A state Senate candidate in Florida who was endorsed by GOP nominee Donald Trump has lost his primary election.
On Tuesday night, state Representative Tom Leek took down challenger David Shoard, who Trump had endorsed. The Associated Press reported that the results weren’t particularly close, either, with Leek garnering 47% of the votes compared to only 28% for Shoar.
The ironic part about the situation is that Leek was endorsed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who at one point was considered Trump’s biggest rival in the Republican presidential primary.
Leek also had the endorsements of many other powerful Republican figures in Florida politics, which included U.S. Senator Rick Scott. The sitting senator also won his primary election earlier this week.
Shoar actually finished very close to Gerry James, a former professional wrestler who ended up in the third place in this week’s Republican primary. This comes even after Trump gave his “complete and total” endorsement of Shoar this month.
On August 5, the former president wrote on his Truth Social platform:
“David Shoar is a tremendous America First Patriot who is running to represent the incredible people of Florida’s 7th State Senate District! David Shoar, who is 100% MAGA, and has been with us from the very beginning, has my Complete and Total Endorsement — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
Turns out that Shoar was let down by voters in his district in Florida, as he wasn’t even able to make it out of the primary. Of course, he was going up against a popular Republican incumbent, who had the backing of other powerful Republicans in Florida.
While a Trump endorsement has worked very well for some candidates — namely JD Vance, who won his race for a U.S. Senate seat from Ohio two years ago and is now Trump’s running mate — it hasn’t always been a slam dunk for wins at the polls.
On the same night in June, in fact, three candidates who Trump had endorsed all lost in their primary elections.
WESH, a local affiliate of NBC in Daytona Beach, said that Trump endorsing Shoar was “really an extension of the feud” between himself and DeSantis.
DeSantis drew the ire of Trump for much of the early stages of the Republican primary race. But, after he dropped out following the Iowa caucuses, DeSantis immediately endorsed Trump as the party’s nominee.
In the time since, he has largely remained quiet on the national political scene.
Leek’s opponents tried to attack him about how high property insurance has become in Florida, saying that multiple policies he has supported in office are the cause of that.
Many trial lawyers also went against Leek, saying he was the author of a bill that would combat “lawsuit abuse.”
During his victory speech Tuesday night, Leek said he owed the “incredible victory” to the Florida voters who “did not fall for the false attacks” that came from “statewide Democrat, personal injury lawyers, who spent millions of dollars trying to influence a local state Senate Republican primary election.”
