Gus Bilirakis lands coveted endorsement from Donald Trump

Image via Instagram.

Former President Donald Trump has made it official: He’s backing U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis for re-election to Florida’s 12th Congressional District.

The former President and current presumptive GOP nominee for the third time had already tacitly offered his support, appearing with Bilirakis at a high-dollar fundraiser.

If that wasn’t enough to get the point across, he’s now made it crystal clear.

“Congressman Gus Bilirakis is a very effective lawmaker for the people of Florida’s 12th Congressional District! Our America First Movement needs Leaders like Gus, who Fight to Secure the Border, Stop Illegal Immigration, and Protect and Defend our always under siege Second Amendment. Gus Bilirakis was an early Endorser of our Campaign for President, and has my Complete and Total Endorsement,” Trump posted to his now-publicly traded Truth Social.

Bilirakis has long supported Trump, so it’s no wonder the former President is offering his star power. Bilirakis endorsed Trump for President in April 2023, before Trump announced his bid officially.

The same month, Bilirakis issued a statement supporting Trump and attacking a “weaponized” Department of Justice when the former President was arraigned in New York on 34 counts of falsifying business records, a trial that is ongoing.

Trump was a headliner at a fundraiser for Bilirakis in late November where he posed for photos with Bilirakis and supporters and delivered remarks at the fundraising reception Nov. 20 at Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach.

This isn’t the first time Trump has weighed in for Bilirakis. He did the longtime Congressman a solid, offering his endorsement in January 2022, ahead of the Midterm Elections.

Bilirakis supported Trump’s false contention that the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen, citing at the time “multiple reports of voter irregularities and what some feel are unconstitutional changes to various states’ mail-in voting procedures.” He also supported a Texas lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to intervene in the election, according to Bloomberg.

Since winning his seat in Washington in 2006, succeeding father and former U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis, Gus Bilirakis has focused on bread-and-butter issues that impact his constituents’ lives.

In particular, Bilirakis has fought alongside Democrats and Republicans in the region on behalf of area veterans. He celebrated some of that progress earlier this year at the ribbon-cutting for the new James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital bed tower in Tampa. He shared the stage with a Democrat in Tampa Bay’s congressional delegation.

The Center for Effective Lawmaking last year rated Bilirakis the most effective Republican member of the House among the Florida delegation. The Lugar Center, which tracks how often lawmakers work together across the aisle, scored Bilirakis as the most bipartisan member of Florida’s congressional delegation in the last Congress. He was the 27th highest scoring member nationwide in the 435-member chamber.

Trump’s continued support builds on strong conservative backing he’s already received this election cycle, including nods from U.S. Reps. Jim Jordan and Byron Donalds.

Bilirakis faces two Republicans in the Primary, according to campaign documents filed with the Federal Election Commission. James Judge, a U.S. Coast Guard veteran, has filed for the seat after running unsuccessfully against U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor in neighboring Florida’s 14th Congressional District two years ago. So has Harry “Hank” William Dunlap, who has raised just $100. Judge isn’t much further along in the fundraising game, with less than $8,000 banked as of the most recent filings. Bilirakis, meanwhile, has raised more than $840,000.