MIAMI — Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida suspended the top prosecutor in Tampa on Thursday, accusing him of incompetence and neglect of duty for vowing not to prosecute those who seek or provide abortions.
In a startling announcement, Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, suspended from office Andrew H. Warren, the elected state attorney of Hillsborough County. In June, Mr. Warren, a Democrat, was among 90 elected prosecutors across the country who vowed not to prosecute those who seek or provide abortions after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Florida imposed a 15-week abortion ban in April.
The decision immediately raised concerns among Democrats, including Mr. Warren, who say that the governor has become increasingly heavy-handed.
suspend him.
Aramis D. Ayala, a Democrat who was then the state attorney in Orlando, startled the state by saying she would not seek the death penalty in any cases, Mr. Scott reassigned more than two dozen cases to another state attorney’s office. But he did not suspend Ms. Ayala, who did not seek re-election after her term and is now running for Florida attorney general.
Mr. DeSantis has been much more aggressive. Shortly after taking office in 2019, he suspended Sheriff Scott Israel of Broward County, a Democrat, faulting him for his handling of the mass shooting at a Parkland high school in 2018, even though Mr. Israel had not been criminally charged. Mr. Israel unsuccessfully appealed his suspension to the courts and the State Senate and later lost a re-election bid.
Mr. DeSantis is up for re-election in November and has faced growing criticism from Democrats that his approach to governing has become increasingly authoritarian. On Thursday, the two leading Democrats vying to challenge him, Representative Charlie Crist and Nikki Fried, the state’s agriculture commissioner, reacted to Mr. Warren’s suspension by referring to Mr. DeSantis in statements as a “wannabe dictator” (Mr. Crist) and a “dictator” (Ms. Fried).
Miriam Krinsky, the executive director of Fair and Just Prosecution, which put out the statement against criminalizing abortion that Mr. Warren signed in June, called his suspension “an unprecedented and dangerous intrusion on the separation of powers and the will of the voters.”