Brian Clowdus starts to spend in HD 6 GOP Primary, but Griff Griffitts spends bigger

With some help from Roger Stone, Brian Clowdus posts some solid fundraising, but still lags behind. Image via Twitter.

After spending less than $200 in June on his Republican Primary race for the House District 6 seat, Brian Clowdus spent more than $11,000 in the first two weeks of July, a newly released campaign finance report from the Division of Elections shows.

Clowdus, who owns an entertainment production company, spent most of that sum, about $10,500, on direct mail pieces. But his opponent, Bay County Commissioner Griff Griffitts, spent more than $124,000, with more than $101,000 going toward campaign media ads.

As of July 15, Griffitts had nearly $112,000 cash on hand, dwarfing the $22,800 in Clowdus’ campaign coffers.

That gap underlines Clowdus’ outsider status he’s touted has he takes on Griffitts, a homebuilder who has served on the Bay County Commission and boasts of endorsements from local and statewide elected GOP officials, such as Panama City Mayor Greg Brudnicki and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, a Bay County native.

Brett Doster, a Griffitts campaign advisor, noted that because Clowdus is the only other candidate the race is an open Primary. That means Democrats, third-party and NPA voters can cast ballots. That should give Griffitts an edge, he argued, even though he’s “very conservative” in deep-red Bay County because of how he’s handled hurricanes and wildfires while on the Commission.

“He’s just an over-the-top respected leader locally and he’s very conservative,” Doster said. “So he plays well for a Republican Primary but even Democrats and NPAs have a ton of respect for him because of his leadership on a ton of issues.”

A voicemail left with Clowdus’ campaign was not returned Monday.

Clowdus moved to the Panama City area in 2020 and campaigned for former President Donald Trump’s re-election, knocking on “thousands of doors”. He is a self-described “Make America Great Again” enthusiast and has more than 50,000 followers on Twitter.

In Twitter posts over the weekend, Clowdus has said he’s been knocking on doors throughout Bay County.

Doster said the last internal poll for Griffitts showed him 18 points ahead of Clowdus, but he’s still campaigning “as though we were running against 100 opponents and being 10 points down.”

Monday is the last day to register to vote for the Primary Election, which is Aug. 23. Election officials began mailing ballots for the Primary to voters last week.

The HD 6 seat covers all of Bay County. The winner will replace Rep. Jay Trumbull, a Panama City Republican who is running for Senate.