Ryan Ray
Amid a cascade of statehouse dominoes in Northwest Florida in the aftermath of U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller‘s decision not to run for reelection to Congress, Rep. Mike Hill announced Monday he’ll run for Senate District 1.
The seat is currently held by Baker Republican Sen. Greg Evers. Hill reportedly told his local Republican Executive Committee the move should not threaten Evers – set to term out in 2018 – because he expects Evers to run for Miller’s 1st Congressional District seat, clearing a path for a new senator.
But that account was disputed Monday by Rep. Doug Broxson of Gulf Breeze, who is also rumored to be interested in the SD 1 seat. He said Hill’s calculations were premature and that Evers was not necessarily going to exit the seat on NewsRadio1620, a conservative talk radio outlet.
Evers was recently drawn into SD 2 which is now numbered as SD 1, currently occupied by term-limited former Senate President Don Gaetz. The seat is the subject of a heated primary between Gaetz’s son Rep. Matt Gaetz and longtime Bay County Commissioner George Gainer.
Broxson has said he will run for Ever’s seat, but would not challenge the incumbent. He speculated Hill’s move risks that, though Hill sounded confident of Ever’s plans.
Evers appears unlikely to jump into the Gaetz-Gainer primary for the new SD 2, and nearly as unlikely to move to SD 1 in order to serve out his final two years of Senate eligibility.
Whether Hill would drop out if Ever’s reclaims the SD 1 mantle was unclear as of Monday. Barring that, a potentially contentious primary between Hill and Broxson could be shaping up, pitting two formidable Republicans against one another.
The contest could ultimately turn on political geography. Hill, the sole African-American member of the House Republican majority caucus, is from Pensacola. Broxson hails from a long line civic leaders in Gulf Breeze and Milton, stretching back to the 19th century.
“I stated several months ago that if that opened up, I would certainly be involved in it, and that’s our intention,” Broxson the Gulf Coast Pulse. “Mike’s a fine man, and I think people like a good competition. He’ll throw out his credentials, and I’ll throw out mine, and we’ll see what happens.”
