A Leon County Circuit Court Judge ruled Friday that Rebekah Jones couldn't be elected as a Democrat.
Leon County Circuit Court Judge John Cooper disqualified Jones as a candidate at the conclusion of a virtual hearing on Friday.
Cooper said it was not a good decision to make. Anyone who puts themselves out for office should be applauded.
The lawsuit against Rebekah Jones was filed by an opposing party.
Is Rebekah Jones eligible to work in Florida? Arguments will be heard next week.
Anyone running for a partisan office in Florida must register as a member of the party for a full year before they can qualify.
Jones said on her Facebook page that she would appeal the ruling.
Voters can rest assured that we're not going to let anyone steal this election from them because we're appealing immediately.
A statement on her campaign Facebook page said she was pleased with the ruling.
"I think justice has been done," he said.
If Jones had won the primary, he would have been disqualified.
I wanted to make this campaign about defeating Gaetz's poor excuse. We hope the people of the First Congressional District unite with us to achieve this goal.
The 1st Congressional District is a Republican stronghold. Matt Gaetz currently holds the seat but is facing a well-financed primary challenge from a former FedEx executive and Vietnam veteran.
Gaetz said he doesn't celebrate voters being denied a choice and that it was small of Schiller to seek Jones' defeat in a courtroom.
It seems obvious that the Judge followed the law and that Rebekah Jones is a fraud in virtually all she does.
Jones was fired from the Florida Department of Health.
She said she was fired by top state health officials because she refused to change data to support the reopening of Florida. She made several appearances in national media to sound the alarm about manipulation of state data while the administration questioned her allegations from the beginning.
A state investigation concluded that there was no evidence to support her claims.
Jones registered to vote in Maryland as a Democrat in April 2021. On June 11, 2021, she changed her party affiliation to unaffiliated.
Jones missed the registration requirement due to her changing her affiliation to Democratic.
Jones testified that she only registered to vote in Maryland once as a Democrat and that two other changes were not done by her.
Jones says she can win in Northwest Florida.
Anger drove a woman to run against a congressman in the United States.
Jones gained a lot of publicity after she was fired.
She moved to Maryland because of death threats.
The weight of the other evidence made it unlikely that someone hacked Jones or changed her voter registration.
Jones filed to run for congress as an independent candidate. Jones' voter registration in Maryland was changed to Democratic after she changed her candidacy to the Democratic Party.
Jones' decision to run as an independent in June 2021. before becoming a Democratic candidate in August 2021, had no bearing on her individual party affiliation remaining with Democratic Party.
Cooper didn't agree with the legal argument.
The two changes Jones said she did not make to her voter registration did not include her middle name.
J.C. Planas said that Jones' argument did not stand up to scrutiny.
Her argument doesn't hold because someone trying to defame her by making her be a nonparty registered voter in Maryland at the same time that she's filing to run for Congress as an independent doesn't hold.
When he saw the FEC forms and Jones' own testimony that she did not prepare her own forms, he was persuaded by the discrepancy.
There is no credible evidence that anyone else is doing this. There is a lot of evidence for Ms Jones.
Cooper said he didn't like having to rule the way he did, but he had to.
Cooper doesn't think he can come to any conclusion other than that Ms. Jones was not a member of the Democratic Party.
Jones interrupted Cooper as he explained his decision. She was kicked out of the hearing by the judge because he didn't allow anyone to speak.
Cooper told Jones that she was not allowed to speak. When she was allowed back into the virtual hearing, Jones said she didn't know she wasn't on silent.
Cooper said he would enter the final order in the case by Monday so Jones would have enough time to appeal the ruling.
The ballots for the race between Schiller and Jones have already been mailed.
If the First District Court of Appeal upholds the ruling, Schiller will be the nominee for the Democratic Party.
Jim Little can be reached at jw little.
The article was originally published on the News Journal.
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