Disgraced former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) is reportedly mulling a run for governor in Florida next year. Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/ZUMA
What’s next for disgraced former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)? Possibly a run for governor of the Sunshine State.
In an interview he gave the Tampa Bay Times, published on Tuesday, Gaetz says he’s “starting to think about running for governor” in Florida next year. The state’s current Gov. Ron DeSantis is term-limited.
Gaetz seems undeterred by the notion that his long record of controversies—including the House Ethics Committee report released last month that found evidence he “regularly” paid for sex, including once with a minor, and bought and used drugs, among other allegations—could impact his electability. (Gaetz has denied all allegations.)
“Those lies have been told about me for years,” he told the Tampa Bay Times. “They’ve never affected my ability to win elections.”
Gaetz added that he has “a compelling vision for the state.”
“I understand how to fix the insurance problem, and it’s not to hand the keys to the state over to the insurance industry. If I run, I would be the most pro-consumer candidate on the Republican side,” he claimed.
Such hubris is unsurprising when you understand Gaetz’s background. As Steven Specht, a Democrat who ran against Gaetz for Congress in 2016, told my colleague Stephanie Mencimer in a 2019 profile, Gaetz is a nepo baby who “would be an assistant manager at Walmart if it weren’t for his father.” As Stephanie wrote:
Gaetz is a third-generation politician. His grandfather, Jerry Gaetz, was the mayor of a small town in North Dakota and a state legislator who died in 1964 at the state GOP convention after giving a speech endorsing Barry Goldwater for president. Matt’s father, Don Gaetz, has been a prominent figure in Panhandle politics since first winning election to the Okaloosa County school board in 1994.
In a post on X, Gaetz said he would address the topic of his potential gubernatorial run on the right-wing One America News Network—where he became an anchor last month after dropping out of consideration to be Trump’s attorney general—on Wednesday night.
Gaetz told the New York Times in another recent interview that Trump “knows that I have that ambition” to run for governor, but declined to elaborate on their conversation.
Trump does not yet appear to have commented on the news, and his spokespeople did not immediately respond to inquiries. But he has signaled his support for a hypothetical Gov. Gaetz in the past—which is unsurprising, given that Gaetz has historically proved to be one of Trump’s biggest fanboys.
