Roger Stone endorses candidate running in Palm Beach County state House race

Republican Jane Justice is aiming high in her first try for elected office: Trying to unseat two-term Republican Rep. Mike Caruso in the Primary.

And now she has an instantly recognizable character from the movement she wants to represent in the statehouse to attest to her MAGA bona fides: political consultant Roger Stone.

Stone may seem an unlikely campaign spokesman, given his brush with justice of another kind. He’s a convicted felon who was facing 40 months’ jail time for witness tampering and obstruction of justice until President Donald Trump commuted his sentence. Justice, a real estate agent, says the endorsement comes at just the right time as she makes a bid to represent House District 87, which covers the north, coastal area of Palm Beach County, north of Mar-a-Lago.

“We are living in frightening times,” her prepared statement accompanying the video says. “The raid on President Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago was a disgrace and reminds us of the raid on Roger Stone’s home.”

In the video, Stone, wearing his trademark sunglasses with circular black lenses and an Ultra-Maga T-shirt, holds Justice’s flier and introduces himself — as if he needed introducing after all that nightly news footage.

“This is Roger Stone,” he says, standing in front of tropical foliage. “I don’t normally endorse candidates running in state races, but in the case of Jane Justice, well, I had to make an exception.”

The one-minute video is running on Justice’s campaign Facebook page. The YouTube counter shows it’s racked up more than 3,000 views since its Tuesday upload.

Stone, who doesn’t live in House District 87, explains his endorsement further: “Jane is a solid conservative, a supporter of parental rights, a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. She’s a solid constitutional conservative who will always put America and Florida first. So please join me in supporting Jane Justice for Florida Statehouse.”

It’s not that Justice is well-acquainted with Stone, beyond a few handshakes at some of his speaking engagements, explained Mary-Ellen Manning, Justice’s campaign manager.

“It was charm and persistence that paid off,” Manning said, explaining that Justice wrote a letter to Stone asking for his endorsement, along with some of her campaign materials.

The video showed up in her email inbox not long after.

Justice was not running for office when redistricting renumbered and shifted Caruso’s longtime Delray Beach home into a district that stretched further west. The boundary shift made the district lean more Democratic. The new district also included incumbent Democratic Rep. Joe Casello.

So Caruso moved north, to the newly drawn House District 87, which had no active incumbent at the time.

Justice, however, has labeled him a “RINO” even though he said his voting record is “100%” in line with Republicans. He stuck with his party on controversial issues such as the prohibition against abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and the law known as the Parental Rights in Education Law. But he did face censure from the Palm Beach County Republican Executive Committee after he endorsed a Democrat in her House Primary race.

On Aug. 23, voters will decide which of the two Republicans face the Democratic candidate in the race, Sienna Osta.