But there is one key difference. Judge Dempsey had a reason to avoid the ballot. Her challenger, attorney Talley Kaleko, had outraised her by approximately $120,000 in campaign contributions. By resigning before qualifying opened, Dempsey ensured that voters would never get to choose between her and the candidate who had built a formidable campaign to replace her.

Now Dempsey has been assigned to preside over a lawsuit that asks a fundamental question: can the Governor accept strategically timed judicial departures to cancel elections and replace them with political appointments? A ruling in the plaintiffs’ favor would directly implicate the legitimacy of Dempsey’s own resignation and the cancellation of her own election.

It is likely that Attorney Travis will file a motion to disqualify Judge Dempsey from the case, arguing that a reasonably prudent person would fear that a judge who participated in the very conduct being challenged cannot impartially decide whether that conduct is constitutional.

This Is Happening Across the State

As The Space Coast Rocket first reported, the Brevard County situation is not an isolated incident. Judicial elections have been cancelled through similar mechanisms in at least five Florida counties during the 2026 election cycle, affecting candidates who had spent months and tens of thousands of dollars campaigning for seats that no longer exist.

Here is how it played out in each county.

Brevard County: The Retirement That Became a Resignation

Judge Garagozlo submitted a letter to Chief Justice Carlos Muniz on April 15 saying he intended to “retire from the bench effective December 31, 2026.” The letter never used the word “resign.” It was not addressed to or copied to the Governor. A circuit personnel administrator emailed the letter to the Governor’s office on April 17 with the subject line: “Please find attached, the Honorable Benjamin Garagozlo’s Retirement Letter.”

That same day, the Governor sent Judge Garagozlo a letter stating: “I accept your resignation.” The election for Brevard County Court Judge, Group 8, was cancelled that afternoon. Wagner, who had been campaigning for nearly a year and collected almost 2,000 petition signatures, was told her name had been removed from the candidate listing.

Michelle Kennedy, the official spokesperson for the 18th Judicial Circuit, confirmed that Judge Garagozlo was “shocked” and that “this was never his intention.”

Leon County: The Judge Who Dodged Her Challenger

Judge Dempsey submitted her resignation directly to Governor DeSantis on April 14, the day before Garagozlo’s letter and six days before the qualifying period opened. Attorney Talley Kaleko had been building a campaign to challenge Dempsey and had outraised the sitting judge by roughly $120,000.

With Dempsey’s resignation, the election was cancelled. Kaleko’s campaign investment was wiped out. The Governor will appoint Dempsey’s replacement.

Unlike the Brevard situation, Dempsey’s resignation appears to have been deliberate. She submitted it directly to the Governor, and the timing ensured the election would be cancelled before qualifying could begin.

Orange County: The Appointment Carousel

On April 6, the same day the prequalifying period opened for judicial elections, Governor DeSantis elevated two Orange County Court judges, Andrew Bain and Mark Skipper, to the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court. Both Bain and Skipper had originally been appointed to the county court by DeSantis. Before that, Bain lost his election running for State Attorney after being appointed by DeSantis when he removed Monique Worrell from office. Worrell defeated Bain with over 57% of the vote, re-securing her previous position. In-turn, Governor DeSantis appointed Bain as a judge in the county courts.

Both Bain and Skipper were facing contested elections. Skipper was running against attorney Chelsea Simmons, who had raised nearly $75,000 in campaign contributions. Bain was running against attorney and former public defender Joy Goodyear.

By elevating (by way of another appointment) Bain and Skipper to the circuit court just four days before the qualifying period, DeSantis created two new vacancies on the county court that he now gets to fill by appointment. The Group 9 and Group 22 county court elections were cancelled and will not be held until 2028.

The mechanism here is different from Brevard but the result is identical. Instead of recharacterizing a retirement letter, the Governor promoted his own appointees to higher courts right before the election, creating cascading vacancies at the lower court level. As the Orlando Sentinel reported, this amounts to an appointment carousel: appoint a county judge, promote them to circuit court before they face election, then appoint their replacement, and voters never get a say.

“It does seem unseemly that they can remove races off the ballot,” Brad Ashwell, Florida state director for All Voting Is Local, told the Orlando Sentinel. “It’s just another instance of somebody gaming the system.”

