FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Roger Stone said Monday he won’t run against Gov. Ron DeSantis, but he said he’s contemplating a Republican primary challenge to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio.
Stone’s decision not to challenge DeSantis isn’t because of any love for the Florida governor, but rather because Stone is a registered Republican, and it’s too late under Florida law to run as a no party affiliation/independent candidate or seek the nomination of another party.
Months ago, Stone raised the prospect of challenging DeSantis because the governor has refused to rule out seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 — a move that would pit him against Donald Trump if the former president decides to seek the Republican nomination again. Stone is a longtime, loyal supporter of Trump.
Speculation about Stone’s intentions has ticked up in recent days because of two things: Someone registered internet domain names RogerforGovernor.com and StoneforGovernor.com and Stone posted a video online in which he appears to tell Trump that DeSantis is a piece of excrement (using a stronger, four-letter term).
On Monday, Stone told the South Florida Sun Sentinel via text message that he still believes DeSantis should defer to Trump in 2024. He also said he approves of DeSantis’ actions regarding school curriculum in Florida “and will certainly therefore support his reelection.”
Stone added that he’s considering challenging Rubio in the Aug. 23 primary. The Republican U.S. senator is seeking the party’s nomination for a third term.
“I am not ruling out challenging Marco Rubio for renomination, as some have urged me to do, but will make a decision before the filing deadline. I am hardly the ideal candidate and I am hopeful that someone else will step forward,” Stone said via text.
The deadline for candidates to qualify for the primary ballot is slightly less than eight weeks away: June 17.
Asked why he’s considering running against Rubio, Stone said, “Because he is a RINO.” A Republican In Name Only, or RINO, is a pejorative term used to describe a political figure who isn’t seen as sufficiently loyal to the party cause.
In the case of Rubio, Stone said he “never once defended President Donald Trump against the Russian collusion hoax (and) voted for $31 million to resettle Afghani refugees in the United States in Florida.”
Trump supporters refer to the investigation into whether Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign involved collusion between the campaign and the Russians as a hoax. It was the subject of a lengthy investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller, which resulted in an indictment of Stone, and either indictments or guilty pleas from 33 other people and three companies.
Although Trump endorsed Rubio’s reelection in April 2020, Stone isn’t the only one in the party who doubts the senator’s conservative bona fides. Some conservative Republicans pushed an effort early last year to find someone they felt would be more in line with Trump and his supporters’ values to challenge Rubio in the primary, but that effort wasn’t successful.
The president’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, had been seen as a possible challenger, but she ruled out a run early last year.
Rubio has had a mixed relationship with Trump. Both men sought the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and criticized each other harshly during the campaign.
After Trump emerged as the victor — he overwhelmingly defeated Rubio in the Florida presidential primary — the two reached a détente, which involved Rubio supporting just about everything Trump has said and done.
However, after the Jan. 6, 2021, rampage of Trump supporters through the Capitol, Rubio voted against attempts to reject the electoral votes from two states that voted for President Joe Biden.
“While I have been critical of DeSantis I strongly approve of his actions regarding the curriculum being taught to schoolchildren in Florida and will certainly therefore support his reelection. I do not however think it would be right to seek reelection, win reelection and immediately run off to run for president. Since DeSantis owes his nomination and election to Donald Trump I have been clear about the fact that he should defer to the former president in terms of 2024,” Stone wrote.
Stone didn’t specify precisely what curriculum moves he supports. In recent weeks, DeSantis has signed into law two controversial measures changing Florida education policy. Both have been applauded by conservatives.
One is the Parental Rights in Education law, derided by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. It prohibits instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade and limits it in higher grades.
He also signed the “Individual Freedom” Act which restricts the way race-related issues are taught in public schools and private workplaces in Florida, an action DeSantis said was necessary to protect students from “pernicious ideologies like critical race theory.” Critical race theory, or CRT, has become a rallying cry for the political right; educators say it isn’t taught in Florida schools.
Stone posted a 14-second video clip on Rumble, a right-wing alternative to YouTube, on April 16.
“Roger! My man,” Trump exclaimed when he saw Stone, evidently at a gathering outdoors at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach. “I didn’t even see you. How could I not see you?” The two men hugged for a moment and Stone said “God bless you.”
Just before the video ends, Stone moved close to Trump and quietly told him to “Watch DeSantis, he’s a piece of s---.” The video ends before the final word is completed and cuts to a “Stone Cold Truth” logo and doesn’t show Trump’s response.
He declined to say anything more about what he and Trump talked about. “I am not going to comment on private conversations.”
Stone said he had nothing to do with the website addresses RogerforGovernor.com and StoneforGovernor.com. “I registered neither of those and don’t know who did.” Neither of the addresses went to an active website on Monday.
Under Florida law, Stone can only run for office in 2022 as a Republican because he’s registered in that party.
State law — stemming from then-Gov. Charlie Crist’s run for Senate as a no party affiliation candidate in 2010 and beefed up as part of controversial election law changes enacted in 2021 — states that that a candidate for a party nomination cannot have been registered in “any other political party” for 365 days before the qualifying period for the election. (Qualifying begins on June 13.)
That provision would preclude running as a Libertarian or in one of several other minor parties in Florida.
The law also prevents someone running as a no party affiliation/independent candidate if the person has been “a registered member of any political party for 365 days before the beginning of qualifying.”
“I am not eligible to run for governor based on a change in state law. I am currently a registered Republican,” Stone said.
Stone, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, has known Trump for decades, and for much of the 2016 campaign, Stone was an informal adviser to Trump. In 2019, Stone was convicted on seven counts of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the U.S. House investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia’s meddling in the 2016 campaign.
Stone denied any wrongdoing in the case originally brought by former special counsel Robert Mueller, something that the president and Stone have long labeled a hoax. During Trump’s final weeks in office, he granted Stone a full pardon during Christmas week of 2020. The official White House description of the pardon at the time said Stone was a victim of “prosecutorial misconduct” by Mueller’s office and “was treated very unfairly.”
“Pardoning him will help to right the injustices he faced at the hands of the Mueller investigation,” the White House said.
Stone was in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5 and 6, 2020, and it’s been widely reported that the House committee probing Jan. 6 has sought information from Stone. Members of the Oath Keepers who provided security for Stone were seen on video entering the Capitol during the rampage that disrupted the certifying of the electoral votes that showed Biden’s win. Stone has repeatedly and emphatically denied any involvement in the events of Jan. 6.
Earlier in his career, Stone was devoted to another president: Richard Nixon — so much so that he has a tattoo of Nixon on his back.
On Monday, the leader of the Canadian Ontario Party — described as a group of conservatives, libertarians and defenders of freedom — announced Stone would aid its efforts as a senior strategic adviser.
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