Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday named his former chief of staff, James Uthmeier as Florida’s attorney general, handing the state’s top law enforcement role to a trusted aide who has helped orchestrate and defend some of his most divisive initiatives.

Uthmeier was sworn in Monday during a ceremony in Tallahassee. The 37-year-old becomes one of the youngest state attorneys general and the latest person to benefit from the political shuffle sparked by President Donald Trump ’s drafting of Sunshine State Republicans for his new administration. Uthmeier is poised to spearhead Florida’s legal battles to bolster Trump’s sweeping conservative agenda, at a time when the state’s leaders are eager to pass new laws and challenge legal precedent to demonstrate their allegiance to the president.

Uthmeier succeeds former Attorney General Ashley Moody, whom the governor tapped to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Marco Rubio, Trump’s pick to be U.S. secretary of state.

DeSantis said Uthmeier was a “bulldog in our administration” who will not shy away from a difficult fight. The Republican governor praised Uthmeier’s work in his administration, including fighting federal mandates during the COVID-19 pandemic and combating diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher education.

“All throughout our administration, James was always digging in and fighting for what was right even when it wasn’t easy,” DeSantis said during the ceremony.

Uthmeier in his remarks promised to “endeavor every day to do what is right and to levy justice where it is due.”

“We will champion an America-first agenda, and we will fight back against the cartels, the gangs, and the traffickers that have wreaked havoc on our country for far too long,” Uthmeier said. “We will not stand idly by as the left tries to infiltrate our institutions and use the court system to indoctrinate our kids. We will fight the activists that try to weaken our duly enacted laws that try to challenge our constitutional order and that try to harm the unborn.”

Speaking to the Yale Federalist Society earlier this month, DeSantis suggested Uthmeier could pursue state charges against Dr. Anthony Fauci. Before leaving office, President Joe Biden pardoned Fauci — the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases — to guard against potential “revenge” by the new Trump administration for his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He started at the governor’s office as deputy general counsel in 2019 and was promoted to general counsel the following year.

In 2021, Uthmeier became chief of staff, but took a leave of absence in 2023 to manage DeSantis’ unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination. DeSantis bowed out after losing to Trump in the Iowa caucuses by 30 percentage points and Uthmeier returned to his chief of staff role.

Uthmeier grew up in the beach resort town of Destin, Florida, and attended the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and political science, and a master’s degree in international business.

After graduating from Georgetown Law School in 2014, he spent years in Washington, where he interned as a law clerk in Rubio’s office. He worked as an associate at Jones Day, a major law firm, before joining the Trump administration in 2017, where he served as a senior adviser to then-Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

For the past six years, Uthmeier has helped orchestrate and defend some of the governor’s most controversial and legally questionable initiatives, including a state-funded effort to fly about 50 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Uthmeier also chaired two political committees — Keep Florida Clean and the Florida Freedom Fund — that raised more than $1 million to oppose measures on the 2024 ballot that would have expanded abortion rights and legalized recreational marijuana.

A majority of Florida voters backed the proposals, but the initiatives failed to clear the 60% threshold needed to pass after DeSantis’ office used state money and his considerable influence to oppose them.

The state’s Attorney General’s Office has a record of defending the conservative agendas of DeSantis and Trump. Moody spent months arguing to keep the abortion rights and recreational marijuana proposals off the 2024 ballot in Florida and was one of the Republican attorneys generals who joined a lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to overturn Biden’s election victory in the 2020.

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Payne reported from Tallahassee, Florida. She is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

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