Within two weeks of the Republican primary in the special election for Brevard County’s 32 Florida House District, more than 1,800 absentee ballots have already been returned, with early voting beginning on Saturday, March 22nd.
In typical high stakes, short-term primary elections began to widen controversy over inflammatory accusations. Dr. Terry Cronin, a local dermatologist and longtime national political operative at the American Academy of Dermatology, recently cast political spears at both Brian Hodgers and Bob White, claiming that both are President Trump and have arrest records.
A background check provided by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed that House District 32 candidate Brian Hodgers has no arrest records. The Melbourne small businessman is also known as “Terry Cronin’s no-trump, another claim.”
From the evidence obtained by Florida Daly, Bob White was actually arrested and struggled to maintain his contractor’s license due to some fraud. But Bob White, who can be seen wearing Trump campaign outfits at previous Trump rally, was never a “many trumper.”
The Hodgers co-founded the Brevard Trump Club and were approved by them. Hodgers is approved by the Florida branch of bikers for Trump and other conservative groups, including Trump, Maga Florida and Conservative Watch USA. Regarding his arrest, Cronin Camp uses a very vague Lexis Nexis report to suggest that Brian was arrested for selling beer to Miner about 30 years ago. At a thorough inspection, the actual story was that a clerk at one of the Hodgers gas stations sold beer and as the station owner, Brian had to pay a fine. There were no arrests, no prison time or records.
“What you’re looking at is that Cronin embraces the typical ‘burndown’ tactics of someone who appears to be falling down in the poll,” a race-savvy GOP poller told Florida Daly.
However, Cronin should not be criticized so quickly. Cronin was found in early trouble with the campaign and in fact forged several campaign documents to express that he lived in the district when he wasn’t. Cronin was also hit hard by his service to the board of directors of the organization that accepted transgender surgery and adolescent blockers. This is combined with the work Cronin has done on institutionalizing DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) in the field of medicine.
“This is the guy who kept him out of sync with Trump, Vance, DeSantis and the majority of GOP,” said a member of the local Brevard County Republican Executive Committee.
Some within the local GOP club suggest that Cronin drop a negative attack and promote his own records.
