Ousted Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren ended months of political speculation across Florida on Tuesday when he announced that he will run this year to regain the job that Gov. Ron DeSantis removed him from in 2022.
“Today, I’m running for election as State Attorney to serve the people — all the people — of Hillsborough County,” Warren said in a video Tuesday touting his 5½ years as the county’s twice-elected top prosecutor.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to emails and a call for comment.
Warren’s surprise removal came in August 2022 when he was escorted out of his office by a sheriff’s deputy. The Republican governor and the progressive Democrat state attorney had butted heads on issues before. DeSantis announced he was suspending Warren because he said the state attorney refused to enforce certain laws.
Warren called his removal illegal and political theater by a governor planning then to run for president.
After months of legal battles to regain his job, Warren announced earlier this year that he would not run against State Attorney Suzy Lopez, who had been appointed by the governor. Without a ruling in his favor from the courts, Warren said, DeSantis could again suspend him if he won.
But two days after his decision, a federal appeals court handed Warren a favorable ruling that could clear the path for his return to office. Still, given the pace of the courts, there’s no guarantee that would happen before the election. The appeals court ruling has not yet been sent back to a Tallahassee judge to issue a new ruling that could include reinstating him and making him the incumbent.
Asked Tuesday by the Tampa Bay Times what changed his mind about running, Warren pointed to the ruling in his favor that “makes clear that the governor is not above the law and that the will of the people matters.”
Lopez, a longtime prosecutor, is already running hard with support from the local legal community. Between her campaign and a related political action committee, she’s raised more than $400,000.
Warren took aim at her in the video: “My unelected replacement was hand-picked based on one qualification: her blind allegiance to Ron DeSantis,” he said.
Lopez fired back through a campaign spokesperson: “Andrew Warren is an ultra-liberal ideologue who cares more about pleasing the far-left activists and donors that have powered his political career than he does about victims of crimes in Hillsborough County,” said Ryan Smith.
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Explore all your optionsAlso in the race: Elizabeth Martinez Strauss, a Democrat raised in a well-known Tampa legal family. Strauss previously said she thought Warren had been wronged and she hoped he would get his job back. This week she told the Tampa Bay Times that without an update on his legal battle with DeSantis, he is still “a risky candidate.” Strauss said she’ll stay in the race unless Warren gets a favorable ruling before the deadline to qualify on April 26.
The conflict between Warren and the governor centered on pledges he signed along with other prosecutors across the country vowing not to pursue cases involving transgender health care or abortion rights. Warren has argued that putting his name on the statements was not an expression of official policy and the suspension violated his First Amendment rights.
His announcement video Tuesday mentions protecting “a woman’s right to choose.”
DeSantis also took issue with Warren’s policies that discouraged prosecuting certain low-level non-violent crimes and cases arising from police bicycle stops — a practice that has been tied to racial disparities in the criminal court system.
Last year, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle in Tallahassee sided with Warren’s First Amendment claims but ruled that he lacked the power to reinstate Warren.
In January, a 59-page ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal critiquing Hinkle’s legal reasoning contained a crucial footnote that disagreed with the idea that the judge couldn’t return Warren to the job.
But the case has not yet been sent back to Hinkle.
Florida Democratic Party chairperson Nikki Fried, evoking the case of Monique Worrell, whom DeSantis removed as Orange-Osceola State Attorney last year, cheered Warren’s entry into the race via a news release.
“That decision is now rightfully in the hands of voters,” said Fried, “not Ron DeSantis.”
Times staff writer Dan Sullivan and correspondent William March contributed to this report.
