Florida voters won’t just be picking a new governor this November. Three statewide Cabinet seats are on the ballot too, and the outcome will determine how much of Governor Ron DeSantis’s conservative agenda survives his departure from Tallahassee.

All three offices are currently held by Republicans, and all three incumbents or incumbent-aligned nominees enter the general election with clear advantages in fundraising, name recognition, and a track record voters can actually evaluate — a contrast worth noting given how often statewide races get framed as toss-ups regardless of the underlying numbers.

Attorney General

James Uthmeier, appointed by DeSantis in February 2025 after Ashley Moody moved up to the U.S. Senate, is seeking his first full term. He’s also the only statewide candidate on this year’s ballot who has never faced voters directly — a fact his opponents will likely lean on, even as Uthmeier makes the case that a year and a half of results speaks louder than an election he hasn’t yet run.

And by his own account, those results are substantial: aggressive prosecutions targeting major tech companies over alleged harms tied to AI products, expanded fentanyl enforcement, and what his office describes as record numbers of prosecutions and arrests of child predators. President Trump endorsed Uthmeier’s campaign last October, calling him a “Strong Conservative Fighter” and crediting him with driving the Alligator Alcatraz immigration detention facility.

“If I’ve learned anything from you, governor, the best way to show people you’re the best man for the job is to go do the job and do it well,” Uthmeier said.

His Democratic opponent, Jose Javier Rodriguez, is running on a message of independence from what he characterizes as an office too closely aligned with the governor’s political operation — a familiar Democratic talking point in a state where Republicans have held the AG’s office continuously since 2002. Whether that argument resonates with an electorate that has repeatedly rewarded Uthmeier’s law-and-order record is, at minimum, an open question the polling has yet to answer.

Chief Financial Officer

Blaise Ingoglia, appointed CFO after Jimmy Patronis’s departure and a decade-plus veteran of the Florida Legislature, will face Democrat Annette Taddeo, who advanced through her primary with a pointed message: “Currently, Blaise Ingoglia is a lapdog for the governor and for special interests. I will be the watchdog that we absolutely need.” It’s a charge every out-of-power party levels at every incumbent-aligned candidate in every cycle — worth weighing against Ingoglia’s actual record managing the state’s finances rather than taking at face value.

Agriculture Commissioner

Wilton Simpson, the only Cabinet candidate this cycle actually seeking reelection to a seat he already won outright in 2022, faces Democrat Joey Atkins in what has so far been the quietest of the three races. Simpson points to a policy record squarely aimed at protecting Florida’s food supply and property rights from outside interference: banning lab-grown meat, blocking foreign adversaries from purchasing Florida farmland, and prohibiting local governments from adding substances like fluoride to public water systems without residents’ say. “We’ve done things like ban fake meat in the state of Florida, ban foreign enemies from buying agricultural land in the state of Florida, ban local governments from being able to medicate you through your water systems,” Simpson said.

The Bigger Picture

DeSantis, for his part, isn’t treating any of these races as settled. At a recent GOP event in Tampa, he urged Republicans not to grow complacent as the state heads into a leadership transition, telling the party to keep “their foot on the gas.”

That caution is worth taking seriously. National Democratic enthusiasm, favorable narratives from national outlets eager to paint Florida as newly competitive, and a wide-open governor’s race could combine to produce a closer November than the fundamentals alone would suggest. But heading into the fall, Florida’s Cabinet races look less like genuine toss-ups and more like a test of whether an electorate that has consistently backed conservative stewardship of the state’s legal, financial, and agricultural policy sees any reason to change course now.

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