State Rep. Anthony Sabatini, who was crushed in the 2022 Republican primary congressional race in Florida’s 7th District by now Congressman-elect Cory Mills, appears to be desperately trying to keep his political dreams alive and is said to be eyeing the chairmanship of the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF).
Before Sabatini, who has been dubbed Florida’s Biggest Loser for using bigoted campaign tactics against Rep. Mills' wife, can run for the RPOF’s top job, he must be a board member of the state party.
To do so, Sabatini must be an elected state committeeman or chairman of a county Republican party.
According to several reliable sources within the Lake County Republican Executive Committee, Sabatini is said to have rescinded his endorsement of current Chairman Walter Price, telling the popular chairman that his 2022 winning election efforts of knocking on doors and making phone calls to increase Republican voter registration were “a waste of time.
Sabatini is said to have told Price that he had changed his mind and would be challenging his leadership.
But the bigger play for Sabatini here is the state party chairmanship. Sabatini needs to win the local position in December to be able to run for the RPOF chairman’s election that will be held at the group’s next meeting on January 20-21 in Orlando.
According to those same aforementioned sources, Sabatini believes the state party to be subpar and needs to be a “MAGA” and “America First” organization.
To Sabatini’s point, the RPOF has seen better days, and over the past several years, the divide between Chairman Joe Gruters and Gov. Ron DeSantis has deepened.
In addition, Sabatini is said to also be trying to whip votes or is testing the waters within the state party to gauge if he could have the votes needed to challenge whoever decides to run for RPOF chairman were Gruters decide not to seek reelection.
Chair of Chairs Evan Power, who is a DeSantis ally and considered the frontrunner in the race, could face off against RPOF Vice Chairman Christian Ziegler.
Gruters has not announced whether or not he will seek a third term, but considering that former President Donald Trump has just announced that he will seek reelection, Gruters could be pressed to head up the state party to help President Trump’s 2024 election efforts.
This of course would put him in direct conflict with Gov. DeSantis where the Governor decide to primary challenge President Trump in the 2024 presidential sweepstakes.
But let’s not forget that before all of the talk of Sabatini running for chairman of the Lake County GOP or the RPOF began, he first announced that he was going to run for congress in Florida’s 11th District days after losing the 2022 primary election.
Sabatini made the announcement on a podcast where he said that he would run once Rep. Daniel Webster (R) retired.
The Floridian spoke to Rep. Webster’s representatives last week and they said that the congressman was planning on running for reelection and that anyone saying that he was going to retire soon was misinformed.
Sabatini has been railing against “RINO” and career politicians as long as anyone can remember, but he has painted himself as being the very same career politician that he despises and has sworn to destroy.
BAD news for Democrats & RINOs:
I have 50+ more years of elections in Florida politics—get ready
WORSE news for Democrats & RINOs:
I have a BIG political announcement coming this Spring—stay tuned
We have a country to save 🇺🇸
— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) August 24, 2022
