Joey Atkins

Joey David Atkins grew up in West Palm Beach, Florida. Atkins earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Florida Atlantic University, a J.D. from the University of Toledo College of Law in 2013, and a graduate degree from The New School's Milano School of Policy, Management, and Environment. His career experience includes working as a lawyer with Kemp Law Group and as a sports agent.[1][2][3]

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I’m a proud lifelong Floridian, and spent the last several years living and working in Miami, but I grew up in Jupiter, Palm Beach County. My mom, Erika, and her husband, Gary, live in Loxahatchee, close to where I grew up. She is a real estate agent and firearms specialist and trainer, while Gary is a veteran and retired law-enforcement. I have three older step siblings and a younger sister in Dunnellon, Marion County, and two adopted shelter dogs - Maria and Eleanor. I earned a political science degree cum laude from Florida Atlantic University, and then my J.D. and Certificate of International Law at the University of Toledo College of Law in Ohio, followed by a Masters in Economic Development at the Milano School of Policy, Management and Environment in New York. My breadth of experience covers the legal, nonprofit, public and private sectors, including policy work with the UN’s Global Compact, the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative. As a trial attorney, my legal practice has focused on representing Florida individuals and families all over the state in civil litigation. Some of my proudest work stems from my work in providing legal aid to migrant farmworkers and DACA recipients. My longtime home county of Miami-Dade of course includes Homestead, which is a major agricultural area, and covers a significant portion of the Eastern Everglades.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

PRESERVE & PROTECT: Protect our water and land from overdevelopment and hyperscale AI Data Centers, which also drive up energy bills, including supporting a statewide Moratorium on Data Centers. Enact the Blue-Green Algae Task Force recommendations to preserve clean water and improve our water quality. Expand and Strengthen the “Fresh From Florida” Program. Tighten Greenbelt rules to stop developers and corporations from using ag tax breaks as a loophole, so that only real family farms and working ranches get the lower tax rate. Both Prichard and Simpson refuse to do so.FIGHT FOR FLORIDIANS: Fight against the Tariff Tax and support Florida farmers, families and small businesses with the Tariff Checks that were promised. Fight against attempts to block cannabis legalization (which the majority of Floridians voted for) and the hemp industry, to support our veterans and help tackle the opioid crisis. Both Simpson and Prichard are against cannabis legalization. Crackdown on scams against our Seniors, as Florida is currently an epicenter for healthcare fraud and illicit billing.CUT COSTS & CORRUPTION: Stop the corruption and fraud being committed by our current Ag Commissioner in collusion with the energy company monopolies that hike our energy bills. Protect migrant farm workers and modernize guest worker programs to help farmers address the labor shortage and lower grocery prices. Suspend the gas tax, block Flock cameras and block the expansion of the ineffective E-Verify program to keep costs down for small businesses and consumers. Both Simpson and Prichard support increased surveillance and expanding E-Verify which will hurt Florida’s hundreds of thousands of small businesses and entrepreneurs.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Food is too damn expensive. Yet farmers aren’t the ones getting rich: the monopolies and corrupt politicians in the middle are squeezing family farms, price gouging working families, and rigging the system from the field to the grocery store. We can lower food prices, pay farmers fairly, and make food affordable again. I believe my depth of policy expertise including sustainability and economic development, combined with my breadth of experience across the legal, nonprofit, public, and private sectors, including working directly with the farmworkers that pick our produce, and fighting directly on behalf of Florida families in civil litigation, equip me to lead FDACS with integrity, and also to take on its many complex challenges.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

- FL Democratic Agricultural Caucus

- FL Sentinel Bulletin

- Vote the Whole Ballot / Russell Drake

- Democratic Environmental Caucus of FL

- Jacksonville LGBT Chamber of Commerce

- Jeff Horn’s Voter Guide / WANZIEgram

- Commissioner Monica Matteo Salinas

- Forward Leon

- Residents Voice Miami Gardens

- The Set Neighborhood Alliance (PBC)

- Gulf Coast Against Data Centers

- Orange County Democratic Black Caucus Straw Poll Winner

- Hillsborough NAACP Straw Poll Winner

- Seminole Chamber of Commerce Straw Poll Winner

- Americans for Democracy (Terra Kater)

- The Accidental Activist (Chanae Jackson)

- @cesarfl0res

- Go Green with Alexa

- Heidy Torres

- David J. Ruiz (Chamber of Hispanic Affairs)

- Valentina Voight

- @AmandaInformed

U.S. Senate

Joey Atkins did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2026 Candidate Connection survey.

Joey Atkins did not complete [the profile publisher]'s 2024 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Atkins’s campaign website stated the following:

MAKING FLORIDA'S 26TH DISTRICT AN AFFORDABLE PLACE FOR ALL

The soaring cost of living in Florida's 26th District has reached crisis levels, pricing too many hard-working families out of being able to call our vibrant communities home. As your representative, enacting policies to increase housing affordability options and lower the overall burden of basic living expenses will be one of my top priorities. I am by no means exempt from the challenges caused by the rising cost of living, as my rent is also increasing this year.

We need a multi-pronged approach to tackle the 26th District's affordability challenge head-on:

HOUSING ACCESSIBILITY

COST OF LIVING RELIEF

By taking bold steps, we can ensure the 26th District remains a place where teachers, first responders, service workers, and all who make our communities thrive can afford to live. Inaction will further deepen the affordability crisis. I'm committed to bringing together community groups, industry leaders and local officials to develop smart, sustainable solutions. Whether you're a lifelong resident or a newcomer helping drive our economy, every family deserves access to the affordable 26th District we all deserve.

BRINGING OUR TAX DOLLARS HOME TO REVIVE THE 26TH DISTRICT

For over 20 years, the needs of Florida's 26th District have been neglected and overlooked by Congress. Our roads are crumbling, neighborhoods lack amenities, and critical infrastructure is failing - all while our federal tax dollars get siphoned away instead of being reinvested right here at home. This cycle of disinvestment ends now.

As your Representative, I will relentlessly fight to secure our fair share of federal funding to address the long-overdue projects that have been kicked down the road for decades. We've paid our dues, and it's time to bring those dollars back to the 26th to spark a revival.

My top priorities will include:

TRANSPORTATION REVITALIZATION

NEIGHBORHOOD REINVESTMENT

By leveraging federal grants, forging public-private partnerships, and cutting bureaucratic inefficiencies, we can maximize the 26th's share of tax dollars. For too long, our tax money has been drained away with little to show for it locally. It's time to put those funds to work rebuilding, reviving and reinventing our district from the ground up.

The 26th has been left behind for far too long, but through determined leadership and tenacious advocacy, we can finally bring those long-overdue investments home to uplift every community. You deserve representatives who will fight tooth and nail to deliver real results, not just empty words.

[4]

—Joey David Atkins’s campaign website (2024)[5]