Mayfield Files Suit Against Secretary of State in Florida Supreme Court Over Disqualification

Florida Rep. Debbie Mayfield, one day after accusing Gov. Ron DeSantis of politically targeting her, has filed suit against the chief elections officer in the state Supreme Court after she was disqualified from running for her old Senate seat.

In the 23-page emergency petition filed Thursday morning, Mayfield asks the Florida Supreme Court to recognize her as a qualified candidate for Senate District 19 and to establish that Secretary of State Cord Byrd exceeded his authority in preventing her from running.

"Cord Byrd...has exceeded his authority by refusing to recognize....Mayfield as a qualified candidate for the office of Florida Senate District 19," the petition reads, asking for a writ of quo warranto and mandamus to reinstate her on the ballot and find that Byrd did not follow Florida statute.

Mayfield argues that because her qualifying paperwork was "duly and timely" submitted, "The Department of State, which has a purely ministerial role in pursuing the qualifying paperwork, is bound to accept it." She referred to Florida law banning officers handling qualifying paperwork from determining whether the papers are accurate.

Mayfield served in the Florida House for eight consecutive years from 2008 to 2016. She then ran, and won, in Senate District 19 and served that district until 2024. When she termed out in November, she ran, and won, in House District 32. But when the new Senator for that district announced he would resign to run for Congress, Mayfield promptly filed to run for her old seat again.

But this time, the Department of State told her no.

In a letter, they claimed she violated the state constitution's ban on exceeding eight consecutive years in office. They disqualified her Wednesday morning, leading her to accuse DeSantis of being behind her disqualification because he wanted to "punish" her for supporting President Donald Trump in the presidential primaries.

In her petition, Mayfield notes that Sen. Don Gaetz and former Rep. Jamie Grant have also rerun for districts they had already served for two terms, after having served elsewhere for a period of time. She says that the Department of State had no issue with her running for state House again, claims they have no authority to disqualify her, and even if they did, the state constitution does not bar her from running for SD 19 again.

The petition remarks that the constitutional language only bans a lawmaker from running for the same office where "by the end of the current term of office" the candidate had served "in that office for eight consecutive years."

Mayfield's current office is HD 32, not SD 19.

The emergency petition asks that the Court take up the issue before military and overseas ballots be printed for the special election on Feb. 14. The primary is on April 1 and the general on June 10.