October 13, 2025 • 6 mins
Publisher of Southeast Politics Janelle Irwin-Taylor analyzes President Trump’s endorsement of Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, exploring what the decision reveals about Trump’s strategy in Florida politics and its potential impact on the state’s Republican landscape.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want to go to the hotline and bring in
Southeast Politics publisher Janelle Irwin Taylor. You can check out
all of her working a whole lot more at Southeast
politics dot com and you can follow her on x
at Janelle Irwin fl So, Janelle, I wanted to have
you on to talk a little bit about this announcement
that came down last week, which I thought was very interesting,
especially with all the kind of behind the scenes dynamics
(00:23):
that we've talked about in the past involving Team Trump
and Team DeSantis. You had President Trump endorsing Florida Attorney
General James Utmeyer in his race to continue as attorney
general in twenty twenty six. What did you make of
that decision, that announcement, Well.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It was certainly surprising, and I think it took a
lot of people by storm. You know, up until then,
there had been an expectation that Florida House Speaker Daniel
Perez was going to challenge Utmeyer, so that's now not happening.
Perez has since said that is he is not going
(01:04):
to run. He had reportedly been encouraged by the Trump
administration to run, which is why the endorsement was so shocking,
though Trump claims that that was not the case, that
that did not happen, So, you know, I think that
this could have some perhaps trickle down effects. At the
(01:25):
same time that there was an expectation that the Trump
administration was going to potentially back Daniel Perez against Utmier,
there was also another man who visited the White House,
state representative, Kevin Steele, who was reportedly urged to run
against Blaze and Goglia for Chief Financial Officer. So you know,
(01:46):
whether or not this signals that that hold desantus Trump
proxy war is not going to happen, that's now kind
of the big question. Does that mean that Kevin Steele
has to take his foot off the gas. He's already
created a political committee to explore running, So you know,
there's some other implications. But I think everybody kind of
close to the situation understands that there were sort of
(02:09):
two things that really helped Utmyer get the president's support.
One was on his work on bringing Alligator Alcatraz to Florida,
regardless of how that turned out. Yeah, and then the.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for it not to
really be up and running all that long, but you know,
he got the endorsement of Trump's so totally worth it.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And then the other was maybe a little bit bigger,
and that was securing a location for a Trump's presidential
library in South Florida, which really ingratiated him to the president.
But it's still shocking because this is a man who
worked for desantus Is twenty twenty four presidential election briefly,
so that really you would think that that would put
him kind of in the President's bad graces. But I
(02:55):
guess water under the bridge.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah. Again, when I saw that, I thought that was
a very interesting and notable development, and it really clears
the path for James Soupemeyer to win that GOP primary
and obviously if there even is one, uh, and then
the general election probably as well. Now let's talk about
the race for governor. We're joined by Southeast Politics publisher
Janelle Irwin Taylor. You've got Congressman Byron Donald's Trump's pick.
(03:20):
He just continues to raise tons and tons of money,
got a number of endorsements from prominent sheriffs all across
the state recently, and more and more. You wonder is
Lieutenant Governor j Colens is he going to get in
the race.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, you know, I think the window for Collins jumping
in this race is fastly closing. You have, the most
recent news is that Paul Renner raised nearly four million dollars.
It was a decent sum of money. It was it
was a good, good financial activity for his kind of
right out the gate performance. But you know, Donald has
(04:01):
Trump's endorsement. He's raised more than thirty million dollars of
just a huge war chest, so you know, to come
behind from that, even if Collins were to enter the
race as DeSantis's hand picked candidate, because DeSantis, if you
remember when Paul Renner was getting in the race, called
it an ill advised decision, although Renner maintains that he
(04:25):
will earn the governor's support eventually.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
We're actually going to have a real quick former House
Speaker Paul Renner in studio with us tomorrow, So perhaps
some of these topics will come up during that discussion. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I mean, I think there will be some voters even
within the GOP, some GOP primary voters who want to
see an alternative to a more kind of bombastic, if
you will, Trump picked candidate like you have in Byron
Donald and Paul Renner is really known as kind of
the ultimate state. So I mean, there may be a
(05:02):
lane for him, but when you have President Trump backing
his horse, it's very very hard to overcome that, especially
when you're staring at a thirty plus million dollar war
chest coming down on top of you.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
And I also think you mentioned the money that Byron
Donald's has raised. But he also has the ability, and
he does this very well of getting a lot of
free media going and doing interviews on not just Fox
or Newsmax or something like that. He'll go on CNN,
he'll go on on MSNBC, and so that free media
(05:36):
aspect too. He's just going to get more and more
of that as we get closer and closer to twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Absolutely absolutely, and that does make a huge difference. And
you also have to consider the political climate in today's
day and age. The sort of in your face brand
of politics is what wins elections, and Paul Renner is
not known for his in your face politicking.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
All right, Janaille Irwin Taylor, publisher of Southeast Politics with us.
