ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Northeast Florida’s Republican establishment is reeling after grassroots conservatives took control of the St. Johns County Republican Party and fielded a candidate to take on the GOP establishment.
This move could have significant implications for the U.S. Congress, because the nation’s most contentious yet least-watched House primary is at the heart of what’s happening there. If an establishment candidate wins, business as usual will likely continue in Washington, at least for the time being. If a grassroots candidate wins, it could send shock waves through Washington and shake the hearts of those at the center of power.
A few months ago, quite early this year, the former chairman of the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee (REC), Blake Patterson (a grassroots conservative by any standards), was fired. Following his firing, the county party’s vice-chairman, Jayme Parham, took over the reins until an election was held in the spring to select a permanent chairman for the remainder of the term. At the meeting where the election was scheduled, grassroots conservative Denver Cook (who is himself running for another local office) was elected. After Cook was elected, the St. Johns County Republican Party formally endorsed a slate of grassroots candidates for several local offices, and perhaps most importantly, the U.S. Congress here in Florida’s 5th Congressional District, in the primaries scheduled for August 20th, and the party endorsed Marla Massie for Representative.
St. Johns County is one of two counties in Florida that is at least partially contained within the boundaries of the 5th U.S. Congressional District.
The current representative is Rep. John Rutherford (R-FL), a very establishment member whose voting record in support of Washington sludge deals has infuriated hard-to-reach constituents. Rutherford’s voting record is truly awful in every respect. He has voted for every big government spending deal that funds Democratic priorities in Washington, mainly because he serves on the House Appropriations Committee. He was also one of 25 establishment Republicans who banded together to block House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) from being elected speaker after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted. He also cast the deciding vote earlier this year to reauthorize FBI warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
But that’s not the worst part: Rutherford has voted for every foreign aid package over the past few years that sent hundreds of billions of American tax dollars to Ukraine, and stock transactions he made related to Russia’s war in Ukraine are the central focus of a corruption investigation into his conduct. Business InsiderIn 1940, on the day that Russia invaded Ukraine, Rutherford reported a large purchase of Raytheon stock. The House Ethics Committee investigated Rutherford for some time about these stock transactions and his failure to legally report them, but ultimately “exonerated” him. Interestingly, Rutherford actually served on the House Ethics Committee, and the investigation Dismissed by committee vote The second-ranking member of Congress at the time, Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Indiana), Died in a tragic car accidentThere are a ton of unanswered questions about Rutherford’s work in these areas, and getting answers from him will be difficult, given his refusal so far to debate primary candidates or give actual news interviews.
Rutherford faces a stronger challenge than expected from Marla Massie, a grassroots conservative who is a frequent guest on Breitbart News Radio on SiriusXM 125 Patriot Channel. Navy whistleblower Ted Massie has spoken out against mandatory COVID vaccinations in the military and has become well-known as a leading critic of vaccinations. Massie has emerged as a grassroots political standout at the local level, winning people over with door-to-door canvassing and fighting from below. If she can beat Rutherford in the August 20 Florida primary, it will be a true testament to the grassroots power and bottom-up organizing she has led. With the exception of a single donation from Colonel Rob Maness’ Gator PAC (Maness is a grassroots conservative and deeply anti-establishment figure who once ran for U.S. Senate in Louisiana), Massie has not received any money from PACs. Her fundraising is entirely grassroots.
This district may be the only chance this year for grassroots conservatives to defeat the Republican establishment in a primary. Cook’s shocking and unexpected victory at the local level paved the way for Macy’s chance to win the seat. Macy still has a tough fight ahead of him. The establishment continues to fund Rutherford, and Macy is losing heavily in terms of funding, though less than many other establishment incumbents across the country. And there are only a few weeks left. Meanwhile, Rutherford, like many other incumbent Republicans across the country, won an endorsement from former President Donald Trump. Trump posted Truth Social a few months ago, but hasn’t said a word since. It’s unclear how serious Trump is about this race, other than trying to get endorsements to pile on his own statistics and improve his already impressive win-loss ratio, but Trump has rarely tried to take on incumbent Republicans. Trump’s most notable campaign this election was against retiring Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), whom he backed in the primary against state Sen. John Maguire, who won a closely fought race that was decided weeks after Election Day.
But what may be more important here is the endorsement Massie won from the St. Johns County Republican Party. St. Johns is one of two counties in the district, and a formal Republican endorsement against an incumbent is extremely rare, even in the world of rising anti-establishment politicians nationwide. The endorsement came even after Trump endorsed Rutherford, but the people here in St. Johns are rabid Trump fans. In fact, even the establishment calls itself Trump supporters and literally calls their events “Trump Clubs.” So, at the end of the day, when a local political party rebels against someone as powerful and respected as Trump and calls for the ouster of a longtime congressman, it shows how angry they are at Trump. (For what it’s worth, these people will follow Trump to the ends of the earth and vote for him in record numbers, the voters they’re used to in Northeast Florida. And they’re not going to blame him for Rutherford at all.)
