Former Vice President Mike Pence is visiting his former boss’ home county this week to keynote a noon event and field questions from attendees.

He’s headlining a luncheon hosted by the nonprofit Forum Club of the Palm Beaches on Friday as part of a seasonal, yearly series of high-profile guests of varying political views.

The event is already sold out, but virtual tickets are still available.

Pence is heading into what some may view as enemy territory. Since his falling out with Donald Trump in January 2021 that culminated in supporters of the President calling for him to be hanged outside the U.S. Capitol, Pence hasn’t been shy about criticizing the nation’s top executive official.

Last month, he posted an article he wrote more than a decade ago about the limits of presidential power after Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that “He who saves his country does not violate any Law.”

He’s also been delivering speeches urging the President to stand with longstanding foreign allies and lobbying members of Congress while aides write letters and opinion columns.

Pence and those who work with him at Advancing American Freedom, his political advocacy group, stress they are not looking to take on the “Never Trump” mantle. They intend to praise the administration when they agree with it, while raising concerns when they don’t, advocating for longtime conservative principles that have fallen out of favor as Trump’s “Make America Great Again” brand of populism has taken hold.

“We’re calling balls and strikes here,” Pence told The Associated Press.

Pence will join a list of past Forum Club speakers who CEO Sarah Elwell described as coming from a “broad variety of industries and viewpoints.”

All speakers are unpaid, and audience queries are reviewed in advance to ensure they are fair, appropriate and “represent a diversity of questions.” Speeches last about 30 minutes. The event runs for an hour.

Past speakers have included former President Jimmy Carter, U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney and forgery expert Frank Abagnale, and more recent presenters like former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former U.S. Attorney General William Barr.

Next month, former U.S. Secretary of State Alejandro Mayorkas and Douglas Ginsburg, Senior Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., are scheduled to speak at separate events.

Tickets to Friday’s event at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts, located less than 4 miles from Mar-a-Lago, ranged from $55 for members and $80 for guests to $700 for a 10-seat table.

Virtual tickets are $25 for members and $30 for non-members.

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Material from The Associated Press was used in this report. Republished with permission.

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James Uthmeier, the former Chief of Staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed as Attorney General after former AG Ashley Moody was appointed to the U.S. Senate, will officially kick off his 2026 campaign for the job next week on Tuesday, March 11.

The event will be held at The Governor’s Inn, 209 S. Adams St., Tallahassee, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

Uthmeier was sworn in as Attorney General earlier this month, replacing Moody, who replaced former U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio after he was tapped to serve as President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State. His appointment will fill the remaining portion of Moody’s term through 2026, meaning Uthmeier will have to seek election to the seat in 2026 for a full term.

Uthmeier filed for that race last week. His appointment to the remainder of the current term will not count toward term limits, meaning that if he is elected, he will have the opportunity to serve nearly 10 years as Attorney General, not just eight.

It is Uthmeier’s first bid for public office, but he has plenty of experience running statewide campaigns for others. Earlier this month, he launched the political committee Friends of James Uthmeier in anticipation of his statewide run.

He also chairs the still-active Florida Freedom Fund, which last year campaigned successfully to defeat ballot measures that sought to expand access to abortions and marijuana. That committee closed 2024 with over $2.11 million cash on hand, though DeSantis has signaled he would like to use that committee to weigh in during Republican Primary elections next year.

Uthmeier previously chaired Keep Florida Clean, Inc., which focused last year on defeating the marijuana ballot measure. That committee was disbanded last week but has not yet released its final expenditure reports. A disbandment letter stated all remaining funding, about $121,000 as of the end of 2024, will be distributed into a 527 political organization.

