Fraud Claims Have GOP Leaders In Florida Asking Questions
Photo: Florida U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart
Photo Credit: Wilfredo Lee / AP
The Center Square [By John Haughey]-
Florida Republican leaders and many of the state’s GOP voters are waiting for pending court cases, which include Trump campaign allegations of fraud, to be resolved in courts across several states before acknowledging Democrat Joe Biden as president-elect.
There were few organized Florida demonstrations this weekend by supporters of President Donald Trump after Saturday’s call by major media outlets that Biden had won the 2020 presidential election.
About 100 Trump supporters were staging a “Stop The Vote” rally at the Florida Capitol Building in Tallahassee Saturday. After Biden was declared the winner by media outlets, the event morphed into a “Stop The Steal” rally.
Florida Republican leaders and many of the state’s GOP voters are waiting for pending court cases, which include Trump campaign allegations of fraud, to be resolved in courts across several states before acknowledging Democrat Joe Biden as president-elect.
There were few organized Florida demonstrations this weekend by supporters of President Donald Trump after Saturday’s call by major media outlets that Biden had won the 2020 presidential election.
About 100 Trump supporters were staging a “Stop The Vote” rally at the Florida Capitol Building in Tallahassee Saturday. After Biden was declared the winner by media outlets, the event morphed into a “Stop The Steal” rally.
Florida’s two Republican U.S. senators, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, issued similar statements.
“The voters get to decide who the president is,” Scott said. “This is a close race and Donald Trump will and should use every avenue at his disposal to make sure every legal vote is counted.”
Scott thought differently two years ago when the term-limited governor defeated incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson by 10,330 votes in a prolonged election that featured a runoff, lawsuits and counter-suits by both candidates.
“Be remembered as the statesman who graciously conceded after 42 years of public service,” Scott called on Nelson during their disputed November 2018 election’s even more disputed post-election proceedings, “or be remembered as the sore loser who refused to face the people he served.”
Two notable Florida Republicans acknowledged Biden’s victory over the weekend, former Gov. Jeb Bush and retiring U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Naples.
A Saturday survey of 550 GOP voters in Rooney’s Southwest Florida’s 19th Congressional District (CD 19) – he’ll be succeeded by former state Rep. Byron Donalds in January – indicates his core constituency disagrees.
According to the survey by Victory Insights, a Naples-based polling firm, 67 percent said the Trump campaign should pursue “any and all legal remedies available to maintain his position as President” and 29 percent said Trump should concede.