You can check out all of our work and a
whole lot more at southeastpolitics dot com and you can
find her on x at Janelle IRWINFL Janelle, thanks so much,
really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
In The Ryan Gorman Show five to nine every weekday
morning on news radio w FLA
I want to go to the hotline and bring in
Southeast Politics publisher Janelle Irwin Taylor. You can check out
all of her working a whole lot more at Southeast
politics dot com and you can follow her on x
at Janelle Irwin fl So, Janelle, I wanted to have
you on to talk a little bit about this announcement
that came down last week, which I thought was very interesting,
especially with all the kind of behind the scenes dynamics
(00:23):
that we've talked about in the past involving Team Trump
and Team DeSantis. You had President Trump endorsing Florida Attorney
General James Utmeyer in his race to continue as attorney
general in twenty twenty six. What did you make of
that decision, that announcement, Well.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
It was certainly surprising, and I think it took a
lot of people by storm. You know, up until then,
there had been an expectation that Florida House Speaker Daniel
Perez was going to challenge Utmeyer, so that's now not happening.
Perez has since said that is he is not going
(01:04):
to run. He had reportedly been encouraged by the Trump
administration to run, which is why the endorsement was so shocking,
though Trump claims that that was not the case, that
that did not happen, So, you know, I think that
this could have some perhaps trickle down effects. At the
(01:25):
same time that there was an expectation that the Trump
administration was going to potentially back Daniel Perez against Utmier,
there was also another man who visited the White House,
state representative, Kevin Steele, who was reportedly urged to run
against Blaze and Goglia for Chief Financial Officer. So you know,
(01:46):
whether or not this signals that that hold desantus Trump
proxy war is not going to happen, that's now kind
of the big question. Does that mean that Kevin Steele
has to take his foot off the gas. He's already
created a political committee to explore running, So you know,
there's some other implications. But I think everybody kind of
close to the situation understands that there were sort of
(02:09):
two things that really helped Utmyer get the president's support.
One was on his work on bringing Alligator Alcatraz to Florida,
regardless of how that turned out. Yeah, and then the.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars for it not to
really be up and running all that long, but you know,
he got the endorsement of Trump's so totally worth it.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
And then the other was maybe a little bit bigger,
and that was securing a location for a Trump's presidential
library in South Florida, which really ingratiated him to the president.
But it's still shocking because this is a man who
worked for desantus Is twenty twenty four presidential election briefly,
so that really you would think that that would put
him kind of in the President's bad graces. But I
(02:55):
guess water under the bridge.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Yeah. Again, when I saw that, I thought that was
a very interesting and notable development, and it really clears
the path for James Soupemeyer to win that GOP primary
and obviously if there even is one, uh, and then
the general election probably as well. Now let's talk about
the race for governor. We're joined by Southeast Politics publisher
Janelle Irwin Taylor. You've got Congressman Byron Donald's Trump's pick.
(03:20):
He just continues to raise tons and tons of money,
got a number of endorsements from prominent sheriffs all across
the state recently, and more and more. You wonder is
Lieutenant Governor j Colens is he going to get in
the race.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, you know, I think the window for Collins jumping
in this race is fastly closing. You have, the most
recent news is that Paul Renner raised nearly four million dollars.
It was a decent sum of money. It was it
was a good, good financial activity for his kind of
right out the gate performance. But you know, Donald has
(04:01):
Trump's endorsement. He's raised more than thirty million dollars of
just a huge war chest, so you know, to come
behind from that, even if Collins were to enter the
race as DeSantis's hand picked candidate, because DeSantis, if you
remember when Paul Renner was getting in the race, called
it an ill advised decision, although Renner maintains that he
(04:25):
will earn the governor's support eventually.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
We're actually going to have a real quick former House
Speaker Paul Renner in studio with us tomorrow, So perhaps
some of these topics will come up during that discussion. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
I mean, I think there will be some voters even
within the GOP, some GOP primary voters who want to
see an alternative to a more kind of bombastic, if
you will, Trump picked candidate like you have in Byron
Donald and Paul Renner is really known as kind of
the ultimate state. So I mean, there may be a
(05:02):
lane for him, but when you have President Trump backing
his horse, it's very very hard to overcome that, especially
when you're staring at a thirty plus million dollar war
chest coming down on top of you.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
And I also think you mentioned the money that Byron
Donald's has raised. But he also has the ability, and
he does this very well of getting a lot of
free media going and doing interviews on not just Fox
or Newsmax or something like that. He'll go on CNN,
he'll go on on MSNBC, and so that free media
(05:36):
aspect too. He's just going to get more and more
of that as we get closer and closer to twenty
twenty six.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Absolutely absolutely, and that does make a huge difference. And
you also have to consider the political climate in today's
day and age. The sort of in your face brand
of politics is what wins elections, and Paul Renner is
not known for his in your face politicking.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
All right, Janaille Irwin Taylor, publisher of Southeast Politics with us.
You can check out all of our work and a
whole lot more at southeastpolitics dot com and you can
find her on x at Janelle IRWINFL Janelle, thanks so much,
really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Always a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
In The Ryan Gorman Show five to nine every weekday
morning on news radio w FLA
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Paper Ghosts: The Texas Teen Murders
Paper Ghosts: The Texas Teen Murders takes you back to 1983, when two teenagers were found murdered, execution-style, on a quiet Texas hill. What followed was decades of rumors, false leads, and a case that law enforcement could never seem to close. Now, veteran investigative journalist M. William Phelps reopens the file — uncovering new witnesses, hidden evidence, and a shocking web of deaths that may all be connected. Over nine gripping episodes, Paper Ghosts: The Texas Teen Murders unravels a story 42 years in the making… and asks the question: who’s really been hiding the truth?
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com