ORLANDO, Fla. – Aramis Ayala won the Democratic nomination for Florida attorney general.
Ayala, Jim Lewis and Daniel Uhlfelder were all running to be the Democratic nominee for Florida attorney general.
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Ayala will face off with incumbent Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who faced no Republican challengers for the Aug. 23 Florida primary, in the November general election, which is open to all voters.
“I am humbled by tonight’s results as we advance to the General Election and make the case that Ashley Moody has failed on the most fundamental aspects of being Attorney General,” Ayala said in a statement. “As a result of Ashley Moody’s failures, Floridians are less free and less safe. We have seen many of our basic rights eroded, violent crime on the rise, and corporate interests earning more profits at the expense of Floridians having the basic essentials for survival.”
Because Florida is a closed-primary state, only Democrats could vote in this primary. Learn more about what that means for the rest of the election on Aug. 23 HERE.
Lets take a closer look at the three candidates.
Votes
%
Aramis Ayala(D)
Jim Lewis(D)
Daniel Uhlfelder(D)
(0 / 145)
Aramis Ayala
Ayala is an attorney in Orlando who gained prominence when she served a term as the state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties — the Ninth Judicial Circuit — from 2017 to 2020. Before that, she was an assistant state attorney and an assistant public defender.
Ayala ran on a platform of criminal justice reform, and she made a splash in that arena by refusing to seek the death penalty for Markeith Loyd, who has since been convicted for the murders of his ex-girlfriend, her unborn child, and an Orlando police lieutenant, Debra Clayton.
In retaliation, then-Gov. Rick Scott took the Loyd case away from Ayala, along with other death penalty cases. The Florida Supreme Court sided with Scott.
Instead, Ayala created a death penalty review board to decide whether a case merits the death penalty. She championed civil citations instead of punishment for non-violent first-time juvenile offenders, a coalition for domestic abuse and child abuse, and established a low-income bail fund. She also tackled the issue of wrongful convictions with a conviction integrity board.
She plans to continue those policies if elected as state attorney general.
Jim Lewis
Jim Lewis is an attorney in Ft. Lauderdale with ties to the Orlando area. He was an assistant state attorney in Orange County in the 1980s, and served as a special prosecutor at the state level.
Lewis is running under the slogan “Don’t Trump my Florida.” He criticizes Moody for supporting former President Trump and joining the Republican lawsuits to overturn the 2020 election results in several states. He is stricter on abortion laws and is supportive of local governments exercising home rule.
He also wants to decriminalize marijuana, something that he can’t do as an attorney general, and improve programs to deal with addiction and mental illness.
Daniel Uhlfelder
You may know him better as the Florida Grim Reaper. During the pandemic, Florida panhandle attorney Daniel Uhlfelder donned a grim reaper outfit and walked Florida’s opened beaches, driving home his belief that Florida’s COVID policies were dangerous.
Uhlfelder is a trial attorney handling cases ranging from crime to liability.
Uhlfelder criticizes Moody, saying she works as the governor’s personal attorney, bullying people the two don’t agree with. He says he would use the office to be a consumer advocate, going after Florida utilities like FPL for rate hikes, insurance companies and real estate developers. He also said he would refuse to prosecute women for getting an abortion.
Votes
%
Aramis Ayala(D)
Jim Lewis(D)
Daniel Uhlfelder(D)
(0 / 145)