TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WWSB) - Primary elections for House seats in Florida will feature a test for a conservative firebrand with the specter of a federal investigation looming over him and a rematch between two Democrats after a razor-thin loss last year.
The primary in Florida will be a test of whether Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Trump protégé who is under federal investigation in a sex trafficking case, is losing support among moderate Republicans.
Gaetz has not been charged and denies wrongdoing. He is facing a challenge from Mark Lombardo, a former Marine and executive at FedEx who has blanketed the western Panhandle with attack ads centering around the investigation as he tries to take him on in Florida’s 1st Congressional District.
Competing in the Democratic primary for the seat in the heavily Republican district is Rebekah Jones, a former Department of Health employee who questioned the state’s COVID-19 data, though a state inspector general’s report concluded her allegations were unfounded.
But it was unclear up until Monday if Jones was even legally allowed to run. A Leon County Circuit Judge ruled Jones was ineligible to run in Congressional District 1 because she had not been a member of the Democratic Party for 365 days before qualifying for the race.
Jones appealed and on Monday, an appeals court ruled in her favor, saying state law did not allow the legal challenge after the Department of State had determined that she was qualified.
She has...
"I will note that in 2024, troops were -- that was Joe Biden by the way, Joe Biden -- were deployed to polling locations in 15 states," Hegseth said April 29, 2026 before the House of Representati...