Supporting Uthmeier’s race by serving on his campaign launch host committee are several top power brokers in GOP politics, including GrayRobinson attorney Ashley Lukis and her husband, political consultant Adrian Lukis; strategist Slater Bayliss and his wife, Sara; Florida Association of Counties Executive Director Ginger Delegal and her husband, government relations pro Mark Delegal; consultant Josh Aubuchon; Capital City Consulting Co-founder Ron LaFace; Capital City Consulting Managing Partner Scott Ross and his wife, political consultant Ashley Ross; Capital City Consulting Co-founder Nick Iarossi; lobbyist Derek Whitis and his wife, consultant Courtney Whitis; lobbyist Cameron Yarbrough and his wife, Jamie; lobbyist Jared Rosenstein; the Southern Group’s Monte Stevens; Capital City Consulting lobbyist and former DeSantis senior advisor Drew Meiner; and government relations pro Rhett O’Doski, among others.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce is also listed as a host for Uthmeier’s kickoff.

Maximum individual contributions to Uthmeier’s campaign are $3,000, plus another $3,000 per business entity. Donations over those limits can be made to Uthmeier’s committee, Friends of James Uthmeier.

So far, he’s the only candidate to run for the Attorney General post, though that could change. Regardless, he could enjoy the benefits of incumbency, serving as Florida’s top legal officer into next year’s Republican Primary and General Election.

Other candidates rumored to be considering a run include former Florida House Speakers Chris Sprowls and Paul Renner, as well as former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz.

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Florida Politics reporter Jacob Ogles contributed to this report.

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Speaking during the confirmation hearing for Dr. Marty Makary, President Donald Trump’s pick to head the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody honed in on a problem she tackled in her previous job as Florida’s Attorney General: dangerous, and illegal, Chinese vapes.

Makary, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins, is widely expected to be confirmed to the role, and is one of the less controversial picks coming out of the new Trump administration.

He faced a lot of tough questions on things like abortion pill access and vaccines during his hearing, but Moody took a different approach during her questioning.

“First, I want to talk to you about what is going on with the FDA and its burying its head in the sand about illegal, chemically ridden, extraordinarily high amounts of nicotine, Chinese vapes that are flooding the United States market,” she said, pointing to flavored vapes found in convenience stores throughout the U.S. despite lack of regulatory oversight and, in at least some cases, the products being outright illegal.

“All of the manufacturers there of these chemically ridden vapes have now flooded our market and now are addicting our children, much like we’re seeing this in, in many other ways … in harmful substance coming from China and they’re not doing much about it, fentanyl, etc.,” Moody added.

Making nice, Makary nodded to Moody’s status as a proud baseball mom, prompting her to say it was “on the bleachers at a baseball game” where she first heard about the problem with Chinese vapes, before getting more serious on the issue.

“I think there are four new vaping stores that have popped up in my neighborhood all in the last few years,” Makary began, acknowledging the problem.

Makary admitted that he hasn’t gone into any of them, but said she was right about products from China flooding the market.

“We have no idea what’s in these products, and public health is not even going to be able to study them because it takes so long for public health research to catch up, but it’s very concerning and it’s not right that they’re banned,” he said.

Makary offered one suggestion: using the Office of Inspections and Investigations, in collaboration with the Department of Justice and other law enforcement, to target illegal products.

The issue is big in Florida, with Republican lawmakers state Sen. Keith Perry and state Rep. Toby Overdorf sponsoring legislation (SB 1006, HB 1007) this year to crack down on illicit vape products.

The Florida Retail Federation has reported that at least $363 million in illegal vape products were sold in Florida just last year, ranking Florida No. 1 in illegal vape sales. Florida sits at 20% above the national average in illegal vape sales, making up a whopping 58% of overall vape sales in the state.

And Julio Fuentes, President and CEO of the Florida State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, has focused on the issue too, with an op-ed in The Floridian noting Trump’s opportunity through Makary on tobacco policy.

Instead of focusing on “prohibitionist” policies, Fuente wrote that Makary could establish “scientific consensus around tobacco harm reduction,” meaning alternatives to things like cigarettes.

“Research has well established that vapor and heat-not-burn technologies are far less harmful than traditional cigarettes. And, new products like nicotine pouches are even less harmful, in some cases on par with traditional cessation products like nicotine gum,” he wrote.

His point was aligned with many in the smoking alternative camp, that by adequately regulating things like vapes, consumers could have access to safer alternatives to smoking, including by removing unregulated and harmful vape products from shelves.

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