Monique Worrell
Monique Worrell (Democratic Party) is the Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney-elect. She assumes office on January 7, 2025.
Worrell (Democratic Party) ran for election for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Worrell was removed from office by Gov. Ron DeSantis on August 9, 2023.[1]
Biography
Monique Worrell earned a bachelor's degree from St. John's University in 1995 and a J.D. from the University of Florida, Fredric G. Levin College of Law, in 2000. Her career experience includes working as the chief legal officer for REFORM Alliance.[2]
2024 battleground election
Ballotpedia identified the Nov. 5, 2024, State attorney election in Orange County, Florida, as a battleground race. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.
Former state attorney Monique Worrell (D) defeated incumbent Andrew Bain (independent) in the general election for Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney, which encompasses all of Orange County, Florida, on November 5, 2024.
The election took place after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) removed Worrell from office in August 2023 and appointed Bain in her place. DeSantis suspended Worrell, claiming she failed to pursue minimum mandatory sentences for criminals and did not fully prosecute both adults and juveniles who later went on to commit other crimes.[3] The Florida Supreme Court upheld the suspension after Worrell filed a lawsuit in which she claimed DeSantis did not have a legal basis for removing her from office.[4] Worrell said, "This is simply a smokescreen for Ron DeSantis’ failing and disastrous presidential campaign. He needed to get back in the media in some positive way that would be red meat for his base."[3]
Bain received a bachelor's degree from the University of Miami in 2006 and a J.D. from the Florida A&M University College of Law in 2013. Bain worked as a district attorney and assistant state attorney in the Ninth Judicial Circuit before being appointed to fill a vacancy on the Orange County Court in 2020. Following his appointment, Bain served the duration of the term and won election to the seat in 2022.[5] Bain left the court in 2023 after DeSantis appointed him to replace Worrell as the Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney.[5]
On his campaign website, Bain said he would "fight for justice, for the victims, their families and for our neighborhoods. That is what I’m fighting for every day. No one is above the law, and the law should be applied without bias or prejudice."[6] Bain’s campaign website also said during his time in office, he addressed a shortage of experienced prosecutors, implemented the violent crimes unit, handled cases for the violent offenders, reinstated minimum mandatory sentencing for violent offenders, developed community partnerships providing criminal justice solutions, launched diversion programs, and integrated on-site crisis counseling to victims.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
On her campaign website, Worrell said she would prioritize public safety, diligently serve victims, reduce crime and incarceration, and work to improve public trust in the government. Worrell said, "I made a promise to fight crime at its root and to stop the school to prison pipeline that turns hope into despair and turns children into convicted criminals. We are in for a fight against a broken system and those who don’t want it to change. It’s a fight I’m confident we can win."[7]
The Florida ninth circuit state attorney is the chief prosecutor for Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit, which includes Orange County and its incorporated cities, including Orlando. According to the state attorney office’s website, the ninth circuit state attorney "serves the nearly 1.9 million residents of Orange and Osceola counties and many of the 70 million tourists who visit Central Florida every year. Our primary role is to represent the State of Florida in criminal court. Our responsibilities include reviewing criminal investigations, determining charges and prosecuting cases involving felony, misdemeanor, criminal traffic and juvenile delinquency. As the third-largest of Florida’s 20 judicial circuits, the Ninth Circuit State Attorney’s Office receives roughly 60,000 cases annually from law enforcement."[8]
A state attorney is an official elected to serve as the lead prosecutor for a specific jurisdiction. The office's responsibilities include managing the jurisdiction's prosecutors, setting department-wide guidelines for prosecutors to follow, and direct management of individual high-profile prosecutions. Prosecutors are responsible for deciding whether to bring criminal charges, prosecuting certain cases, and recommending a sentence in the event a defendant is found guilty. This office is equivalent to the positions of district attorney, state's/commonwealth's attorney, county/city attorney, solicitor, circuit attorney, or prosecuting attorney found in other jurisdictions.
Orange County also held elections for clerk of courts, comptroller, property appraiser, public defender, sheriff, state attorney, supervisor of elections, tax collector, county commission, soil and water conservation district, circuit court judges, and county court judges. Click here for more on those elections.
Elections
2024
See also: Municipal elections in Orange County, Florida (2024)
General election
General election for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney
Monique Worrell defeated incumbent Andrew Bain in the general election for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Monique Worrell (D) | 57.5 | 413,118 | |
| Andrew Bain (No Party Affiliation) | 42.5 | 305,486 | ||
| Total votes: 718,604 | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Seth Hyman (R)
Democratic primary election
The Democratic primary election was canceled. Monique Worrell advanced from the Democratic primary for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney.
Republican primary election
Republican primary for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney
Seth Hyman defeated Thomas Feiter in the Republican primary for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney on August 20, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Seth Hyman | 62.4 | 37,640 | |
 | Thomas Feiter | 37.6 | 22,713 | |
| Total votes: 60,353 | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Worrell in this election.
