PALM BEACH, FL—“MAGA” Meg Weinberger beat out a contentiously crowded field Tuesday night to clinch the Republican Party nomination in House District 94, securing her spot on the general election ballot on November 5th.
An animal rights advocate and Moms for Liberty Chair, Weinberger garnered over 47% of Palm Beach County’s vote as of 11:30 p.m., though some mail-in votes have yet to be recorded.
Businessman Anthony Aguirre came in second with nearly 28% of the vote, followed by college professor Christian Acosta with 18% and lastly county Republican Executive Committee member Gabrielle Fox, who earned just under 8%.
The race was a brutal one with some residents accusing an Acosta fundraiser of abusing local authority and others pointing fingers at Aguirre for seemingly implying that Trump may have endorsed him—not Weinberger.
Weinberger, dubbed “MAGA Meg” after Trump and prominent Trump affiliates endorsed her, entered the race in June 2023. Since then, her campaign raised $267,689–she loaned herself an additional $50,000–and spent $284,857.
Runner-up Aguirre, meanwhile, was endorsed by DeSantis—creating yet another proxy DeSantis v. Trump battle in a local political race—and raised the second-most money in the race. He earned $191,215–shelling out $80,000 of his own money—though he has yet to report any expenditures. His campaign account, meanwhile, reported $179,159 in spending.
Weinberger will now face the sole Democratic candidate and default party nominee, former Palm Beach Gardens Mayor Rachelle Litt, for the South Florida seat. It is newly vacant because Republican Rep. Rick Roth (who endorsed Acosta) termed out this year.
Though Biden won the district in 2020, DeSantis demolished Democrat Charlie Crist two years later by 15 percentage points, meaning that—if Palm Beach Democrats turn out to vote—Litt may have a chance against Weinberger to become the next state Representative.
