• FL-01: Rep. Matt Gaetz's bitter feud with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy ramped up on Friday as the far-right Florida congressman launched a new ad campaign attacking his challenger in the Aug. 20 Republican primary.
McCarthy and his allies are reportedly trying to unseat Gaetz as part of the ex-speaker's "revenge tour" against the eight Republicans who voted to oust him as leader of the House last fall. Gaetz's campaign told Politico that it's paying six figures to air its ad over 12 days in the 1st District, which covers the Pensacola area in Florida's panhandle.
Gaetz's commercial calls his opponent, Navy veteran Aaron Dimmock, a "raging liberal" who supports Black Lives Matter and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, which conservatives nationwide have turned into a favorite punching bag. The ad highlights Donald Trump's endorsement of Gaetz and claims Dimmock isn't a Floridian as the screen shows a social media profile that still identified Dimmock as a Missouri resident when news of his candidacy first broke in April.
Since first winning office in 2016, Gaetz has earned national notoriety for his extremism as a leading member of the nihilistic House Freedom Caucus, culminating in his successful push to boot McCarthy for not caving to the party's furthest-right flank. However, Gaetz has also drawn unsavory headlines over accusations of wrongdoing that have been in the news recently.
Just days ago, the House Ethics Committee announced it was reviving its investigation into allegations that Gaetz had engaged in a wide variety of wrongdoing, including "sexual misconduct and illicit drug use," accepting "improper gifts," awarding "special privileges and favors" to associates, and obstructing investigations into his alleged misdeeds.
However, Gaetz easily turned back a primary challenger in 2022 while under investigation by the Department of Justice over similar claims. That probe ended last year without charges, but that result was not wholly good news for Gaetz. After concluding its work, the DOJ withdrew a request that the Ethics Committee hold off on its own investigation, allowing the panel to once again look into the allegations against Gaetz.
McCarthy's allies have targeted several of the Republicans who crossed the former speaker, but they've had limited success so far. The only one to lose so far has been Virginia Rep. Bob Good, who chairs the Freedom Caucus and just barely fell to state Sen. John McGuire this past Tuesday. However, South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace trounced a well-funded challenger earlier this month, while McCarthy supporters failed to recruit challengers to Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs and Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett.
Two other members, Montana Rep. Matt Rosendale and former Colorado Rep. Ken Buck, both chose not to seek reelection, though it does not appear that the threat of payback pushed them out.
Rosendale, for his part, launched a disastrous Senate campaign that lasted just one week after dithering for months about whether he would run. Buck, meanwhile, had already alienated many Republicans by rejecting what he called Trump's "lie that the 2020 election was stolen" and claimed he quit in frustration over his party's embrace of those fabrications.
That means that apart from Gaetz, the only McCarthy antagonist still at risk in a primary is Arizona Rep. Eli Crane, who faces former Yavapai County Supervisor Jack Smith on July 30.