Jacob Ogles
Orlando Republican Scotty Moore has closed his congressional campaign account as he focuses on a coming Special Election for the Statehouse.
Moore in 2022 challenged U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, a Kissimmee Democrat. He lost in November by 7 percentage points after raising more than $600,000 for the race.
That was a closer margin than expected, and the National Republican Congressional Committee this cycle has sent out communications calling Soto a vulnerable incumbent in Florida. But no candidate besides Moore has reported raising more than $125 to run this cycle.
While Moore had filed to challenge Soto again, he filed in June to run a state-level race in House District 35. He’s running now for a seat just vacated by St. Cloud Republican Fred Hawkins, the new President of South Florida State College. Hawkins has resigned his seat, which will prompt a Special Election to name a successor.
Now Moore has filed a termination report with the Federal Election Commission. He had closed the last election cycle with just under $2,000 left in cash in the bank and had raised just over $58,500 this year for a potential rematch with Soto.
But now he has fully disbursed all funding in the account, mostly settling expenses with vendors.
A terminating report signals Moore has wound down activities for the federal committee.
He filed for state office on June 9 and has yet to file his first report as a candidate in HD 35.
Moore is one of four Republicans to file for the open seat, along with Osceola School Board member Erika Booth, flight attendant Ken Davenport and former congressional candidate Demetries Grimes. Democrats Rishi Bagga and Tom Keen have also both filed for the seat.
Moore is running as a “Christian conservative” and has already started door-to-door campaigning in the district.
The HD 35 seat is expected to be one of the most important legislative races of the year. While Hawkins won re-election in the district last year over Bagga by 10 percentage points, most voters in the district supported Democrat Joe Biden for President over Donald Trump in 2020.
One comment
Gregory Fournier
July 5, 2023 at 1:20 pm
A lot of people have raised questions on exactly where he distributed that federal campaign money. Some are suggesting he laundered it through several groups and organizations. I don’t know but someone e needs to look deep into his finances. Also, Moore is showing he is nothing but a career candidate, who can’t really articulate his position further than infantile canned answers, that an 7th grader could answer. Recently he really butchered a statement explaining the new gun law. Giving answers,” I want to serve,” well don’t we all. Moore talks about his tm20 years as a minister? He was not a minister. He was a missionary who worked over seas in europe and down in Brazil. Then comes here, can’t get a job, has absolutely NO ties to the community other than living in the political districts he decides to run in. He kind of floats in the direction the political winds blow in. He could not raise the funds he needed for another Congressional run ( people saw how badly he lost in his first run), he lost sitting on the ballot between the governor and Senator Rubio. Followed by the other State wide candidates and local state candidates. People made a conscious decision to not vote for him or voted for Soto instead. Every other campaign recieved more votes than Moore. It’s because people saw right through him. He would be a disaster if elected.
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