Palm Beach County: The Three-Level Cascade

In December 2025, DeSantis elevated County Court Judge Danielle Sherriff to the 15th Judicial Circuit Court. Sherriff had been appointed by DeSantis to the county court in 2023. Her elevation created a county court vacancy, which DeSantis filled by appointing Michael Barnett.

Separately, Judge Caroline Shepherd was elevated from the 15th Circuit Court to the Fourth District Court of Appeal, creating another vacancy. Judge James Martz also resigned from the circuit court, creating a second vacancy. The 15th Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission is interviewing nominees for those two vacancies.

The Palm Beach situation shows the cascade operating across three levels of the judiciary. A judge moves from county court to circuit court, and another moves from circuit court to the DCA. Each move creates a vacancy below. Each vacancy is filled by the Governor. Elections are cancelled at every level.

Sarasota County: Same Playbook

In December 2025, DeSantis elevated County Court Judge Kennedy Legler to the 12th Judicial Circuit Court, creating a county court vacancy. DeSantis filled it by appointing Assistant State Attorney Megan Leaf.

The Numbers

Across these five counties, at least five candidates with active campaigns have had their races eliminated in the 2026 cycle: Wagner and Andrea Fant in Brevard, Kaleko in Leon, Simmons in Orange County Group 9, and Goodyear in Orange County Group 22. Simmons had raised $75,000. Kaleko had raised approximately $120,000. Wagner had been campaigning for a year. These are not abstract numbers. These are real people who knocked on doors, collected signatures, raised money from their neighbors, and were told their campaigns no longer exist.

The voter impact is staggering. Orange County has over 900,000 registered voters. Palm Beach has over 1 million. Brevard has over 400,000. Leon County has over 200,000. The voters in every one of these cancelled races have been stripped of their constitutional right to choose their own judges.

“DeSantis did not invent this system, but he is certainly taking advantage of it,” Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida, told the Orlando Sentinel. “This is particularly the case in some of Florida’s more urban areas that are more Democratic and might elect a different type of judge than he is appointing, even though the judicial races are non-partisan officially.”

The OSCA Pipeline

The Wagner petition revealed a previously undisclosed administrative pipeline that facilitated the process. In August 2025, the Office of the State Courts Administrator sent a directive to all chief judges across Florida instructing them to email copies of judicial retirement and resignation letters directly to the Governor’s Office of Judicial Appointments. The stated purpose was to “streamline the appointment process and increase efficiency.”

On April 6, 2026, the first day of the prequalifying period, OSCA sent an updated version of the directive with new contact information for the Governor’s staff: Taylor Gustafson, Director of Judicial Appointments; David Axelman, General Counsel; and Jake Whealdon, Deputy General Counsel.

That directive cascaded through the 18th Judicial Circuit within hours. By April 17, Judge Garagozlo’s retirement letter had been emailed directly to those three Governor’s office staff members by the circuit’s personnel administrator, labeled as a “Retirement Letter.” Hours later, the Governor called it a resignation.

What Happens Now

With the case now in circuit court, several things will happen in rapid succession.

First, the motion to disqualify Judge Dempsey must be resolved. If Dempsey grants the motion, the case will be reassigned to a different Leon County circuit judge. If she denies it, the plaintiffs can immediately challenge that denial at the First District Court of Appeal through a petition for writ of prohibition.

Attorney Travis may also file an emergency motion for a temporary injunction asking the court to block the Governor from appointing anyone to Judge Garagozlo’s seat while the case is pending. Judge Garagozlo’s retirement is not effective until December 31, 2026, so there is no physical vacancy to fill yet, but the Governor’s acceptance letter has already cancelled the election and the qualifying period has closed.

An emergency motion to expedite all proceedings, is almost certin to argue that every day of delay is a day the Governor could make an appointment and argue the case is moot.

The case has drawn attention from national legal media, including Law360, and could become the first case in Florida history to produce a ruling on the merits of whether governors can use strategically timed judicial departures to cancel elections. Three former Florida Supreme Court justices have previously called this practice a “travesty” and a “mockery” of the Constitution, but no court has ever directly ruled on the constitutional question.

The Space Coast Rocket will continue to provide in-depth coverage of this case as it develops. This publication was the first to report on the Garagozlo retirement letter, the OSCA pipeline, and the statewide pattern of cancelled judicial elections.

Robert Burns is the editor and publisher of The Space Coast Rocket, covering Brevard County government, courts, and elections. He can be reached at [email protected].