orangelOsceola State Attorney Andrew Bain has come under fire for his political transformation from Democrat to Gov. Ron DeSantis appointee and now running as an independent for Central Florida’s top prosecutor job.
Five years ago, Bain was a registered Democrat., He switched to Independent status in 2019, according to voter records.
When he launched his campaign earlier this year, he signed paperwork stating his intention to run as a Republican. He said that was an oversight and quickly corrected it. He will be listed on the ballot as NPA (No Party Affiliated, Independent, Not Affiliated with Republican or Democrat).
Bain said his record shows he is an independent-minded person and that he will not bring partisanship to the court.
But opponents have portrayed Bain as a man of no firm conviction and a puppet beholden to DeSantis, the Republican who put him in the position.
Complicating Bain’s situation is that Democratic-leaning Orange and Osceola counties are tough places for Republican candidates, and given his record and support network, the NPA designation may be the only way to make him a strong contender in the state’s most Democratic-leaning areas.
But for Bain, all of this raises a question that will define his candidacy: Who is Andrew Bain really, and what does he believe?
DeSantis suspended Democratic State’s Attorney Monique Worrell in August and appointed Bain to replace her, a move that made national headlines and sparked outrage from Democrats who said the Republican governor was usurping the will of voters.
Worrell is now running to get his job back. Two other Republicans are also vying for the post, putting Bain in the odds-on position of appearing on the ballot without party affiliation, even though he is considered the Republican candidate for governor.
Gov. Ron DeSantis suspends Orange-Osceola County Attorney Monique Worrell
One Republican candidate, Thomas Fator, said there were those in his own party who were trying to push him aside to make way for Bain.
“I think Andrew Bain’s fundamental beliefs are consistent with what Gov. DeSantis has instructed them to be,” said Fater, an attorney and founder of the Fater Law law firm.
Fator was also a former Democrat, but switched to Republican status in 2017, according to voter records.
Worrell said Bain’s independence doesn’t disguise his loyalty to DeSantis, and he also highlighted Bain’s membership in the Federalist Society, the conservative legal group that played a key role in overturning Roe v. Wade, the abortion-rights Supreme Court decision.
“He was undemocratically appointed by an authoritarian and dictatorial Republican governor to unseat me,” she said.
DeSantis accused the Democrat of breaching her duties and failing to follow the law when he removed her from her position, charges she denies.
Bain said he was “just interested in following the law and protecting the community” and that he was not interested in politics.
“Party politics should not come into play in the State Attorney’s Office,” Bain said in an email. “I am registered with the NPA because the law should be independent of partisan politics.”
Document errors
Bain’s candidacy began with a paperwork issue that needed to be quickly fixed: On April 1, he signed two one-page documents that checked a box indicating he intended to run as a Republican “under penalty of perjury.”
The document concerned the appointment of a campaign finance manager. Political accountant Michael Milner prepared the document and said his firm, Political Accounting Group, which works primarily with Republican candidates, was responsible.
“He was never a Republican,” Milner said. “We assumed that without thinking, and we were wrong.”
Voter records show Bain changed his registration from Democrat to Independent in April 2019. The Orange County elections office had no record of him being registered as a Republican.
Bain said he quickly corrected the error in his candidacy papers.
“I signed the document without realising that the party information was incorrect,” he said. “As soon as the error was discovered it was corrected within 24 hours. It was a human error and nothing more.”
A spokesman for the Florida Department of Elections did not respond to a request for comment about the mix-up. On April 5, state election officials wrote Bain a letter acknowledging his switch from the Republican candidate to the NPA candidate.
Florida law requires independent candidates to not be affiliated with any political party for 365 days before the start of the qualification period, a requirement that Bain met, voting records show.
Fater said mistakes happen, but the confusion on the paperwork raised his doubts. He said he took the documents seriously because they contained bold language requiring signers to swear “under penalty of perjury” that they had read the documents and that the information was true.
“At the very least, it shows his carelessness,” he said.
Seth Hyman, another Republican, said he decided to run for state attorney in January 2023, months before Worrell was suspended, and said he was committed to running in the general election if he won the nomination because he believes Republicans should be on the ballot.
“I believe we need a state’s attorney who takes a common-sense, traditional approach to prosecutions,” said Hyman, the criminal lawyer. “We need to make sure that people who commit crimes are held accountable for their actions.”
Bain says he voted for both parties.
Bain, 39, He said he decided to switch from Democrat to independent because he didn’t like some of the choices Aramis made in running her office while working as an assistant state attorney in 2018. Ayala, a Democrat who served from 2017 to 2021, was controversial for some of his positions, including his decision not to seek the death penalty in any cases handled by his office.
In 2020, Governor DeSantis appointed Bain to the county bench, giving him a boost in his legal career, after which Bain won a nonpartisan election in 2022 to retain his position as county judge.
Who is Andrew Bain? DeSantis picks Federalist Justice to replace Monique Worrell
Meanwhile, DeSantis has targeted so-called “woke” prosecutors, making them one of the centerpieces of his “law and order” agenda in his failed presidential run. In August 2022, he suspended Hillsborough County State’s Attorney Andrew Warren.
A year later, it was Central Florida’s turn: DeSantis fired Worrell and replaced him with Bain..
Campaigning as an independent candidate will likely help Bain’s prospects in the region, but he’ll have a tough job this year with the presidential race at the top of the ballot, said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida.
“There are very few Republicans in Orange County these days,” he said. “Democrats have a big advantage.”
Voters are often less familiar with local elections and candidates, Jewett added, “so party labels can become even more important.”
Worrell won the 2020 election with about 66% of the vote.
Governor DeSantis suggested earlier this month that his newly formed political action committee, the Florida Freedom Fund, would play a role in the Orlando state attorney’s race, but did not provide details.
Despite his ties to DeSantis, Bain said he is not a fervent partisan.
“I have voted for candidates from both political parties and will continue to vote for who I believe is best suited for each elected office,” he said.
