Florida’s Republican leaders say they are running for a former Miami-Dade state senator who was arrested for electoral fraud on Thursday, rebuking Democratic calls to hold a special election to secure a legitimate vote.
The Florida Republican Party-controlled legislature is among dozens of states promoting tougher “voter integrity” laws following the unfounded allegations of fraud by former President Donald Trump in the November 2020 elections. But Florida Republicans say that the Republican state senator who was elected – by a small margin of 32 votes – by supposedly deceptive means has, instead, the party’s “full support”. Miami-Dade County State Prosecutor Katherine Fernandez Rundle filed criminal charges against former state senator Frank Artiles on Thursday, accusing him of organizing a $ 50,000 “ghost campaign” with the aim of ousting Democratic state senator Jose Javier Rodriguez. The “fake” independent candidate did not live in the district or campaign for the chair.
Prosecutors say Artiles deliberately sought to “confuse voters and divert votes” from the incumbent Democrat. Artiles was arrested and charged with three separate campaign financial crimes linked to the 2020 Florida Senate election. But the Republican-controlled Florida legislature said it would not hold a special election to guarantee voter confidence.
State investigators say that Artiles, who resigned in April 2017 due to the use of racial slander, paid Alex Rodriguez, who has the same surname as the incumbent, to run as an independent to disrupt the election and hand over Republican challenger Ileana Garcia the victory. Garcia ended up winning by just 32 votes, and the independent challenger got 6,000 votes.
“[Garcia’s] the victory is clearly tarnished and will forever cloud his service in the Senate, not to mention the entire Florida Senate, “Florida Democratic Party President Manny Diaz told reporters on Friday.” This type of activity calls into question the integrity and fairness of our electoral process. “
Republican Party Senate leaders issued their own statement, saying that Garcia was not involved in the alleged crimes of electoral fraud. Lawmakers have a process in place that can dismiss Garcia and hold a special election, but Republicans say they won’t.
“Senator Garcia has full support from President Simpson as she continues to serve her constituents,” said Simpson’s statement. “President Simpson and Senator Garcia fully support ongoing law enforcement efforts as the investigation into this matter continues.”
Artiles resigned in April 2017 after using a racial slur during a private conversation while drinking with two black colleagues. Artiles used the word with n to incorrectly refer to who he thought had elected the state Senate president, Joe Negron, as the leader of the Republican Party. Despite his claim, there were no black lawmakers in the republican caucus at the time, the Miami Herald reported.
The Republican Party of Florida is just the last state of the Republican Party to deny recount requests or audits from its own candidates, despite weeks of echo of Trump’s baseless allegations. In Arizona, Republican Party President Kelli Ward scoffed at his Republican colleagues, who said his small victory as president should be audited.
Newsweek contacted Florida Republican state Senate leaders for additional comments on Saturday.
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