Why I will introduce the ‘New Hope for Florida Act’

*It’s time to shed light on financial doings in Tallahassee. (AI illustration for TPP/ChatGPT)*

July 31, 2026 by David Silverberg, Democratic candidate for Florida Senate, District 28

With so much waste, fraud and abuse in Tallahassee, it’s easy to lose sight of individual scandals.

Remember Hope Florida? It has raised its head again.

It’s to end and probe these scandals and shady deals that I’m running for the Florida Senate in District 28, which covers all of Collier and Hendry counties and part of eastern Lee County. If elected, I want to enact reforms ensuring that nothing like Hope Florida ever occurs again. In short, I want to give Florida real hope—hope for honest government and full fiscal enforcement.

The full details of the Hope Florida scandal are in a separate section, below. But to summarize: back in 2024, $10 million in a Medicaid settlement that should have gone into fighting poverty was funneled instead into a political action committee (PAC) to fund opposition to women’s right to choose.

When Hope Florida happened, Ashley Moody was Florida Attorney General and James Uthmeier was Gov. Ron DeSantis’ chief of staff. Both were involved in the movement of the $10 million. Now Moody is a senator and Uthmeier is Attorney General.

After the scandal broke, state Rep. Alex Andrade (R-2-Pensacola)—a Republican like DeSantis, Moody and Uthmeier—said, “This is a misuse of Medicaid dollars, a misuse of taxpayer dollars, I believe it’s money laundering and wire fraud.”

Andrade vigorously pursued his suspicions of wrongdoing. But with Uthmeier a chief suspect and also being appointed the state’s chief law enforcement officer, no criminal charges were ever filed. What is more, a grand jury proceeding is being kept from the public.

Importantly, this year Andrade proposed some reforms to prevent this kind of scandal from happening again. They were contained in House Bill 593, which, among other things, prohibited future settlement monies from being diverted. It also required that the legislature be notified of any future settlements. (A full summary is below.)

The state House passed the bill by an overwhelming 110-to-0 vote. However, it died in the Florida Senate, which never brought it up for a vote.

Andrade is term-limited, so he’s leaving the House and won’t be back next year.

But these are good ideas and they shouldn’t be abandoned. That’s why, if I’m elected to the Florida Senate for District 28, I’ll introduce the “New Hope for Florida Act,” which will reintroduce these sensible, anti-corruption measures.

What’s more, if we get a rational legislature and a great governor like David Jolly, they’ll take effect. If we elect an effective attorney general like Jose Rodriguez, the laws will actually be enforced. And if Alex Vindman is elected, we’ll have a person of proven integrity serving Florida in the US Senate.

There’s much to be investigated in Tallahassee. I intend to pursue the investigations and ensure that no abuses occur again.

I hope you agree. Please go to my website, Silverberg4Florida.com, to learn more. Please donate, volunteer and most importantly, get out and vote for me, David Silverberg, in the general election on November 3rd.

I’m David Silverberg, Democrat for Florida Senate District 28 and I wrote, produced and approved this message.

Background to the Hope Florida scandal

A very good Associated Press timeline for the Hope Florida scandal can be found here: “Hope Florida: A timeline of how a DeSantis-backed state charity was accused of wrongdoing.” It goes as late as April 2025, when Andrade completed his probe.

In brief, in 2024 the State of Florida reached a $67 million settlement with Centene Corp., for Medicaid overbilling. As part of the settlement, Centene donated $10 million to the Hope Florida Foundation, a charitable organization founded by Casey DeSantis, wife of Gov. Ron DeSantis. The purpose of Hope Florida was to lift people out of poverty and off of public assistance. However, the $10 million was then distributed by the Foundation to political action committees fighting Florida constitutional amendments 3 (legalizing recreational cannabis) and 4 (providing for a woman’s right to choose).

When he concluded his probe of the transfers, Andrade stated: “I am firmly convinced that James Uthmeier and Jeff Aaron [the Foundation’s attorney] engaged in a conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud and that several parties played a role in the misuse of $10 million in Medicaid funds. I’ll leave the rest of the investigation up to the FBI and Department of Justice.”

House Bill 593: Governmental Agencies and Personnel

Prohibits state agency or officer from directing funds offered to state to third party as condition of settlement; provides that state agency or officer must provide written notification of terms of settlement to Legislature & Attorney General within specified time; prohibits authorization or approval of reimbursements for travel expenses to & from person's residence & his or her headquarters for specified positions; requires that official headquarters for specified positions be city or town in which department's official headquarters is located; prohibits persons serving in specified positions from being reimbursed for certain travel expenses; prohibits lobbyist or principal from making, & prohibiting district governing board member, executive director, or any district employee who qualifies as local officer from accepting, any expenditure; removes provision prohibiting state residency requirements for university board members.

This message is approved by David Silverberg and the David Silverberg4Florida campaign.

See Silverberg4Florida.com for more positions and opportunities to volunteer.

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