After a last minute ruling from an appeals court on Monday night, Rebekah Jones was found eligible to run for Congress after all, and won her Democratic primary in Florida's 1st Congressional District on Tuesday to challenge Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Republican who represents the district, who won his own primary as well. Earlier this month, Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper had ruled that Jones was ineligible to run because she had not been a member of the Democratic Party for 365 days.
With an estimated 99 percent of the vote in, Jones won handily, with 62.56 percent of the vote.
Had Judge Cooper's ruling not been overturned, Jones would have remained on the ballot but her votes and would not have counted. Thus, her primary opponent, Peggy Schiller, would have won by default. Ultimately, Schiller only earned 37.44 percent of the vote.
Even Rep. Gaetz had criticized the result of Judge Cooper's decision in part, tweeting it amounted to "voters being denied a choice." He did refer to his ultimate opponent as "a fraud in virtually all she does."
Team Gaetz doesn’t celebrate voters being denied a choice.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) August 5, 2022
It seems small of @peggyforFL1 to seek Rebekah’s defeat in court rather than during the primary.
That said, it seems obvious that the Judge followed the law and that Rebekah Jones is a fraud in virtually all she does. https://t.co/F7ypQLkghT
Jones gained attention and notoriety for going after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) by claiming that she was fired for refusing to manipulate COVID data, becoming a media darling in the process. It was later revealed, though, by a report from the Inspector General that her claims were unfounded and unsubstantiated.
Guy has discussed and debunked Jones' conspiracy theories at length, as have Ann Coulter and Brad Slager, in columns published to Townhall.
As Slager wrote in February of last year:
...Since her rise to prominence, Jones has fallen out of favor as a valid voice. This past December her home was raided and evidence collected looking into whether she hacked a government messaging system to implore others to speak out about alleged corruption. In January she turned herself in to authorities, and now the announcement has been made that she is dropping the lawsuit she filed against the state for that December warrant being served.
"Rebekah Jones" has been trending on Twitter as a result of the primary, while users also discuss her fraudulent claims.
The race is regarded as "Solid Republican" or "Safe Republican," heavily favoring Rep. Gaetz.
The congressman was also in the news earlier this week as a Florida man, Stephen Alford, was sentenced to 63 months of prison time for trying to extort his father, Don Gaetz.