Florida Cabinet Races 2026: Uthmeier, Ingoglia and Simpson Face Democratic Challengers on Nov. 3

Florida voters will fill all three elected seats on the state Cabinet on Nov. 3, and in each race a Republican incumbent backed by President Donald Trump or Gov. Ron DeSantis faces a Democratic challenger running on costs and accountability. Attorney General James Uthmeier and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, both appointed by DeSantis, are on the ballot for the first time, while Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson seeks a second term.

Together with the governor, the three officers make up the Cabinet, which oversees state lands and several agencies, and each also runs a large department of their own. The winners take office in January.

The three matchups at a glance:

Attorney general: Uthmeier vs. Rodríguez

Uthmeier, DeSantis' former chief of staff, was appointed attorney general in 2025 after Ashley Moody moved to the U.S. Senate. He was counsel to Trump's 2016 campaign and later a senior adviser to former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, and Trump has endorsed him, WUSF reported in a race guide published by WLRN on Oct. 23.

Uthmeier says his proudest work is his office's effort to take down child predators, which he says will remain his top priority. He created a unit to investigate companies with ties to China and has sued online platforms over alleged failures to protect minors, most recently Discord, and is taking OpenAI to court. He also helped orchestrate the state's Everglades immigration detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz.

Rodríguez, a Cuban American former state senator from Miami-Dade who served from 2012 to 2020, was assistant secretary of labor for employment and training under President Joe Biden. He has organized his campaign around crime, costs and corruption: going after criminal groups and elder abuse, investigating utility rate setting and billing practices, confronting "corporate landlord" price gouging and wage theft, and making polluters pay for cleanup. He lost his 2020 Senate seat by 34 votes after a recount in a race in which investigators found a "ghost candidate" with the same last name was used to siphon votes; former GOP lawmaker Frank Artiles was convicted of election law violations in that scheme.

The sharpest clash is over Hope Florida. A leaked grand jury report accused the DeSantis administration of misdirecting $10 million from a Medicaid settlement through the Hope Florida Foundation and said Uthmeier, as chief of staff, was involved in directing the money. An appeals court ordered the report's language and key findings struck from the court record. Uthmeier calls the matter politically motivated; Rodríguez has called his opponent "the root of corruption" and promises to recover the $10 million. The Republican Party of Florida sued to block a Democratic ad on the issue, a judge declined an immediate ban, and the party later dropped the suit.

Money and polls in the AG race

Uthmeier holds the fundraising advantage. By March 31 his overall effort had raised $8.26 million, with $7.43 million on hand, compared with a little more than $1 million raised by Rodríguez, according to News Service of Florida reporting. Through the state's public campaign financing program, which matches small Florida donations, Rodríguez had received $335,000 and Uthmeier $170,000 as of mid-October, WLRN reported.

Polls show a tighter race than the party registration gap suggests. A St. Pete Polls survey for Florida Politics taken Oct. 5 to 7 had Uthmeier at 45% and Rodríguez at 43%. A James Madison Institute poll conducted Sept. 28 to Oct. 4 had Uthmeier ahead 50% to 40% among likely voters, while an internal poll for the Rodríguez campaign taken Oct. 11 to 14 showed Rodríguez at 35% and Uthmeier at 34%.

Chief financial officer: Ingoglia vs. Taddeo

The CFO oversees state finances, insurance regulation and fire safety enforcement. DeSantis appointed Ingoglia in July 2025 after Jimmy Patronis resigned to serve in the U.S. House. Ingoglia founded the homebuilder Hartland Homes, served as a Republican state lawmaker and chaired the Republican Party of Florida from 2015 to 2019. He won the GOP primary with about 61% of the vote.

Ingoglia highlights more than 1,300 arrests for fraud and theft of taxpayer dollars, a record $847 million returned in unclaimed property and fines against insurers. He has toured the state accusing local governments of overspending, arguing they can absorb the property tax cuts in Amendment 3, and frames his department's audits as a tool for lowering property tax bills.

Taddeo, founder of the translation company LanguageSpeak, flipped a Republican state Senate district in a 2017 special election and served until 2022 as the chamber's first Latina Democrat. She was Charlie Crist's running mate in 2014 and has lost several other races, including a 2022 U.S. House contest against María Elvira Salazar. She won the Democratic primary with about 66%.

Taddeo's affordability plan promises an insurer "report card" within her first 100 days grading claim response times and denials, "consumer champions" on the Citizens Property Insurance board, teams to help hurricane victims contest claims, and an audit of emergency spending starting with the $1.2 billion spent on Alligator Alcatraz. She supports higher homestead exemptions but opposes Amendment 3, saying it lacks guardrails.

A lopsided money race, an even poll

Through Oct. 2, Taddeo had raised a little more than $175,000 in her campaign account, with nearly $400,000 more in her political committee, while Ingoglia had raised $1.5 million in his campaign account, held another $1.5 million in two allied committees and received more than $1 million in in-kind help, mostly from the state GOP, WLRN reported. Taddeo qualified for public matching money; Ingoglia did not apply. Despite the gap, the James Madison Institute poll showed the CFO race statistically even, the only Cabinet contest where Republicans did not lead by about 10 points. A Change Research poll released by Taddeo's campaign in September had the two tied at 44%.

Agriculture commissioner: Simpson vs. Atkins

Simpson, a former Senate president who describes himself as a fifth-generation farmer and owned a large egg operation in Pasco County for decades, was elected commissioner in 2022. He is endorsed by Trump and DeSantis. He touts laws he backed banning fluoride in tap water and lab-grown meat, restricting land purchases by people tied to "foreign countries of concern," and excusing absences for 4-H and FFA students, and says his department cut rules, sped up license renewals and cleared a backlog of concealed weapon license applications. He won his primary with 68.9% over welder Matt Taylor.

Atkins, a trial attorney and former sports agent who has provided legal aid to farmworkers and young immigrants in the DACA program, won the Democratic nomination with 60.3%. He wants to fight price gouging, suspend the state gas tax, impose a statewide moratorium on data centers, protect family farms from "predatory developers" and close the "rent-a-cow" loophole that he says gives some landowners agricultural tax breaks for keeping a few cattle. He has said Trump administration immigration raids have had "absolutely catastrophic, crippling effects" on farm communities.

Simpson's four political committees held $22.7 million entering the final month, while Atkins had raised about $47,000 and had not qualified for public matching funds, according to WLRN. The James Madison Institute poll had Simpson ahead 50% to 39% among likely voters. Simpson did not accept an invitation to appear on WLRN's The Florida Roundup.

What's next

Early voting is underway statewide and must be offered through at least Saturday, Oct. 31, with Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Republicans outnumber Democrats in Florida by more than 1.5 million registered voters, and no Democrat has won a Cabinet race since Nikki Fried took agriculture commissioner in 2018. The winners will be sworn in in January and serve four-year terms alongside the next governor, either Republican Byron Donalds or Democrat David Jolly.