Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended another top prosecutor on Wednesday, claiming State Attorney Monique Worrell, a Democrat, was too soft on crime in her Orlando-area district.
“Prosecutors have a duty to faithfully enforce a law. One’s political agenda cannot trump this solemn duty,” DeSantis said at a press conference Wednesday morning. “Accordingly, I am today announcing the suspension of State Attorney Monique Worrell.”
Worrell’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.
DeSantis ― who is running for the Republican presidential nomination ― has repeatedly criticized Worrell, a progressive and reform-minded prosecutor who was elected to her office in 2020. Worrell is Black; DeSantis is white.
In April, Worrell’s office warned that DeSantis had targeted her, writing in a letter that DeSantis “seeks to exploit his political agenda against me” and that his office was trying to “build and justify a baseless case against a prosecutor he simply disagrees with politically.”
In her own fiery press conference on Wednesday, Worrell claimed that DeSantis’ office has been pursuing her for over a year.
“Under this tyranny, elected officials can be removed simply for political purposes and from the whim of the governor, and no matter how you feel about me you should not be ok with that,” Worrell said.
“This is simply a smoke screen for Ron DeSantis’ failing and disastrous [presidential] campaign. He needed to get back in the media in some way that will be red meat for his base.”
DeSantis, who was once seen as a potential threat to Donald Trump in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination but has since fallen in the polls, has made fighting “woke” a central part of his presidential campaign. Among his better-known policies in Florida are the anti-LGBTQ+ laws known as “Don’t Say Gay,” which prohibit discussion of gender identity and sexual orientation in schools, and the Individual Freedom Act, popularly known as the Stop WOKE Act, which restricts how businesses and public schools can address issues around race.
In his executive order suspending Worrell, DeSantis accused her of authorizing or allowing “practices or policies that have systematically permitted violent offenders, drug traffickers, serious-juvenile offenders, and pedophiles to evade incarceration, when otherwise warranted under Florida law.”
Worrell, whose suspension is effective immediately, will be replaced by Andrew Bain, a member of the conservative legal group the Federalist Society.
Some of the conflict between DeSantis and Worrell’s office comes from individual cases, such as that of Keith Moses, a 19-year-old Black man who allegedly went on a shooting spree in Pine Hills on Feb. 22 that killed three, including a local journalist and a 9-year-old child. Following the shooting, DeSantis called Moses a threat to society and accused Worrell’s office of negligence for not prosecuting him for an earlier marijuana offense.
As of August, Moses has pleaded not guilty and is being held awaiting trial. While Worrell has said she is against enforcing the death penalty, her office announced in May she would pursue it due to Florida law.
Worrell, for her part, accused DeSantis of politicizing the shooting in order to undermine her.
Her fellow Black women prosecutor colleagues, as well as fellow Democrats, rallied behind Worrell following the suspension.
“I think DeSantis actions are appalling, blatantly political and a foreseeable usurpation of power by a demagogue seeking to revoke the will of the voters that elected this Black woman into office,” Marilyn Mosby, former state’s attorney for Baltimore, told HuffPost.
“This is yet another ill-contrived strategy to attack progressive prosecutors and maintain the status quo. I pray that the people of Florida see past the illusions and resist his wicked scheme.”
Kim Foxx, Cook County state’s attorney in Chicago, sharply criticized DeSantis, noting the broader attack on Black women prosecutors in large cities.
“Like so many of Governor DeSantis’ irresponsible actions, removing DA Worrell is desperate and pathetic. It is not only racist and sexist, but it laughs in the face of democracy and justice. As his political ambitions are crumbling, this action is his sad attempt to rally what’s left of his base, and as a result, real people suffer. I am disgusted,” Foxx told HuffPost.
“This is the latest salvo in the unrelenting national attacks on Black women prosecutors in the last six years. Black women make up less than 2% of elected prosecutors, and our simple existence is revolutionary.”
In a statement, Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried supported Worrell. “Ron DeSantis has gone too far,” Fried said, calling the suspension a “political hit job.”
“Ron’s extremist administration has consistently targeted the rights and freedoms of Black and brown Floridians, and the suspension of State Attorney Worrell — the only Black woman state attorney in Florida — is clearly racially and politically motivated,” the statement continued. The Florida Democratic Party is demanding the immediate reinstatement of Worrell.
Other Democrats also rallied behind Worrell. In a statement, Rep. Maxwell Frost, whose district encompasses Orlando, laid into DeSantis. “For months, this Governor has chosen to not only attack but abuse the power of his office to feed red meat to his conservative base and remove elected officials who threaten his agenda,” he said. “There is only one person in our state whose’ administration has been ‘clearly and fundamentally derelict, so as to constitute neglect of duty and incompetence’ and it’s the person sitting in the Governor’s Mansion.”
DeSantis’ office did not immediately reply to HuffPost’s request for comment.
The decision comes almost a year after DeSantis suspended another Democratic prosecutor, State Attorney Andrew Warren of Hillsborough County, also for supposed incompetence and neglect of duty. The suspension came two months after Warren co-signed a letter with other progressive prosecutors that criticized DeSantis-backed bans on abortion and trans health care in Florida. Warren is now suing DeSantis over his dismissal, saying his First Amendment rights were violated.