Incidentally, St. Johns County is one of the wealthiest counties in Florida, along with Naples, which is far south on the other side of the state, on the Gulf Coast. The town, with its donor enclave of Ponte Vedra, is a powerful fundraising hub for national politicians. Current Florida Governor Ron DeSantis first appeared on the national political stage from here as a U.S. Representative for the neighboring 6th Congressional District. When he was a congressman, the borders were different because the area was a deep red area. In fact, the residents here are so diehard that when DeSantis decided to run against President Trump, they were furious at their formerly beloved governor and encouraged all their congressmen to support Trump, not DeSantis. Most of Florida’s congressional delegation followed suit, including Rutherford. Ironically, this may be the only time Rutherford listened to his constituents.
But the point is, this is a Republican district. Democrats have no chance of winning in November. Whoever wins the Republican nomination here is almost certain to win the general election. The Cook Political Report’s Partisan Vote Index rates this district as Republican plus 11, which means that between Republicans and Democrats, Republicans have an 11-point advantage in voter registration here over Democrats.
For Massie to win the primary, he would need to win St. Johns County and get very close to Rutherford’s total without beating him in the more establishment Duval County, where Jacksonville is located. Massie has all this to say about Breitbart News Saturday A similar scene occurred just last weekend. The Duval County Republican Party remains run by the establishment, and has blocked any attempt by conservative members to endorse Massie. But such attempts have been made at recent meetings, and even the establishment is growing restless. In fact, Rutherford himself was at a recent meeting, where someone yelled in front of the room that he was too cowardly to debate Massie, forcing the moderator to hastily take back control of the conversation and cut off the conservatives’ microphones.
In addition to supporting Massie, Cook’s St. Johns County Republican Party has also prodded the establishment by backing several conservative candidates against establishment opponents in other local offices, with major implications for local policy but also potential stepping stones for futures beyond those offices, many of which the establishment candidates see as stepping stones to a larger political future.
So because of how disruptive these actions have been to the Republican establishment here in Northeast Florida, old-establishment staunch supporters, including Parham, who continues to serve as vice-chair of the St. Johns County Republican Party after his loss to Cook, have sought to delegitimize the conservative victory in their hometown. Some of them, including Parham himself, have taken to social media repeatedly to suggest that Cook is not the legitimate chair of the St. Johns County Republican Party and therefore that the party’s endorsement was not legitimate.
So Breitbart News set out to find out who the legitimate chairman of the St. Johns County Republican Party is. In a statement to Breitbart News, Evan Power, chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, made it abundantly clear that not only is Cook the legitimate chairman of the St. Johns County Republican Party, but that Cook has followed party rules in all of his actions, meaning that the endorsement from the St. Johns County Republican Party is in fact legitimate in the eyes of the Republican Party of Florida.
“Denver Cook is the chair,” Power told Breitbart News. “Following the removal of the previous chair, RPOF ensured that a fair election was held to select his replacement. Since then, Chairman Cook has worked with our team to ensure that the rules are followed in the operation of the committee.”
Obviously, the state party is not issuing an endorsement in these elections. The Florida Republican Party chair is simply making it clear that the party believes the St. John’s Republican chairman is the legitimate chairman and that any actions he took while in that position were legitimate. But this simple affirmation will surely send chills down the establishment.
Asked for his reaction to Power’s comments, Cook said he was pleased that the Florida Republican Party had officially put an end to this nonsense.
“As chair, I want to thank the RPOF leadership for the continued support and assistance I have received as we work through our many challenges, including successfully endorsing eight candidates for the Aug. 20 primary,” Cook told Breitbart News. “Those who call our operations and nomination process ‘illegal’ are attempting to undermine the legitimacy of RPOF and the St. Johns County Republican Party for personal political and financial gain.”
Massie also thanked the state party for setting the record straight.
“It is unfortunate that the establishment, its PAC, its affiliated clubs, and their allies have worked to discredit both the SJC Republican chairman election and the subsequent endorsement by the Republican Assembly,” Massie told Breitbart News. “I am pleased that RPOF has come forward and publicly set the facts straight, allowing the SJC Republicans to focus on winning the election instead of fighting baseless and hopeless rumors.”
There will be more reports on the dispute between Massie and Rutherford in the coming days.
