Operative behind DeSantis’s High-Profile Battles Takes Campaign Helm

As chief of staff to Ron DeSantis, James Uthmeier served as a driving force behind several of the governor’s most high-profile moves, including when he sent migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and suspended a rogue liberal prosecutor.

In fact, documents show Uthmeier was the DeSantis administration’s point person in the effort to fly almost 50 Venezuelan migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in September 2022. Uthmeier communicated with DeSantis’s public-safety czar, Larry Keefe, via phone and text while Keefe was in Texas helping coordinate the flights.