2020
See also: Municipal elections in Orange County, Florida (2020)
General election
General election for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney
Monique Worrell defeated Jose Torroella in the general election for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Monique Worrell (D) | 66.6 | 395,979 | |
| Jose Torroella (No Party Affiliation) | 33.4 | 198,719 | |
| Total votes: 594,698 | ||||
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Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney
Monique Worrell defeated Belvin Perry Jr., Deborah Barra, and Ryan Williams in the Democratic primary for Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney on August 18, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Monique Worrell | 43.4 | 63,863 | |
| Belvin Perry Jr. | 31.0 | 45,732 | ||
| Deborah Barra | 19.4 | 28,551 | |
| Ryan Williams | 6.2 | 9,157 | |
| Total votes: 147,303 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
To view Worrell's endorsements in the 2020 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Monique Worrell did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released July 16, 2020 |
Monique Worrell completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Worrell's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Monique has spent her 20-year career as a criminal justice reform advocate. After law school, she served as an Assistant Public Defender and later went into private practice, before becoming a law professor at the University of Florida College of Law. During Monique's time as a law professor, she developed a statewide criminal practice training program and trained hundreds of future lawyers to fight for fairness and equality in the criminal legal system.
After 17 years Monique left her position at UF to become the founding director of the 9th Judicial Circuit's first conviction integrity unit, where she led a team to investigate wrongful convictions. After founding the integrity unit, Monique was recruited to serve as the Chief Legal Officer of REFORM Alliance, where she developed a nationwide pro bono program that advocated for probation and parole reform.
Monique believes that changing the culture of prosecution is long overdue and the only way to ensure safer and more stable communities. Changing the culture of prosecution, to Monique, means prioritizing rehabilitation and services over punishment and incarceration. It also means ending the direct filing of juveniles into the adult court system ending the practices that lead to wrongful convictions and handling the death penalty with the gravity it deserves.
- Changing the culture of prosecution
- Ending wrongful convictions and increasing police accountability
- Ending mass incarceration and the use of cash bail
Monique Worrell is committed to ending the criminalization of poverty and implementing a rehabilitative approach to the legal system. She believes that the way to achieve a safer and healthier community is to use the State Attorney's office to address, head-on, the drives of crime, such as poverty, mental illness, and drug addiction. Monique believes that the way to successfully implement these policies is to partner with community organizations that are already working to address these issues in order to develop successful alternative sentencing plans.
As a nine year girl, Monique watched her older brother's interaction with the criminal legal system. Monique's older brother is a United States Air Force veteran who was discharged from the military upon his diagnosis of bipolar disorder and PTSD. As a result of his diagnosis, he developed a substance abuse addiction, which ultimately led to his involvement in the criminal legal system. Even as a small child Monique knew that her brother was in the legal system because of his mental health and she knew that was inherently wrong. It was this life event that shaped Monique Worrell into the criminal justice reform advocate she is today.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Noteworthy events
On August 9, 2023, Worrell was suspended from her position as Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis cited examples in which Worrell did not pursue minimum mandatory sentences, or did not fully prosecute individuals who went on to commit other crimes. [9]
“We had a duty to act to prevent this dereliction of duty,” DeSantis said. “Prosecutors do have a certain amount of discretion about which charges to bring. What this state attorney has done is abuse that discretion and has effectively nullified certain laws in the state of Florida.” [10]
Worrell said that the suspension was politically motivated.
“Elected officials are being taken out of office for political purposes, and that should never be a thing,” she said. [11]
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Florida Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ ‘’Politico, “DeSantis suspends another elected prosecutor in move derided as ‘politically motivated’,” August 9, 2023
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 19, 2020
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Politico, "DeSantis suspends another elected prosecutor in move derided as ‘politically motivated’," August 9, 2024
- ↑ Tallahassee Democrat, "Florida Supreme Court upholds DeSantis' suspension of Orlando-area prosecutor," June 7, 2024
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 State Attorney Andrew A. Bain, Ninth Judicial Circuit, "Meet the State Attorney," accessed November 1, 2024
- ↑ Andrew Bain 2024 campaign website, "Home, accessed November 1, 2024
- ↑ Monique Worrell 2024 campaign website, "Home," accessed November 1, 2024
- ↑ State Attorney, Ninth Judicial Circuit, "About," accessed November 1, 2024
- ↑ , “DeSantis suspends another elected prosecutor in move derided as ‘politically motivated’,” August 9, 2023
- ↑ , “DeSantis suspends another elected prosecutor in move derided as ‘politically motivated’,” August 9, 2023
- ↑ ‘’Associated Press, “Florida Gov. DeSantis suspends another Democratic prosecutor as he seeks GOP presidential nomination’,” August 9, 2023
