- Marshall Rawson won the Republican nomination for Florida House District 10 with 54.74% of nearly 23,000 votes, defeating Chase Brannan by nearly 19 points.
- Rawson faced scrutiny over past ties to the League of the South but downplayed the connection and will face Democrat Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson in the Nov. 3 election.
Republican voters selected Marshall Rawson as the party’s nominee for Florida House District 10, with Rawson defeating Chase Brannan by nearly 19 percentage points in Tuesday’s primary.
The 34-year-old Rawson won 54.74% of the nearly 23,000 ballots cast over 45.26% for Brannan, son of the seat’s term-limited incumbent Rep. Chuck Brannan.
The district includes Baker, Bradford, Columbia and Union County, as well as the cities of Waldo, Alachua and High Springs in Alachua County. Of the 3,863 votes from Alachua County, 63.29% favored Rawson over 36.71% for Brannan.
Rawson is a Bradford County resident and graduated from UF’s Levin College of Law in 2022. He operates Free State Growers, a multi-county agricultural business, and has served as aide to former Republican U.S. Congressman Paul Broun and legal assistant to Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd.
Rawson’s win comes after facing last-minute scrutiny last week from the Democratic Executive Committees of Alachua and Baker counties. The groups criticized Rawson’s ties to a southern secessionist group called the League of the South, which the candidate downplayed.
Rawson, a self-proclaimed “fearless conservative,” told Mainstreet that his connection to the League of the South dates back over a decade. He said the Brannans were responsible for attempting to muddy his name.
Tyler Foerst, chair of the Alachua County Democratic Party, called the Rawson/Brannan race one of the most important races on the ballot during the party’s watch party at Heartwood Soundstage on Tuesday.
Foerst reiterated Rawson’s former membership in the League of the South, likening the League to the Ku Klux Klan. He said that, instead of denouncing the organization’s views, Rawson had stood by them.
“If this man gets elected, he will be one of the highest-ranking white supremacists in the United States, aside from the president,” Foerst said. “Look up Marshall Rawson and educate yourself and then get ready to get to work.”
Rawson will face Democratic candidate Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, who ran unopposed for her nomination, for Florida House District 10 in the Nov. 3 election.
A complete questionnaire of Rawson’s plans for upcoming legislative decisions he’d face, including property tax reform, can be found here.
—with reporting from Seth Johnson.
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Merrillee will be the best choice for Florida. She has been in the trenches working to save our water and land for over 20 years. She has compassion for all living things. Please check out each of these candidates pasts and their platforms before making a decision. I know that Merrillee is NOT ashamed of her actions more than a decade ago. Just saying.
As an independent native Floridian, I’ve seen what 30 years of republican “leadership” has done to our Florida landscape. Over population, over building, polluted waters, and more government surveillance than ever before. I’m not voting party, I’m voting for our best hope for clean water, air and soil. I’m voting our and our children’s futures. I want to show them how to fish and live off of the land without questioning whether what we grow, drink and catch is good for our bodies.
Marshall’s past actions prove that he wants to take US back to a time that our country is not proud of. Even succeeding the nation if things don’t go the way he thinks they should rather than fighting for what he believes in. Merrillee’s past proves she has and will doggedly fight for better futures for all of us.
Merrillee has my vote!
Sorry Shirley I got angry and rage posted when you are not worthy of that at all, I’m sorry.
When choosing someone to represent you in government, pick someone who shares your moral and ethical values. Are you a “Jews will not replace us” person, or a “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” person?
It will be incredible to see what depths the left sinks to as Rawson and our first black Governor Byron Donalds stump this district together. The racism they will deploy against Byron will be so obscene
This is simple. If the left says Merrillville is the best choice for Florida, then vote for Rawson.
The socialists love to paint conservatives as the bad guys who want to push Granny off a cliff in her wheelchair, when the reality is that it is the socialists who believe that after 60, a citizen has outlived their societal usefulness and should be dealt with accordingly. That’s commonly known as psychological projection and it no longer works.
The idea that conservatives want to pave over every inch of dirt is so beyond ridiculous that Webster doesn’t have a word for it. Take Gainesville for example. Here we have commissions and boards who proclaim to be environmental champions even while they issue permits for cement plants, failed biomass plants, massive new housing developments and huge blocks of expensive student housing.
Go ahead and vote for their limitless hypocrisy if you choose, but I will oppose them all every time the opportunity presents itself.
Join me. Vote for Rawson and let’s put an end to the socialist madness.