Republican Thomas Feiter, 46, is running for state attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court of Orange and Osceola counties, seeking to lead that office where he served as an assistant state attorney from 2006 to 2008. He is currently a defense attorney in private practice. Feiter goes by the nickname “Fighter,” which he tried to put on the ballot but was prohibited by the Florida Department of State. He's appealed that decision.

Feiter faces off against former assistant state attorney Seth Hyman in the Aug. 20 Republican primary. Early voting takes place Aug. 5-18. Mail-in ballots can be mailed or dropped off at any early voting sites, but must be returned to the Supervisor of Elections office by 7 p.m. on Aug. 20. Check our list for locations.

The winner of the Republican primary will square off against Democrat Monique Worrell and incumbent state attorney Andrew Bain, an independent, in the Nov. 5 general election. State attorneys serve for four years and earn $212,562 annually.

Feiter told a crowd at the July 11 African American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida Hob Nob that he was running for state attorney “to put safety first and to set the right example … to ensure the safety of our community and ensure that our children and businesses can thrive here.”

He emphasized that he is a “family man with three young children … who go to school here” and that he and his "amazing wife Erica” own “several properties in Orange County, so we kind of have a big personal stake in seeing this community thrive and succeed."

Feiter told VoxPopuli he’s more qualified and experienced than the other candidates because of his military service, his law practice and his fluency in Spanish. (He also speaks German.)

Feiter actually started out as a stockbroker. But when the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, he witnessed fellow brokers breaking down in their offices, crying as their clients’ life savings vanished. That was when he decided to change careers. He graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law at the age of 28. He began working as a lawyer for the state attorney's office, prosecuting misdemeanor, traffic and felony cases. He eventually opened his own firm, Fighter Law, which handles criminal defense, personal injury and family law. Feiter is also a Major in the U.S. Army JAG Corps Reserve, overseeing 16 soldiers. His  website states he was deployed to Kuwait for Operation Enduring Freedom and spent time in Afghanistan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

“Look, there’s a lot of people who have done more cases than me, but when it comes down to the four candidates for this job, if I’m standing with those four, I’m by far — there’s no competition objectively, reasonably — I am the most experienced,” he told VoxPopuli in an interview.

“Loss of trust”

Feiter said the biggest issue for the state attorney’s office “is the loss of trust between the state attorney’s office and local law enforcement.”

Feiter echoed comments by Gov. Ron DeSantis, who removed Worrell about a year ago for failing to hold a particular accused murderer accountable for alleged crimes as well as avoiding minimum mandatory sentences for others. Worrell and other Democrats said the removal was politically motivated and a distraction from DeSantis’ failed presidential bid. Feiter said the governor’s actions were justified because Worrell was not enforcing the law. 

DeSantis replaced Worrell with Bain, who had been an assistant state attorney in the office since 2013 before being appointed as an Orange County Court judge by the governor in 2020 and then winning re-election to the bench two years later.

“It saddens me when I see how the office has been abused and how there are so many good, well-meaning, hardworking, honest people at the state attorney’s office and they just don’t get the leader they deserve,” Feiter told VoxPopuli.

He praised former State Attorney Lawson Lamar, who held the position for 24 years before retiring in early 2013. “He led the office and set the right example, and ever since then, it’s gone to shit,” Feiter said. “So I just want to fix the office and make it a better place to work, have better prosecutors and protect the community.”

Feiter said that he would develop close relationships and keep in constant communication with Orange County law enforcement heads and agencies, including the criminal activity that they’re dealing with in their communities. He said getting such feedback from them would enable him to better allocate resources to help them fight crime.

At odds with the GOP

Feiter, who noted his embrace of DEI at the July 11 African American Chamber of Commerce Hob Nob — “I believe in DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] and I am not afraid to publicly say that” — has been at loggerheads with the Orange County GOP over his pursuit of the Ninth Circuit's top prosecutor position.

The local party backed his opponent, who Feiter has pointed out was fired from the state attorney's office for violating the rules of criminal procedure because he did not include a breath test during a 2016 DUI prosecution. Orange County GOP Chair Erin Huntley told VoxPopuli they knew of Hyman’s termination before endorsing him and chalked it up to a difference in legal philosophy under Democrat State Attorney Aramis Ayala. (Ayala made  headlines when she refused to seek the death penalty in cases, promping then-Gov. Rick Scott to reassign cases to other jurisdictions.)

Feiter filed a complaint with the Florida Bar and wrote a letter to the Republican Party of Florida's general counsel, alleging a “scheme” to remove Republican candidates from the general election to help Andrew Bain get elected that "improperly and unlawfully exploited the vulnerable adults of the Orange GOP.”

In his letter he described a June 27 Orange GOP meeting in which he maintains attendees were not given adequate time to digest objections to Hyman. He described a “very senior audience [that] was clearly driven and influenced by significantly younger Early Career Professionals, Twentysomethings, and Thirtysomethings … in an attempt to improperly influence their most sacred American right — their vote.”

Asked if he was certain about his characterization of the elderly attendees, who he described as “wheelchair bound or too old to stand for long,” as exploited vulnerable adults he said, “You know it when you see it."

Florida Politics reported that the Orange GOP did not endorse Feiter because he didn’t reflect party values and was courting support from Democrats and independents. But in his letter to the Florida Bar and the Republican Party of Florida, Feiter wrote that he had "multiple meetings, phone calls, text messages and e-mails” between Gov. Ron DeSantis chief of staff James Uthmeier and others who he said, "pressured me to drop out to clear the race for Andrew Bain…"

Since then, Feiter has gone public with allegations that officials in DeSantis’ office, including Uthmeier, bribed him to drop out of the race as WFTV first reported. He told VoxPopuli that he was offered county and circuit court judge positions and financial backing if he wanted to run for the State Legislature if he pulled out of the race.

“They said, You can't be state attorney. That's reserved for Mr. Bain. The governor wants Mr. Bain to continue in that role. They basically said, You seem like a young guy with a lot of ambition, and you don't want to kill your political future by going against the will of the governor … Is there anything else you'd be interested in? Circuit court judge, county court judge? There's some state senate seats opening up, some house of representatives seats. Which one of those would you like better?

“They offered to help me with any of those other endeavors, running for them or procuring them as appointments was the gist of the meeting,” Feiter said.

The governor's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Feiter said he had no political aspirations. “I only care about service."