Three of the most powerful public officials in Florida were not elected by voters. They were handpicked by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Without having first won statewide elections for their current positions, Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Attorney General James Uthmeier have not allowed this lack of a voter mandate to make them bashful about using their positions to champion conservative policy priorities and bash critics and rivals. Moody, who replaced Marco Rubio when he became President Donald Trump’s secretary of state, has a lower-key style but is a reliable force pushing conservative values in the nation’s capital.

For the past year, Ingoglia, the CFO, has advocated for property tax reform by taking that message on the road, holding cross-state press conferences in cities across Florida to criticize local governments and shame local officials for what he has deemed excessive spending, often while offering few specific cases of mismanagement or largesse. That message has buttressed DeSantis’ advocacy for drastically slashing property taxes, a critical financial lifeline for Florida cities and counties.

Uthmeier, DeSantis’ former chief of staff, meanwhile, has used his office for a series of attention-grabbing moves, from choosing Martin Luther King Jr. Day to broadcast his disapproval of racial-quota laws to suing major corporations ranging from the NFL to OpenAI. Recently, he scolded the Catholic Church on doctrine. He’s called for the ouster of judges and elected prosecutors whose legal positions he disagrees with. And he was the driving force behind Alligator Alcatraz, a $1 billion-plus project opponents called a boondoggle that drained Florida’s emergency funds.

Their actions have brought new political visibility to Cabinet positions traditionally associated with more technical, lower-key responsibilities.

Unlike the appointed Cabinet members, Moody has worried Republicans with her quieter approach to politics as she faces off against state Rep. Angie Nixon, a charismatic Democratic Socialist who defeated a far more resourced challenger in the primary. Moody has so far refused to debate Nixon, hoping instead to ride political gravity in a formerly purple state that has become a Republican stronghold.

Florida law allows the governor to make interim appointments when vacancies occur rather than leaving offices empty until the next election. That unusual set of circumstances has presented itself to DeSantis several times, giving him the opportunity to ensure that his influence does not necessarily leave Tallahassee when he does, said Jasmine Burney-Clark, founder of Equal Ground, a progressive civic-engagement organization.

“Governor DeSantis has had an extraordinary opportunity to put his imprint on offices that are supposed to have their own independent constituencies and responsibilities,” Burney-Clark said. “With appointments of our Supreme Court justices, in addition to the appointments of his Cabinet members, we see him ensuring that the guidance of the Legislature falls under the agenda items that he wishes and wants to have moved forward.”

In addition to those three high-profile appointments, DeSantis also appointed six of the seven Florida Supreme Court justices, who more often than not have signed off on DeSantis’ priorities, including multiple redistricting fights that empowered the Republican Party.

Ingoglia, Moody and Uthmeier are now facing voters for the first time but have the power of incumbency at their backs. Their campaigns offer voters an opportunity to assess the records they have built since taking office and raise a broader question: How much influence will DeSantis’ political legacy continue to have on Florida’s political landscape in the years ahead?

None of the three campaigns responded to The Florida Trib’s requests for comment.

The crusade against local governments

Ingoglia has put himself in the vanguard advancing DeSantis’ agenda as an appointed Cabinet member by targeting what he argues is excessive spending by local governments – a cause the governor has taken up in his waning days in office. 

DeSantis is backing Amendment 3, a measure that will appear on the November ballot that would slash property taxes, which critics – from a bipartisan coalition including police and firefighters to local officials – have said would cause catastrophic cuts to essential services in communities across the state.

In that fight, DeSantis has been able to count on Ingoglia.

“Hammering away on local governments is not only a way for the CFO to attract Republican and conservative votes, but just more broadly: It’s a popular appeal,” said Aubrey Jewett, an associate director at the School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs at the University of Central Florida. “He’s come up with his own very general formula that says what, you know, what were you spending five years ago? Now let’s look at population growth and inflation, and anything over that we’re going to call wasteful.”

Ingoglia developed a formula that uses local governments’ 2019-20 budgets as a baseline, adjusting for inflation and population growth. Ingoglia considers spending above that adjusted baseline to be excessive and wasteful. 

Ingoglia’s method doesn’t account for the particular circumstances of each city, such as rising costs for specific services, faster growth among populations that rely on those services, new policy priorities, federal mandates or unexpected emergencies. He also doesn’t provide local governments with specific lists of cuts that he thinks should be made, leaving those politically difficult choices unaccounted for.

“Nuance is harder to convey politically. Elected officials tend to avoid those conversations because the difficulty of conveying those nuances is substantially more difficult than a catchy one-liner,” said Craig Burnett, a professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University.

His blunt methodology lays the groundwork for Ingoglia’s argument that local officials can reduce taxes without cutting essential services. 

“The major obstacle to any property tax reform proposal is the effect it would have on local services… One way to counter this concern would be to provide a basis for claiming that local governments are overspending, and therefore do not actually need much of the money they would be poised to lose, at least if they were to more responsibly manage their finances,” said Sean Freeder, an associate professor of political science at the University of North Florida.

Local governments have pushed back against Ingoglia’s accusations. 

Jacksonville was the first city in Ingoglia’s state tour. In September 2025, he said the city was spending about $200 million above his population-and-inflation benchmark, though, as he’d do later on his roadshow, he didn’t identify where those cuts should come from. In June of this year, he returned to Jacksonville and said the figure had grown to more than $275 million, blaming the city’s spending increases in part on Democratic Mayor Donna Deegan’s administration.

“(Ingoglia’s) methodology doesn’t account for the historic investments we are making to improve infrastructure in neighborhoods that have been waiting since the city and county government consolidated in 1968,” Deegan said in a statement to the Florida Trib. “Unfortunately, the Florida DOGE effort seems to have been focused on political and not practical priorities, including selling an unpopular property tax amendment that will hurt our ability to fund public safety and core city services if it passes.”

DeSantis’ legacy on the ballot

The last year has not only changed the relationship between local and state governments. Throughout DeSantis’ time in office, Florida itself has changed, shifting from a competitive battleground state to one that is now firmly Republican. That transformation is part of a legacy that could continue after he leaves office.

And it could be cemented by his appointments.

In crucial ways, however, Moody and Uthmeier’s associations with the DeSantis administration have also attracted unwanted attention. They’ve come under criticism for their connections to the Hope Florida scandal, born out of one of DeSantis’ signature efforts to replace traditional government welfare programs with charity.

A Leon County grand jury found that $10 million in Medicaid settlement funds were redirected through Casey DeSantis’ Hope Florida Foundation to political committees opposing the legalization of recreational marijuana. Its report identified Uthmeier as the official who directed the settlement money after it reached Hope Florida. The grand jury found that Moody authorized her chief deputy to sign off on the settlement. 

The grand jury found insufficient evidence to charge anyone criminally, and the two have denied any wrongdoing. 

Beyond their shared conservative politics, critics see in their appointments a governor rewarding loyal toadies with valuable promotions. The November election will be the first time voters get a chance to decide whether Moody or Uthmeier should be held accountable for their roles in the scandal.

But they’ll be heading to the ballot box in a state the governor has profoundly shaped.

“It’s accurate to say that Gov. DeSantis has been one of the most impactful, influential governors that Florida has had. Part of that is because he helped oversee changing Florida from a competitive battleground state in statewide elections to one that is now a red state,” said Jewett. “Also because a lot of his governing philosophy and specific policy preferences will continue after he’s gone.”

Zoe Millán is a journalist and graduate of the M.S. at Columbia School of Journalism and a summer 2026 fellow with The Florida Trib. You can reach Zoe at zoe.millan@floridatrib.org.