State election officials ousted Rep. Debbie Mayfield from a special election for Senate District 19 seats on Wednesday, and Florida law imposes an eight-year period limit, which means she runs to the old seat. It means you can’t do it.
In response, Mayfield, a Melbourne Republican who supported Donald Trump for Gov. Ron DeSantis in the GOP presidential primary, claimed that the governor was using the State Department to nurse grates against her. She also suggested challenge the state in court.
“Today, Governor Desantis used administrative agencies to punish me for supporting Donald J. Trump for the president,” Mayfield said in a statement. “He weaponized the State Department just as Biden weaponized the Justice Department against President Trump. The law is on my side and we fight for the people of Brevard.”
Mayfield is a legislative veteran and has been in his body since 2008. After eight years in the House, she moved to the Senate in 2016, holding an SD 19 seat covering most of Brevard County for eight years until November.
Due to the time limit, she ran to the open house seat and won. Her old seat winner, Sen. Randy Fine, will run for the district seat of the Sixth Congress, which was held when Trump chose former US Senator Mike Waltz as his national security adviser. I’ve chosen it.
Helped by support from Trump, Fine won the GOP primary with six-sheet CDs last week. The general election is set for April 1, and Fine’s resignation from the Senate will take effect the day before.
State law requires lawmakers to run for another seat that overlaps with their current period to resign to run towards that office. Mayfield issued its own resignation notice to run for SD 19, which came into effect on June 9th. The SD119 special election primary is set for April 1st, and the general election is set for June 10th.
The qualifying period ended at noon on Tuesday
The qualifying round for the special election, which replaces noon on Tuesday, will be with Mercy Adkins, Mark Reitner III and Tim Thomas, and one Democrat – Vance Allens, three Republicans certified to the race.
However, a memo sent Wednesday to Mayfield, the office of Election Director Maria Matthews, pointed to the state constitution ban on lawmakers who have served in the same legislative seat for more than eight consecutive years, and she was eligible to run. I decided that wasn’t.
This is the latest line between DeSantis and Republican lawmakers, and is a sign that the rift with Trump, who challenges him at the president’s GOP primary, continues to ripple across the state. Mayfield was one of 13 state lawmakers who supported Trump in place of DeSantis.
Since Trump won the election and took office, DeSantis has been trying to heal the rift, but has also erupted with the GOP lawmakers in charge of Congress.
His appeal for a special session to strengthen state and local immigration enforcement authority was rejected by Congress. Desantis initially denounced the move, but on Monday he suggested that a compromise was ongoing.
View in new tab
Gray Rohrer is a reporter for the USA Today Network-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be contacted at grohrer@gannett.com. X: Follow him on @grayrohrer.
