Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has issued an investigative subpoena to the Democratic Socialists of America to find out whether the group took money or support from the communist governments of Cuba and China.
I have been waiting for someone in authority to ask that question out loud, and I am glad it was Florida.
What Florida is asking
Uthmeier announced the subpoena Tuesday in a post and video on X. “We’re examining foreign contributions—including from Cuba and China—tied to their delegations and travel fund solicitations,” he wrote. “FL law requires transparency. We will hold those who break the law accountable.”
In the video, he said the subpoena was issued under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act and the state’s laws on soliciting funds. “We are examining whether DSA accepted contributions or support from foreign sources of concern, including the regimes in Cuba and China, and whether its fundraising from Florida donors has been fully transparent and lawful,” he said.
Since July 2025, Florida law has barred groups that ask Florida residents for donations from soliciting or accepting money from a “foreign source of concern,” a category that includes the governments of China and Cuba.
DSA’s own International Committee says it sent 40 members, elected leaders included, to Cuba in October 2025. Now Florida wants to know who paid for those trips. Better luck explaining that one, comrades. New column at @RedState. https://t.co/ZbqoZfyN0R
— Rusty (@Rusty_Weiss) November 11, 2026
Uthmeier said his office will look at recent DSA delegations to Cuba, which included national leaders and committee members who met Cuban government officials, and at a separate delegation to China. He said tens of thousands of dollars covered the cost of those trips “and related activities involving Florida chapters,” and his office wants to know where that money came from. His office told the Washington Examiner the investigation reaches back to Jan. 1, 2023.
He has not accused any individual of breaking the law, and a subpoena is a demand for records, not a criminal charge. DSA communications director Priscilla Yeverino told Florida Politics, “We are aware of the situation and have no comment at this time.”
Why the trips matter
DSA has never hidden its warmth toward Havana. It routinely calls for lifting American sanctions and ending the embargo on Cuba. A State Department report released in July said DSA members met privately with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel during a 2023 trip and sought formal channels of communication with government ministries, Fox News reported.
Gov. Ron DeSantis backed his attorney general. “If the DSA is raking in foreign money from communist countries, Florida will hold the DSA accountable,” he posted on X.
The subpoena comes a week after DSA-backed candidates won races at the federal, state and local levels, and as those new officeholders prepare to take their seats.
The bottom line
Florida is home to many families who fled the Castro regime. They know what that government does to dissidents, to pastors and to anyone who tries to leave. When an American political organization sends delegations to sit with Cuba’s rulers and raises money from Florida donors to pay for those trips, those donors and every voter have a right to know who else is paying.
I want to be careful here. Nothing has been proven, and DSA deserves the chance to answer. But Florida passed a clear law against money from foreign adversaries, and enforcing it is the attorney general’s job. If the records show the group is clean, it has nothing to fear from handing them over.
If they show money from Havana or Beijing flowing into an American political movement, that is foreign interference in our politics and should be treated as exactly that. Other attorneys general should be watching closely, and I hope they follow Florida’s lead.