Firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz cruised to victory in his Republican primary for reelection Tuesday — swatting down a challenge from Navy veteran Aaron Dimmock, who was backed by former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The 42-year-old incumbent had been heavily favored to win the contest, which was the last stop in McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) so-called “revenge tour.”
Gaetz hadn’t faced a serious primary challenge since first getting elected to Congress in 2016. His ruby-red 1st Congressional District of Florida is widely seen as a safe seat in the general election.
This election cycle, allies of McCarthy sought to recruit challengers to take down the eight Republicans who banded together with a solid bloc of Democrats to oust him from the speakership.
Gaetz was the last of those eight to face reelection.
The Sunshine State Republican led a mutiny against McCarthy last October in protest over his decision to put through a temporary spending patch.
That move came as Congress was staring down the barrel of a government shutdown because it had not been able to wrangle through the necessary appropriations bills in time.
McCarthy was the first speaker in US history to have been successfully ousted.
Efforts by him and his allies to exact revenge had largely been unsuccessful. Just one of them, Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good (R-Va.), has lost his primary.
Two others — Reps. Ken Buck (R-Col.) and Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) — opted against running for reelection.
One key distinction between Gaetz and Good is that the Floridian has close relations with former President Donald Trump. The former president had endorsed Good’s opponent.
During the Florida GOP primary cycle this year, The Freedom Patriots PAC — a group that is widely seen as aligned with McCarthy — spent some $3 million to take down Gaetz.
They appeared to ramp down spending on the primary weeks before Tuesday.
Some of the attacks against Gaetz included ads predicated on allegations that the congressman engaged in sexual misconduct.
Other ads highlighted his past ties with ex-Florida tax collector Joel Greenberg, who was sentenced to 11 years behind bars for sex trafficking, among other crimes.
Gaetz has long denied the allegations against him and cited the Justice Department’s decision against bringing charges as vindication.
In June, the House Ethics Committee confirmed it reopened an inquiry into accusations of sexual misconduct and drug abuse against Gaetz.
Throughout his primary challenge, the incumbent congressman has run ads touting his ties to Trump and ripped Dimmock over his past in diversity training.
