Disney’s brief period of staying out of Florida politics in the fallout of its public opposition to Florida’s so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law in 2022 is long gone.
The Mouse, instead, is now preparing to host a weekend-long fundraiser for a Republican state official running for re-election this fall who has used his position in state office to terrorize transgender people, make drag queens’ lives harder, and undermine the rights of LGBTQ+ and transgender Floridians.
Friends of James Uthmeier, a political committee affiliated with the campaign of Florida’s Republican Attorney General James Uthmeier, has been circulating an invitation for a “family weekend” fundraiser at Walt Disney World in Orlando. The family weekend will occur Oct. 23-25, just about a week out from the November general election.
Participating in the pro-Uthmeier excursion costs $25,000 per person or business to get in, according to the invitation shared by Peter Schorsch of Florida Politics last month. It’s the latest display of the Walt Disney Co.’s return to Florida politics and its support of candidates in both major political parties that the Mouse evidently sees as political allies.
Disney has, in the past, lobbied the Florida Legislature for various desires: lucrative tax breaks, limiting allowed uses under state law for the hundreds of millions of dollars generated in Orange County through its hotel tax, and banning local governments from requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to their employees.
Disney money is back in play
According to campaign finance records, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts already handed Uthmeier’s political committee a $1,440 donation earlier this month. Disney, according to the Orlando Sentinel, has in total paid out nearly $6 million in contributions to both Republicans and Democrats so far this election cycle.
As Bloomberg reported, Disney ended its short-lived pause on political contributions to Republicans in 2024, not even two years after the multibillion-dollar company — and Florida’s largest single-site employer — publicly sparred with the DeSantis administration over its opposition to a bill regulating the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in school classrooms. Critics dubbed it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Disney was, evidently, performing an attitude of LGBTQ+ inclusion. As the company halted its political contributions, then-CEO Bob Chapek shared that he hoped Disney’s future advocacy “better reflects our values.”
Political shuffling
The political feud between Disney and DeSantis — who married his wife Casey at Disney World in 2009 — began as now-AG Uthmeier was serving as DeSantis’ chief of staff.
Uthmeier, a Donald Trump ally, was later appointed State Attorney General by DeSantis in Feb. 2025 to fill a vacancy left by former AG Ashley Moody. Moody was herself appointed by DeSantis to fill the vacancy left by Marco Rubio in the U.S. Senate.
Notably, both Republicans — Moody and Uthmeier — have been embroiled in the Hope Florida controversy involving the alleged misappropriation of $10 million of taxpayer money for political purposes in 2024.
Roughly $10 million from a $67 million state Medicaid settlement was routed to the Hope Florida Foundation, a social welfare charity created by Casey DeSantis. The foundation subsequently funneled the money into two other nonprofit organizations, which later contributed the money to two political committees — including one controlled by Uthmeier (then DeSantis’ chief of staff) that sought to prevent the passage of a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana.
Florida House Democrats recently called for the impeachment of Uthmeier, in response to a grand jury report finding the $10 million was “misappropriated.” The report, first leaked to CBS Miami, however, didn’t find enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime.
“We must show that corruption, even at the highest levels of state government, will not be tolerated,” House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell of Tampa shared in a press conference earlier this month.
No Disney dollars for Rodriguez
Uthmeier is running to defend his seat as attorney general against Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez. Rodriguez, a labor lawyer and former state lawmaker from Miami, has vowed to fight government and corporate corruption, if elected.
“James Uthmeier should resign, come clean, and turn himself in,” Rodriguez said in a statement following the leak of the grand jury report. “This report pulls back the veil on the corruption Floridians have been seeing for years,” he added. “Enough is enough. I’m running for Attorney General to tear down that veil of corruption and hold powerful people accountable.”
Rodriguez also recently called for an investigation into reported abuses at “Alligator Alcatraz,” a recently shuttered immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades operated by the state. Uthmeier previously propped up the facility as “the one-stop shop” for Trump’s mass deportation agenda and “another way we will keep Florida — and the nation — safe, strong and free.”
Uthmeier’s campaign has raised more than $11 million between his campaign account and his political committee, according to campaign finance records, compared to nearly $2.5 million raised by Rodriguez.
Unlike Uthmeier, records show Rodriguez has not received any donations from Disney, either to his campaign account or his political committee Floridians for JJR.
