Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) easily defeated his primary challenger – and his deep-wallet backers – Tuesday and will be the heavy favorite in November in the deeply conservative First Congressional District of Florida.
The Associated Press called the race within minutes of polls closing in the western half of the district. Gaetz had received around 73 percent of the vote with 90 percent of the votes tallied.
But Gaetz’s challenger, Aaron Dimmock, is unlikely to be seen as the biggest loser in the race. That distinction falls to his main benefactor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
McCarthy made it a personal mission to take out each of the eight Republicans who voted to strip him of his gavel in October 2023 after less than nine months as Speaker. He’s spent millions in primary races against Republicans like Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Eli Crane (R-AZ) on challengers he reportedly recruited himself, including Dimmock.
Gaetz, who led the effort to bounce McCarthy, was the final incumbent of the eight who voted against McCarthy to go before primary voters.
The former Speaker batted a paltry .125 in his revenge tour, with his only victory coming against Rep. Bob Good (R-VA), whose support cratered after Donald Trump energetically attacked him. Good got crosswise with Trump after Good’s early endorsement of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) in the Republican presidential primary, with the former president subsequently endorsing Good’s opponent.
Gaetz, one of Trump’s most vocal allies on Capitol Hill, enjoyed Trump’s full-throated support, and he never seemed in danger.
Nevertheless, a McCarthy-aligned super PAC reportedly spent $3.5 million on ads against Gaetz, attacking him over an ongoing House Ethics Committee investigation Gaetz argues is politically motivated.
The super PAC stopped spending in the race three weeks before the primary after failing to dent Gaetz’s support inside the Florida panhandle district.
Thank you FL-01.
— Matt Gaetz (@mattgaetz) August 21, 2024
I will never stop fighting for you.
McCarthy has received criticism from his former House colleagues for using money raised to grow Republicans’ numbers in Congress to meddle in Republican primaries in a “revenge tour.”
“I’m extremely happy for Matt and Ginger,” Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), one of the eight Republicans who voted against McCarthy, told Breitbart News. “If Kevin McCarthy had used that money against Democrats as it was intended we would have more than a four-person majority and he would still be Speaker.”
“Every dollar that we have… should be going to defending a greater majority of the House, not work on, not work on a revenge tour,” another Republican congressman told Axios.
The expensive revenge tour seems over, for now, after achieving very limited results. And Gaetz has good reason to be all smiles.
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
