Jesse Scheckner
James Uthmeier continues to fill out the roster of his Attorney General’s Office.
This week, he confirmed three communications posts. Two are new hires, and one is keeping the job she held under Uthmeier’s predecessor.
Atop the list is new Press Secretary Jae Williams, who joins the Attorney General’s Office after more than three years at the Florida Department of Health, where he worked as Press Secretary and Director of Communications.
Williams is a Tallahassee resident and a seventh-generation Floridian. He holds a Juris Master in health care regulation and a bachelor’s degree in criminology and business from Florida State University.
A short bio from Uthmeier’s Office said Williams is married with a son and enjoys running, hunting, fishing and “frequenting the Capital City’s culinary landscape.”
Cynthia McLaughlin, a journalist-turned-government spokesperson, will be deputy communications director in the Attorney General’s Office. She comes to the job after two years with the Sarasota Police Department, where she worked as the agency’s Public Information Officer.
McLaughlin previously worked as a news anchor for the Suncoast News Network in Sarasota, a morning news anchor for an NBC affiliate in Texas and a multimedia journalist, anchor and web producer for KFYR TV in North Dakota.
According to a brief bio from the Attorney General’s Office, she is an Emmy and Society of Professional Journalists award winner. The bio highlighted her passion for “clear communication, community trust, and making complex issues accessible.”
She holds a journalism degree from Southern Methodist University.
Georgia Pevy, who served as the office’s deputy communication director before Uthmeier took over for Ashley Moody earlier this year, will stay on in the job.
Her work history includes more than five years at the Attorney General’s Office, various campaign staff posts with Moody, and internships at the White House during President Donald Trump’s first term and under then-U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
Pevy earned a master’s degree in public administration from Florida State University and a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of South Florida.
Since he swore in as Attorney General in February, following an appointment by Gov. Ron DeSantis, Uthmeier has been anything but timid in his relatively new role. He’s aimed at retailers and proxy advisers for “woke” business practices that run counter to Florida’s positions on the matter, moved to penalize unscrupulous moving brokers, and ran brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate out of Florida by opening a probe into their alleged human trafficking practices.
He has vowed to prosecute vandalizing protesters at Tesla dealerships with the “full force of the law,” announced he would not prosecute the Florida-banned sales of long guns to people under 21, citing the 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, and repeatedly bashed Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell for having “soft-on-crime” policies.
On Tuesday, he revealed he’d signed an opinion submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently heard a case involving the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The opinion advocates for the federal sanctioning of expanded nuclear power use by states.
Uthmeier has already filed to run for the Attorney General job in the 2026 election cycle. He officially kicked off his campaign last month with a wave of early supporters.
So far, he’s the only candidate running.
Thanks to his experience managing statewide campaigns, Uthmeier could enjoy a fundraising edge. Earlier this month, he launched the political committee Friends of James Uthmeier in anticipation of his statewide run.
He also chairs the still-active Florida Freedom Fund, which last year campaigned successfully to defeat ballot measures that sought to expand access to abortions and marijuana. That committee closed 2024 with over $2.11 million cash on hand, though DeSantis has signaled he would like to use that committee to weigh in during Republican Primary elections next year.
Uthmeier previously chaired Keep Florida Clean, Inc., which focused last year on defeating the marijuana ballot measure. That committee was disbanded in February but has not yet released its final expenditure reports. A disbandment letter said all remaining funding, about $121,000 as of the end of 2024, would be distributed to a 527 political organization.
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Jacob Ogles contributed to this report.
