A.G. Gancarski
Former President Donald Trump is endorsing a Northeast Florida member of Congress whose political operation has some overlap with his own.
Trump gave his official backing to U.S. Rep. John Rutherford in his re-election bid in Florida’s 5th Congressional District, saying the former Jacksonville Sheriff and fourth-term Congressman “is doing a terrific job” in office.
“John works every day to Protect our Country, Grow our Economy, Support our Brave Police and First Responders, Defend our always under siege Second Amendment, and Uphold the Rule of Law. As a Sherriff, John spent many years safeguarding our great Communities, and he continues to do so in Congress. John Rutherford has my Complete and Total Endorsement & HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
The Trump endorsement comes ahead of a rematch with Mara Macie, one of two Primary challengers to Rutherford in 2022. She was unsuccessful, getting 18% of the vote and finishing in a distant second place, with Rutherford taking 66% in that election.
Rutherford had more than half a million dollars on hand at the end of March, and the Trump endorsement further underscores his seeming inevitability.
If he should prevail, he will face a Democrat and a write-in in November.
Democrat Jay McGovern qualified in the race, he tells Florida Politics from Tallahassee. At this writing, the Division of Elections is processing his qualification paperwork.
McGovern has run for office before. In 2016, he lost the Democratic Primary in the old Florida’s 6th Congressional District, where he would have challenged Ron DeSantis if he had won that August. In 2020, he lost a Primary race for state House to a candidate who ended up losing to state Rep. Wyman Duggan.
Repeat candidate Gary Koniz is also running, this time as a write-in.
The district, which includes some of Duval and St. Johns Counties, is designed for a Republican win, with more than 250,000 GOP registrants and fewer than 145,000 Democrats.
5 comments
Dont Say FLA
May 29, 2024 at 10:42 am
Hooray for Total Loser Endorsement Week!
Endorsements of Losers are crawling out of the woodwork this week while everybody else waits to see how many felony counts Trump gets found guilty of perpetrating.
The guilty count might be zero. It might be 34. We shall see.
But prison? Nada year. Nadan hour. Nada day. Old white dude rules. They are in play.
Whatever the outcome, it makes no difference to voters of the self proclaimed party of law and order. He’s their guy. Because he says so.
If Trump had only known his voters back in 2016, he wouldn’t be awaiting his verdicts and perhaps a piddly fine right now for having bothered, however inept his attempt was, to con them.
Thugs
May 29, 2024 at 11:05 am
Oh these people counting on a criminal’s endorsement. Thugs hang with thugs in prison too. Election interference from Trump and Putin. Trump will pay first.
Dont Say FLA
May 29, 2024 at 11:24 am
If found guilty on all 34 counts, Trump’s most likely outcome will only be a fine of about $51,000 total. Not $51,000 per count. $51,000 total.
There may be a show of paying restitution to the banks, but the banks were just playing their OWD games. The banks don’t give AF and Trump won’t be paying any real restitution regardless of announcements/sentences of paying restitution.
He is so old he can just cook the books again and he’ll never even see trial if he’s even caught before he expires.
And that, “he’ll never even see trial if he’s even caught before he expires” is why a 2nd Trump Presidency would be so bad for USA. I won’t even say it would be “dangerous.” It will beyond anyone’s terrible expectations of Donald Javina Trump. And why? Because “he’ll never even see trial if he’s even caught before he expires.”
So, Vote for Trump. He’ll never see trial if he’s even caught before he croaks. That mean Anything Goes for a potential Trump Term Two. /s (please, please don’t)
Dont Say FLA
May 29, 2024 at 11:17 am
Well pooh, I already called out this loser endorsement. I thought it was a new one, but it’s not.
Why do this week’s T-GFCI endorsed losers all look the same?
lol. OWDs all up in da’
houseMaga Lardo!MH/Duuuval
May 29, 2024 at 12:02 pm
Readers will notice that DJT proactively bequeathed his endorsement. Rutherford can’t be comfortable standing too close to a frequent and loud critic of law enforcement as well as an ardent defender of J6 thugs as “hostages.”
Comments are closed.