‘Partisan politics should have no role’: State Attorney Bain touts independence, but DeSantis looms large

Orange-Osceola State Attorney Andrew Bain is drawing fire for a political evolution that took him from a registered Democrat to an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis — and now has him running as an independent for the job of Central Florida’s top prosecutor.

Five years ago, Bain was a registered Democrat, voter records show, but he switched to no-party affiliation in 2019.

When he kicked off his campaign earlier this year, he signed paperwork that he intended to run as a Republican. He said that was an oversight he quickly corrected. He’ll appear on the ballot as NPA, meaning an independent without party affiliation and not aligned with either Republicans or Democrats.

Bain said his background demonstrates he is independent-minded and will leave partisanship out of the courthouse.

But his opponents are painting Bain as a puppet without firm convictions who is beholden to DeSantis, the Republican who catapulted him to his post.

Complicating Bain’s situation is that blue-leaning Orange and Osceola counties are a tough place for a Republican to run. Given his background and his support network, NPA might be the only designation that makes him a viable candidate in some of the state’s most Democratic friendly turf.

For Bain, though, it all raises a question that will likely define his candidacy: Who is Andrew Bain really, and what does he believe?

DeSantis suspended Democratic State Attorney Monique Worrell in August and replaced her with Bain. That move made national headlines and prompted an outcry from Democrats, who said the Republican governor was usurping the will of the voters.

Worrell is now running to get her job back. Two Republicans are also vying for the position, leaving Bain in the odd position of being viewed as the GOP governor’s candidate but appearing on the ballot without party affiliation.

Gov. Ron DeSantis suspends Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell from office

Thomas Feiter, one of the GOP candidates, said some in his own party are trying to push him aside to make way for Bain.

“I think Andrew Bain’s core beliefs are whatever Gov. DeSantis tells them they should be,”  said Feiter, a lawyer and founder of the firm Fighter Law.

Feiter, too, was once a Democrat, switching to Republican in 2017, voter records show.

Worrell, meanwhile, said Bain’s no-party label can’t mask his allegiance to DeSantis. She also highlighted his membership in the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group that played an instrumental role in undoing the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling protecting abortion rights.

“He was appointed to take my seat undemocratically by an authoritarian, dictatorial Republican governor,” she said.

DeSantis accused the elected Democrat of breaching her duty and not following the law, charges she denies, when he removed her from office.

Bain said he is “beholden only to the law and protecting the community” and not focused on politics.

“Partisan politics should have no role in the State Attorney’s office,” Bain said in an email. “I am registered NPA because the law should be independent of party politics.”

Paperwork error 

Bain’s candidacy kicked off with a paperwork issue that had to be quickly corrected. He signed two one-page forms on April 1 “under penalties of perjury” with boxes checked that he intended to run as a Republican.

The forms dealt with the appointment of a campaign treasurer. Michael Millner, a political accountant, said the fault lies with his firm, the Political Accounting Group, which prepared the form and mostly works with GOP candidates.

“He was never Republican,” Millner said. “We just defaulted to that not thinking, and we were wrong.”

Voter records show that Bain switched his registration from Democrat to no-party affiliation in April 2019. The Orange County elections office had no record of him ever being a registered Republican.

Bain said he corrected the mistake on his candidacy paperwork quickly.

“I signed the documents without noticing that the party information was incorrect,” he said. “As soon as the error came to light it was corrected within 24 hours. It was a human error, nothing more.”

A spokesman with the Florida Division of Elections did not respond to a request for a comment on the mix-up. On April 5, a state elections official wrote a letter to Bain acknowledging he was being switched from a Republican candidate to an NPA one.

Florida law requires no-party candidates to not be a member of any political party for the 365 days before the beginning of the election qualifying period. Voting records indicate Bain met that requirement.

Feiter said while mistakes happen, the paperwork snafu raised questions.  He took the document seriously, he said, because it included bold text that required signers to affirm they had read the form and the information was true “under penalties of perjury.”

“At a bare minimum, it shows carelessness on his behalf,” he said.

Seth Hyman, the other Republican in the race, said he decided to run for state attorney  in January 2023, months before Worrell’s suspension. If he secures the nomination, he said he is committed to running in the general election because he thinks a Republican should be on the ballot.

“I believe we need a state attorney with a common sense traditional approach to prosecution,” said Hyman, a criminal defense lawyer. “We need to make sure people committing crimes are held accountable for their actions.”

Bain says he’s voted for both parties 

Bain, 39, said he decided to switch from a Democrat to no-party affiliation in 2018 when he was working as an assistant state attorney under Aramis Ayala’s leadership because he didn’t like some of her choices in running the office. Ayala, a Democrat who served from 2017 until 2021, stoked controversy with some of her stances, including a decision to not pursue the death penalty for any cases handled by her office.

In 2020, DeSantis boosted Bain’s legal career when he appointed him to serve as a county judge. Bain subsequently won a nonpartisan election in 2022 to stay on the county bench.

Who is Andrew Bain? Federalist Society judge picked by DeSantis to replace Monique Worrell

In the meantime, DeSantis took aim at what he called “woke” prosecutors, making it one of his core “law and order” issues during his unsuccessful presidential bid. In August 2022, he suspended Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren.

A year later, it was Central Florida’s turn. DeSantis ousted Worrell and installed Bain in the position. 

Campaigning as a no-party candidate is likely to help Bain’s prospects in this region, but he’ll have his work cut out for him in a year that will be dominated by the presidential race at the top of the ballot, said Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida.

“There is a pretty small percentage of Republicans in Orange these days,” he said. “Democrats have a big advantage.”

Voters are often unfamiliar with local races and candidates, Jewett added, “so party labels can be more important.”

Worrell won election in 2020 with nearly 66% of the vote. 

Earlier this month, DeSantis suggested his newly created political action committee, the Florida Freedom Fund, would play a role in Orlando’s state attorney race, although he did not provide specifics.

Despite his DeSantis ties, Bain said he isn’t a fierce partisan.

“I have voted for candidates in both political parties, and will continue to vote for the person I believe is best for each elected office,” he said.