits and food safety. <\/p>\n

Voters will decide who holds the position starting next year in the Nov. 3 general election.<\/p>\n

Here’s what voters need to know about the candidates who want to lead the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Who are the candidates?<\/p>\n

The Republican incumbent is Commissioner Wilton Simpson. <\/p>\n

Before winning that election in 2022, Simpson served in the Florida Legislature, with his tenure there capped off with a term as Senate president<\/a>. Simpson is a fifth-generation farmer who owned a “large-scale egg-laying operation” in the state for more than four decades, according to his state biography<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ THIS THROWBACK: Agriculture experience influences Florida Senate candidate Wilton Simpson<\/a><\/p>\n

The Democrat running against him: Joey Mendoza Atkins. He’s a trial attorney whose campaign website <\/a>says some of his “proudest work” has been providing legal aid to farmworkers and DACA youth<\/a>. His bio also describes his work as a sports agent.<\/p>\n

“My breadth of experience covers the legal, nonprofit, public and private sectors, including policy work with the UN\u2019s Global Compact<\/a>, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative,” the bio reads.<\/p>\n

Atkins on the issues<\/p>\n

On his website, Atkins says he will focus on fighting price gouging and that he wants to suspend the state’s gas tax.<\/p>\n

He also says he wants a statewide moratorium on data centers and will fight to “block and ban data centers.”<\/p>\n

“Joey will fight for family farms by protecting farmland from predatory developers,” his website also says.<\/p>\n

Click here <\/a>to read more from his campaign.<\/p>\n

Speaking to WLRN’s The Florida Roundup<\/a> last week, he additionally said he wants to push the Legislature to stop what’s called the “rent-a-cow” loophole, referring to a law that he says allows some property owners to “simply put a few cattle on their property and start receiving tax benefits that were never meant to go to them in the first place.”<\/p>\n

Atkins also criticized the Trump administration’s immigration raids, saying they’ve had “absolutely catastrophic, crippling effects” on agricultural communities. <\/p>\n

He emphasized how the commissioner of agriculture is a Cabinet position<\/a>. The Cabinet is an executive branch governing body that makes big decisions for the state.<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of power and influence just from a pure advocacy standpoint, just from if you’re banging the door down and getting in the ear of the governor and the Legislature to promote policies that are good for Floridians,” Atkins said.<\/p>\n

Simpson on the issues<\/p>\n

The Florida Roundup said it reached out to Simpson’s team for him to also appear on the show \u2014 to no avail.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump-endorsed Simpson on his campaign website where Simpson touts his first term as commissioner.<\/p>\n

“The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has focused on strengthening agriculture, protecting consumers, and delivering measurable results for Floridians,” the website reads. “From preserving farmland to reducing regulatory burdens, these efforts are helping secure Florida\u2019s future.”<\/p>\n

The website points to laws Simpson has supported and championed as commissioner. They include a measure banning fluoride<\/a> from tap water, another banning lab-grown meat<\/a>, one excusing absences<\/a> for students participating in 4-H and FFA agricultural education programs, and legislation preventing <\/a>\u201cforeign countries of concern\u201d and certain people connected to them from buying agricultural land.<\/p>\n

He also says his department has gotten rid of unnecessary rules, expedited license renewals, strengthened wildfire mitigation, and cleared a backlog of concealed weapon license applications.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to read more from the campaign.<\/p>\n

If you have any questions about state government or the legislative process, you can ask the Your Florida team\u00a0by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This story was produced by WUSF as part of a statewide journalism initiative funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida’s agriculture commissioner oversees a lot, from farming policy to things like concealed carry permits and food safety.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11591,170414,28,171614,30,29,130814,9962],"class_list":["post-439268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-2026-election","tag-2026-florida-election","tag-florida","tag-florida-agricultural-commissioner","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-joey-mendoza-atkins","tag-wilton-simpson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439268","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=439268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}