Denver-Cook County Republican Chairman David Cole of St. Johns County, Florida, said during the show that the establishment and its allies oppose efforts to put conservatives in leadership positions. Breitbart News SaturdayI will give some examples to warn voters of what is at stake.
It is not clear who is behind the effort to undermine the county’s recommended candidates, but an investigation is ongoing.
Cook reflected on the battle for St. Johns County in the upcoming election and explained why the St. Johns County Republican Party took the unusual step of endorsing a conservative candidate.
“We gave people the opportunity to nominate,” he said, describing the officially endorsed candidates as “America First, MAGA grassroots candidates.”
“They don’t have the funding. They’re trying to restore government responsiveness, accountability and transparency, not at the federal level, but at the state and local level, which are all very important. And this is one of the fastest growing counties in the state of Florida, and maybe in the United States, and developers are building thousands and thousands and thousands of homes a year,” he said, explaining, “They have a lot of money on the line, and they’re being given more power over the county elected officials and the residents, but the residents’ voices aren’t being listened to.”
“Development is occurring at an unsustainable pace for both the county government and the school district, creating significant infrastructure and debt challenges,” he said.
However, rather than accept that the St. Johns County Republican Party is endorsing America First candidates, the establishment has created its own fliers, made to look like they are from the St. Johns County Republican Party, and is endorsing establishment candidates with this fake guide.
“It’s really big to see so many people supporting a county party. … It’s not normal, but it’s essential during these times,” he said, recounting the moment he learned someone had received a fake mailer with false information.
“All our candidates have been removed and replaced with well-funded candidates from the establishment, including in elections we had never even considered supporting,” he said, describing the leaflet as “a clear fraud perpetrated on voters.”
He said that this was a “serious criminal fraud” and that an investigation was currently underway.
“We still don’t know exactly who paid for it, but there are about 34,000 super voters, over 122,000 voters in St. Johns County. If a candidate wants to send out a mailing, a typical political mailing costs between $25,000 and $35,000,” he said. “This mailing was done using palm cards, which are much more expensive than regular mail, including the envelopes, stamps and the cost of searching voter records to round up households and mailing them throughout the county.”
He estimates the surgery cost between $30,000 and $50,000.
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“And there was no return address on these envelopes. There’s no allegation of who did it. So it’s clear evidence that this was a known and deliberate act of fraud,” he said, noting that the mailings were not sent from St. Augustine or St. Johns County, but from Jacksonville and Orlando.
“This was a very serious election crime committed against a county party that supports its voters and residents on the eve of a hotly contested primary election. [it] “It appears to be a direct endorsement of the incumbents and those who are spending millions of dollars promoting their candidacy, who are funded by political action committees and developers and who have unlimited financial resources,” he said, essentially pointing to the establishment.
Cook said he couldn’t say much about the investigation, but said evidence has been taken to the crime lab and there are some leads at this point.
Asked why the well-funded establishment behaves in this way, Cook explained that it all comes down to control, financial gain and political power.
“So that they can decide who makes the decisions and who benefits from those decisions, not so that we can have a representative government that serves the interests of the people. That’s what I believe,” he said. “That’s where I stand.”
Breitbart News Saturday airs from 10am-1pm ET on SiriusXM Patriot 125.
