Trump Recruiting Against Laurel Lee In Florida
Freshman Congresswoman Laurel Lee grew up rich; her father owned the Carey Cattle Company. Her district, FL-15, is basically some left-over real estate between Tampa and Orlando, most of the voters living in suburban Hillsborough County but with significant numbers in rural Pasco and Polk counties. The district was drawn to elect Republicans and the partisan lean is R+7, swingy by Florida standards. Last cycle, with no incumbents, Democrat Alan Cohn put up a reasonable fight but was beaten by DeSantis’ (appointed) former Secretary of State Laurel Lee, 145,219 (58.5%) to 102,835 (41.5%). She owed her new job— like her old one— where she’s been the ultimate useless backbencher, to DeSantis… and was the only Florida member of Congress to endorse him instead of Señor T.
And now Señor T is coming after her. Keep in mind that though Lee enjoyed a 17 point win, Trump’s win over Biden in the district was just 3.2 points, one of his worst showings in a red district in his adopted state. Yesterday, Gary Fineout reported that Trump is trying to find a MAGAt to primary her, despite the fact that “Lee switched her endorsement to Trump after DeSantis ended his campaign following a distant second place finish in Iowa. Trump’s call for Republicans to challenge Lee comes roughly a month before the qualifying deadline for congressional races. Currently, no GOP candidates have filed to run against Lee, according to federal campaign finance records. But the prospect of a Trump endorsement appears likely to be a big motivator for someone to mount a last-minute candidacy. Jackie Toledo, a former Republican state legislator who came in a distant third in the 2022 primary that Lee won, posted on social media early Monday that she was a ‘Great MAGA Republican answering the call and ready to serve.’”
There’s some speculation that Trump is being driven by his intense, unabated hatred for DeSantis and flipped out when DeSantis threatened to veto a bill in the legislature that would have provided taxpayer money for his legal defense fund. The sponsor of the bill was bullied into withdrawing it. And this is Trump's petty revenge.
Lee, a former judge married to former state Senate President Tom Lee, joined the DeSantis administration in 2019 when she was appointed to replace Secretary of State Mike Ertel, who resigned after photographs emerged of him in blackface dressed as a Hurricane Katrina victim.
She stepped down to run for Florida’s 15th district which was a newly-created, Republican-leaning congressional seat that runs from suburbs just outside of Tampa into a western slice of conservative Polk County.
Lee oversaw the state’s election office as it was repeatedly sued over a series of controversial election laws pushed by DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Legislature, including limits on drop boxes and placing restrictions on the voting rights of convicted felons.
She received threats, however, when she resisted calls for Florida’s 2020 election to be audited from Republicans spurred on by Trump’s false claims of massive voter fraud. She instead insisted that the state’s elections went smoothly and with little problems.
While in Congress, Lee has been a reliable Republican vote, although there have been times that she has split from the stances of some of the state’s more conservative members. Lee, for example, was one of just six Florida GOP members to vote in favor of the $1.2 trillion spending package that kept the federal government open.
I think there may be a Democrat running. Kris Fitzgerald raised $17,297.31 and spent $16,464.04 as of December 31. But her website isn’t functioning and her Twitter account isn’t exactly robust. We covered her campaign launch back in September but haven’t heard anything much about any kind of a campaign since then. It’s a shame because if Democrats are ever going to resucitate their moribund party in Florida, it has to include swing districts like the 15th. And with a weak, problematic incumbent like Lee, this would be a good opportunity for a Democratic candidate to flip a seat— or at least to turn out voters for statewide and local races.
