'Just Like Joe Biden': Debbie Mayfield Claims DeSantis Disqualified Her From Senate Race

Rep. Debbie Mayfield, a longtime Florida lawmaker, claimed that Gov. Ron DeSantis disqualified her from running for her old Senate seat as retaliation for her support of President Donald Trump.

Mayfield, who served Senate District 19 in Brevard for eight years before being termed out, accused DeSantis of using his position to "punish her" for ultimately backing Trump over the governor in last year's presidential primary. As the final nail in the coffin, Mayfield likened the Florida Governor to Joe Biden, a frequent target of DeSantis's ire.

"Today Governor DeSantis used the executive branch to punish me for endorsing Donald J. Trump for president," she said in a statement, vowing to sue and noting that she switched her endorsement from DeSantis to Trump at the end of 2023. "He weaponized the Department of State executive just like Joe Biden weaponized the Department of Justice."

Mayfield responded to a Wednesday morning letter from the Department of State claiming her candidacy for SD 19 was a constitutional violation due to term limits. She had previously served in the seat from 2016 to 2024 but then ran for—and won in—House District 32.

The state constitution bans a lawmaker from running for the same office where "by the end of the current term of office" the candidate has served "in that office for eight consecutive years." Per the constitutional language, Mayfield's current term in office is in HD 32, not SD 19.

Mayfield's legal team will argue that the state overextended its authority by disqualifying her. According to Florida statute, qualifying officers handling candidate paperwork perform a "ministerial" function, and "may not determine whether the contents of the qualifying papers are accurate."

The Department of State did not respond to a request for comment.

How it unfolded:

Weeks after Mayfield won her seat in HD 32, the newly elected Senator to SD 19, Randy Fine, announced that he would resign in March to pursue a vacant congressional seat. So on Jan. 24, Mayfield filed paperwork to run for her old seat. Three days later, she said she would resign from HD 32 on June 9.

The qualifying date for the SD 19 special election was Tuesday, Feb. 4 at noon. Strangely, the Department of State did not say who qualified and who did not until Wednesday morning, leading Republican consultants to speculate that DeSantis may have ordered the office to slow down proceedings, Florida Politics reported.

This caused the SD 19 qualifying period to bleed into the HD 32 qualifying period, which ends Wednesday, Feb. 5, at noon. This would give Mayfield a little over three hours to try to file to run for the HD 32 special election if that's what she chooses.

Qualified candidates for SD 19 include Republicans Marcie Adkins, Mark Lightner III, and Tim Thomas against Democrat Vance Ahrens.

The special primary election for both seats will be held on April 1 and the generals on June 10.