Partially because of gerrymandering, Florida has a huge bloc of Republican members of Congress— 20 of them to just 8 Democrats. Almost 72% of the state’s seats are red. In the last presidential election Trump won Florida with 51.2% to Biden’s 47.9%. A fair, ungerrymandered congressional map would yield something like 15-16 Republican seats and 12-13 Democratic seats.
Of the 20 current GOP Members, I would describe 6 as anti-American, anti-democracy crackpot extremists:
Matt Gaetz
Kat Cammack
Aaron Bean
Cory Mills
Anna Paulina Luna
Byron Donalds
Let’s call Daniel Webster, Michael Waltz and Bill Posey “crackpot extremist-adjacent.”
Gaetz, who wants to run for governor in 2026, is not exactly Mr. Popularity among his colleagues at this moment. None of them joined him in his successful bid to unthrone Kevin McCarthy, although Cory Mills was with him on the procedural vote that prevented the motion from being tabled, and Anna Paulina Luna was hiding in the ladies’ room, posting/raving “I will vote for the Speaker who publicly and clearly commits to defunding Jack Smith's anti-American election interference witch hunts and subpoenas Hunter Biden while bringing a vote on the impeachment of Joe Biden to the floor of the House.”
Although I suspect they didn’t poll the whole Florida delegation, Kimberly Leonard and Mia McCarthy reported for Politico that “Florida’s congressional Republicans are done with Matt Gaetz [and] left the House chamber last night furious” [with him]… They called Gaetz divisive. Disrespectful. Selfish. No other Florida Republican voted to oust McCarthy. Florida’s GOP delegation see Gaetz as carrying out a personal vendetta, accusing him of an overzealous bid for attention and of trying to position himself to become the state’s future governor. ‘Gaetz has very few friends in the conference,’ Rep. Carlos Gimenez said. ‘Gaetz maybe has a couple of friends in the delegation. But I’m not one of them.’”
Gimenez doesn’t speak for the delegation and I suspect half a dozen of them like Gaetz more than they like him. “[R]epresentatives from Florida,” wrote the two reporters, “said Gaetz probably won’t face expulsion from the chamber, even though some lawmakers on the Hill have already started talking about it. They did, however, seethe over Gaetz fundraising off of removing McCarthy from his perch— many calling it ‘disgusting’ and ‘inappropriate.’ Only Rep. Cory Mills came to Gaetz’s defense, saying that he would need ‘monetary capital’ to defend himself against ‘a lot of swampy people in D.C.’… Waltz, who is also eyeing a 2026 gubernatorial bid, said that he agreed with Gaetz’s frustrations but not his tactics. ‘At the end of the day, we’re doing this, we’re not passing appropriations bills,’ he said. ‘We’re not dealing with the border. We’re not dealing with inflation.’ ‘He’s about clicks,’ Gimenez said. ‘He’s about how many cameras he can get shoved in his face and he’s a historical figure because he caused for the first time in history and all that. I think he gets off on that.’”
Christian Ziegler is the Chairman of the Florida Republican Party.
On Newsmax yesterday, Gaetz gave his side of the argument and he seems to be unhappy with Acting Speaker Patrick McHenry already: