Worm farmer battles egg farmer in GOP Florida agriculture commissioner race

Wilton Simpson, a multimillionaire egg farmer and state senator from Trilby heavily favored to become the next Florida agriculture commissioner, has a millionaire worm farmer running against him in the Republican primary who may fall short of one of the requirements for the statewide Cabinet position.

Also, the three Democrats who are vying for their party nomination are long shots to defeat Simpson, with little money or name recognition needed for a state Cabinet position. Whoever wins the Aug. 23 primary will face the Republican nominee.

Simpson, a fifth-generation Floridian who calls himself a “common sense conservative,” has been endorsed by President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis. He also has the backing of major business groups and 59 of the state’s 67 county sheriffs.

Simpson, 56, has raised more than $2 million in his regular campaign account through July 8 and has spent $230,000. He also has four political committees with a combined $39 million in them. And a mysterious committee that won’t disclose its donors has spent more than $2 million on TV ads supporting his candidacy.

Term limits prevent him from running again in the Senate, where he’s served since 2012. He said he’s running for agriculture commissioner because he wants “every Floridian to have access to the same opportunities” he’s had to live the American dream.

One of his biggest accomplishments is getting the 2021 Right to Farm bill passed, which makes it difficult to file what the law calls “nuisance” suits against farmers.

This is the first political campaign for James Shaw, 62, an organic farmer who operated Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm in Spring Grove, Pennsylvania, for decades before turning the farm over to his son and moving to Florida. He said he “got political” after the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and believes Trump was the actual winner.

“It opened up my eyes to the political realm, and I wanted to be a player,” Shaw said. He’s only raised about $49,000, most of it his own money, and he knows faces long odds.

But there is some uncertainty over whether he meets all the state’s requirements for candidates seeking Cabinet positions. A candidate must be “an elector and resident of the state for the preceding 7 years,” according to the Division of Elections website.

Shaw appears to meet the residency requirement. He said he’s lived in Florida for the past 12 years and claims an Okeechobee address as his home, which he bought in 2010. He acquired several adjacent properties and owns property in Indian River County, too. None of them have a homestead exemption, according to real estate records.

“There are no general rules for establishing residency in Florida,” said Mark Ard, director of external affairs for the Department of State.

But voting records are more easily established. “A person’s voting history will indicate when a person registered to vote in Florida,” he said.

Records show that Shaw last voted in Pennsylvania in 2016 and then registered to vote in Florida two years later. He voted in the 2018 and 2020 general elections, and in the 2020 primary, records show.

It is not clear if he satisfies the voter requirement, though. Ard did not respond to requests to verify whether Cabinet candidates must have a voting record in Florida going back seven years, and there appears to be no guidance or legal opinion from the attorney general’s office on the matter.

Shaw said he believes he’s in the right and will stay in the race. He said he signed the candidate oath in good faith, believing he only needs to meet the residency requirement, based on his interpretation of the state constitution. Article IV, Section 5, paragraph (b) states that upon election, a Cabinet member “must be an elector not less than thirty years of age who has resided in the state for the preceding seven years.”

While a voting record can help establish residency, the state requirements have always been vague, and judges have ruled differently on the matter, Daniel Smith, chair of the political science department at the University of Florida and an expert on state election laws.

“There is always some controversy in where one lays one’s hat,” Smith said. “It is confusing, and there is a lot of ambiguity.”

Naomi Esther Blemur’s Twitter account describes the North Miami resident as a “Believer, Wife, Mother, Entrepreneur, Author, Philanthropist … Life Coach & Womens Advocate.”

A member of the North Miami-Dade Democratic Executive Committee, Blemur said in a Ballotpedia survey that she’s an advocate for small farmers, clean water, renewable energy, gun reform, and making sure everyone has access to the state’s resources.

Blemur raised $40,000, including a $10,000 loan to herself, and spent $21,000. She’s also filed for matching funds, which requires candidates for Cabinet posts to raise at least $100,000 to qualify.

Jacques Rene “J.R.” Gaillot, a Green Cove Springs resident who works for AT&T, was born in New York and spent part of his childhood in Haiti. He told Ballotpedia he would focus on consumer protection issues such as price gouging and other predatory practices.

Gaillot ran for office twice before and lost. He ran unopposed in the 2012 Democratic primary for the U.S. House District 3 seat but lost to Republican Ted Yoho. Gaillot lost to Tracie Davis in the 2016 Democratic Primary for House District 13.

He’s raised $13,400, including $4,300 in personal loans as of July 15, and spent nearly $9,000.

Also running is Ryan Morales, a Clermont resident who’s been in the entertainment industry most of his life and has a consulting business.

He ran in the 2020 Democratic primary for state House District 32 but lost to Stephanie Dukes. She lost in the general election to Republican incumbent Anthony Sabatini.

Morales raised almost $18,000 since February 2021 when he first announced his candidacy, including more than $3,000 in loans to himself. He spent over $13,000 as of July 15,

He contends he’s the most qualified of the three.

“I know what the position entails, what you can do and not do,” he said. “Focusing on cleaning up the environment is biggest part of my campaign.”

He also runs a small hemp farm in Clermont and favors legalization of marijuana and wants to promote more computer technology and robotics in agriculture.