Walt Disney World is set to host a weekend-long, $25,000-per-head fundraiser for Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a Republican who spent years helping lead the state's legal fight against the company. Friends of James Uthmeier, the AG's political committee, circulated an invitation for a family weekend at the resort from October 23 to 25, with a requested contribution of $25,000 per person or business entity.
The invitation, first detailed by Orlando Weekly, lands just weeks after Walt Disney Parks & Resorts donated $1,440 to Uthmeier's political committee earlier in September. According to the Bradenton Herald, that contribution — described as relatively small — came alongside Disney's refusal to answer questions about why it was supporting Uthmeier or how much it intends to give toward the fundraiser itself. Florida Politics separately confirmed the invitation's terms, noting the requested contribution is set at $25,000 per person or business entity for the October weekend.
Orlando Weekly reports Disney has contributed nearly $6 million to Republicans and Democrats during the current election cycle, according to the Orlando Sentinel, after the company ended its pause on political contributions to Republicans in 2024. That pause followed Disney's public opposition to Florida's law regulating discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in school classrooms, with then-CEO Bob Chapek saying he hoped the company's future advocacy would better reflect its values, per the Orlando Weekly's reporting. The company has since resumed lobbying the Florida Legislature for tax breaks, to limit allowed uses for hotel-tax revenue generated in Orange County, and to ban local governments from requiring employers to provide paid sick leave, the outlet reports.
A Complicated History With the Man Now Getting Disney's Backing
Uthmeier was Governor Ron DeSantis's chief of staff for the entirety of the state's legal battle with Disney, according to Florida Politics. Disney sued Florida over alleged First Amendment retaliation in 2023, lost, appealed, and settled the dispute in March 2024, the outlet notes, roughly two years after DeSantis signed the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement District in April 2022. A June development agreement later committed Disney to investing up to $17 billion in Florida — a sum Florida Politics frames as part of the unusual backdrop for a fundraiser now taking place on Disney's own turf.
Uthmeier was appointed Florida attorney general by DeSantis in February 2025 to fill the vacancy left when Ashley Moody was appointed to the U.S. Senate, per Orlando Weekly. He is now running for a full term in the November 2026 general election and is described in that reporting as an ally of President Donald Trump. A Tampa Bay Times column referenced in the dossier states plainly that Disney backs Uthmeier, though it does not explain the company's motivation beyond what has already been reported.
Pattern of Donations Preceding Official Action, Column Alleges
The Bradenton Herald column lays out a broader pattern it says involves Uthmeier and campaign donors. It reports that car dealers gave Uthmeier's campaign more than $50,000 before he threatened a manufacturer over direct sales to Florida consumers, and cites a Tampa Bay Times report that condo developers gave Uthmeier money before his office assisted them in a legal dispute over their project. The same column states the Tampa Bay Rays gave Uthmeier $50,000 two months before he and the Florida Cabinet voted to give the team state-owned land for a Tampa stadium.
The column also connects a $50,000 check Disney cut to DeSantis's political committee to a subsequent exception carved into state social-media regulations for companies operating theme parks, saying email records show Uthmeier — then the governor's general counsel — helped draft that language. Separately, the outlet reports Disney has given more than $500,000 in cash and services to the Florida House Democratic Campaign Committee and more than $1 million to the Republican Party of Florida and the Florida Republican Senatorial campaign, on top of a reported $5.7 million given to politicians of both parties during the current cycle. None of these broader figures were independently verified against primary campaign-finance records for this article.
Hope Florida Foundation Controversy Looms Over the Race
Uthmeier's tenure has also been shadowed by the Hope Florida Foundation controversy, which Orlando Weekly describes as involving the alleged misappropriation of $10 million in taxpayer money in 2024. The foundation, created by First Lady Casey DeSantis, received roughly $10 million from a $67 million state Medicaid settlement, according to the Miami Herald. The foundation then funneled that money into two other nonprofit organizations, which in turn contributed it to two political committees — one of which was controlled by Uthmeier while he served as DeSantis's chief of staff, per the Herald's reporting.
That committee sought to prevent passage of a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana, according to the Miami Herald, which also reported that two dark-money nonprofits received $5 million grants apiece from the Hope Florida Foundation before giving millions to the Uthmeier-controlled committee. A grand jury report found the $10 million was misappropriated but did not find enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime, Orlando Weekly reports. Florida House Democrats have called for Uthmeier's impeachment over the matter, and House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said, “We must show that corruption, even at the highest levels of state government, will not be tolerated.”
Democratic Opponent Seizes on the Fundraiser
Uthmeier faces Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez, a labor lawyer and former state lawmaker from Miami, in the attorney general race, according to Orlando Weekly. Rodriguez has vowed to fight government and corporate corruption if elected and has said Uthmeier should resign, come clean, and turn himself in. He has also called for an investigation into reported abuses at Alligator Alcatraz, a recently shuttered immigrant detention center Florida operated in the Everglades that Uthmeier once described as “the one-stop shop” for Trump's mass deportation agenda.
Campaign finance figures cited by Orlando Weekly show Uthmeier's campaign has raised more than $11 million between his campaign account and political committee, compared with nearly $2.5 million raised by Rodriguez's campaign. Rodriguez's political committee, Floridians for JJR, has received no donations from Disney, the outlet reports. Disney, meanwhile, remains Florida's largest single-site employer and a multibillion-dollar company — one whose Orlando resort was also, notably, where Ron DeSantis married Casey DeSantis back in 2009.
