Days after losing his Republican congressional race by 15 percentage points to Combat Veteran Cory Mills, State Rep. Anthony Sabatini announced that he would be running for Congress again in Florida’s 11th District, where Rep. Daniel Webster is the incumbent legislator.
Since then, Rep. Sabatini, a former Democrat, has announced that he would be conducting candidate training for prospective state and federal level candidates and reiterated that he would run for Rep. Webster’s seat once he retired from office.
Sabatini believes that Webster will step down after the November midterm elections, and appears to be stepping up his efforts to run again by asking some of his congressional donors if they would consent to him transferring money left over from the campaign to a political action committee named Florida Freedom Action PAC.
The Florida Freedom Action PAC does not appear to be registered with the FEC and the Florida Department of Elections.
The news of the potential Sabatini-lead PAC was told to The Floridian by one of his past donors, who asked that we keep their identity secret.
The donor said that the refund in question would be for when he runs for a different position in early 2023, after Rep. Webster retires, of course.
Sabatini is also said to have announced at a recent event in Clermont that he would be running for the chairman’s position of the Lake County Republican Executive Committee. The source also said that once he wins the chairmanship, he will then run for the House of Representatives.
But while Sabatini still hopes that he will one day make it to Congress, there is growing opposition to any future potential congressional candidacy he may undertake.
Sabatini, who is arguably one of the most conservative members of the Florida Legislature, has managed to make himself persona non grata to just about every single Republican lawmaker at both the state and federal levels.
From Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has embraced Mills and told him he was glad he won and “not the other guy,” to Senator Ted Cruz and Reps. Byron Donalds and Kat Cammack, have expressed their distaste for Sabatini and his media whore style of campaigning and apparent bigoted tactics.
Hey Anthony, didn’t you and your team just beg for his endorsement a month ago? Weird. What changed? https://t.co/cBD19fH8XZ
— Sam Cooper (@SamCooper33) September 19, 2022
Sabatini was the sole Republican vote against DeSantis' "Freedom First" state budget, and even announced that he helped DeSantis pass Constitutional Carry in Florida.
Constitutional Carry never made it through the Florida Legislature for a vote.
Since Sabatini signaled that he would look to run for Webster’s seat once the veteran lawmaker retired, conservative journalist Laura Loomer, who ran against Webster and lost by only 7 percentage points, announced that she would run again for the Republican nomination in the 11th District.
In addition, several key Republican lawmakers have told The Floridian that if Sabatini decides to run for Congress again, they would head him off and support someone else, perhaps even getting behind Loomer.
During the 2022 Republican congressional primary race, an outside PAC with ties to former President Donald Trump, spent $1.6 million to defeat Sabatini.
Again, Sabatini is not seen as a viable and trusting congressional candidate by many conservative members of the House of Representatives. The money will stack up against Sabatini.
