Jacob Ogles
Andrew Bain, the Orlando area State Attorney appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, will seek election without party affiliation.
While Bain originally filed as a Republican candidate, he informed the Division of Elections earlier this month he planned to run with no party affiliation instead. On April 24, he signed a candidate oath to that effect and he paid the qualification fee to run for a four-year term running the State Attorney’s Office for the 9th Judicial Circuit.
Two Republican candidates, Thomas “Fighter” Feiter and Seth Hyman, have also qualified. Qualifying without party affiliation means Bain will advance to the General Election, where he’s expected to face the winner of the GOP Primary and Democrat Monique Worrell, who won election as State Attorney in 2020 but was suspended by DeSantis last year.
Worrell was one of two Democratic State Attorneys who were suspended by DeSantis in the last two years, then replaced with Republicans. Both of those suspended officials are contesting the move in court while running for election to a new term. Suspended State Attorney Andrew Warren is challenging appointed State Attorney Suzy Lopez in Florida’s 13th Judicial Circuit.
But while Lopez is running as a Republican and can enjoy DeSantis’ unqualified support, Bain has now set himself up to run against a Republican nominee.
That’s after DeSantis has brought the State Attorney up on stage at press conferences, sometimes at events about matters unrelated to the office. For example, DeSantis earlier this year called Bain to the microphone at a press conference about changes at the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.
Bain is also running for election in a Democratic jurisdiction, where he may now potentially split the Republican and Republican-leaning vote. The circuit includes Orange County, where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by 111,000 voters, and Osceola County, where Democrats enjoy a 23,000-voter edge.
3 comments
Phil Morton
April 25, 2024 at 5:03 am
Bain is not running for “re-election”. He was never elected.
Pancho Villar
April 25, 2024 at 9:36 am
Pretty shrewd move, especially if he can siphon off independent voters from the GOP & Dem candidates. I’m curious if this gamble could pay off. He’ll be lacking party funds, unless he proves a prodigious fundraiser.
Dont Say FLA
April 25, 2024 at 4:15 pm
Agreed. Shrewd! Bain realized the only path to a win in a general election anymore for conservative candidates is to skip the G0P primary’s demands for the crazy talk the MAGA base requires of their candidates.
Independent is also the only way for law and order conservative candidates to avoid the G0P’s mandatory fundraising for keeping The Donaldzzzzzz out of the prisonzzzzzzzzzz