Representative Matt Gaetz overwhelmingly won a fourth term in Florida’s 1st District despite the fact that the US Department of Justice investigated him for the better part of the year for allegedly trafficking underage girls.
Mr Gaetz easily did away with Rebekah Jones, who claims she was fired for refusing to manipulate data during the Covid-19 pandemic, though many dispute whether that was, in fact, the case.
Mr Gaetz has made a name for himself for his unapologetic defence of former president Donald Trump and was among the 147 members of the Republican conference to object to the 2020 presidential election results.
The victory for Mr Gaetz also comes despite the fact that the Justice Department investigated him for allegations that he trafficked teenaged girls, though he was never formally indicted. In September, The Washington Post reported that he had requested a pre-emptive pardon from the Trump administration regarding the sex trafficking investigation, which specifically alleged that he paid for a woman to travel across state lines to have sex and whether he had sex with a 17-year-old girl.
Mr Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims.
In addition, former Trump administration official Cassidy Hutchinson said that Mr Gaetz and Alabama Representative Mo Brooks advocated for a “blanket pardon” for anyone involved in the riot at the Capitol on January 6.
In addition, he won despite the fact he campaigned while low on cash. In the final 19 days before the campaign, he raised only $129,524.10 and spent only $127915.18.
But Florida’s 1st District, which is located in the panhandle of Florida and borders Alabama, is overwhelmingly Republican. The state’s redistricting process gave Republicans a 38-point advantage.
Mr Gaetz has said in the past that he would vote for Mr Trump to be House speaker, though Mr Trump has not expressed much interest, and has also floated the idea of impeaching President Joe Biden.
Ms Jones became a minor celebrity in liberal circles during the Covid-19 pandemic’s early days when she accused Florida governor Ron DeSantis of firing her from her job running the Florida Department of Health Covid-19 dashboard, which she claimed was due to her refusal to manipulate data to cover up an increase in deaths from the coronavirus after he began banning mitigation measures such as mandatory masking in public places and encouraging the use of unproven treatments such as hydroxychloroquine.
Mr DeSantis denied the allegations, and a 2022 inspector general’s report found her claims to be unsubstantiated.
