Firebrand Republican congressman Matt Gaetz won his Florida primary election Tuesday against a challenger backed by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, whose removal Gaetz orchestrated last year with the help of seven other Republican lawmakers.
A close ally of former president Donald Trump, Gaetz comfortably defeated Navy veteran Aaron Dimmock, with the Associated Press calling the primary soon after votes were cast. The deep red, military-heavy district will surely elect Gaetz to another two-year term this fall.
During the campaign, Gaetz went on the offensive against Dimmock, criticizing him for being a carpetbagger because of his ties to Missouri. Dimmock owns a home in Missouri and did consulting work for the state. He also worked for the University of West Florida and spent time deployed in Florida during his Navy career.
With Gaetz’s victory, all but one of the Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy and ran for another term have survived the former speaker’s “revenge-tour” against them. House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good (R., Va.) lost to McCarthy and Trump-backed challenger John McGuire by only a few hundred votes after a recount confirmed the result.
The open hostility between McCarthy and Gaetz has ventured beyond normal political jockeying into personal territory. At the Republican convention last month, McCarthy attacked Gaetz over the House Ethics Committee’s investigation into allegations he participated in sex trafficking and had sexual relations with an underage girl. Gaetz replied by taunting McCarthy and suggesting he would be booed if he took the stage.
Earlier this year, McCarthy endorsed Dimmock in an interview with Politico and likened Gaetz to President Joe Biden’s troubled son Hunter, a man with more than his fair share of drug and sex filled escapades.
“Gaetz is the Hunter Biden of the Republican Party,” McCarthy told the outlet. “He’s got an opponent who is pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, trained at Pensacola, went to the Naval Academy and flew jets to defend us while Gaetz was getting kicked out of high school, buying coke and paying minors for sex.”
The Justice Department last year cleared Gaetz of any criminal conduct after investigating the sex trafficking allegations, but the House Ethics Committee continues to investigate the matter as part of a wide-ranging probe.
Allies of McCarthy peppered Gaetz’s district with $3 million worth of advertisements highlighting the sex-trafficking allegations, all of which Gaetz denies. The ads were meant to diminish Gaetz’s primary campaign and weaken his standing in case he decides to run for governor in 2026.