Rebekah Jones, who was fired from her job with Florida's health department in 2020, won the Democratic nomination for Congress in the state's Panhandle region.
According to the Florida Division of Elections, Jones had more votes than her opponent in the first congressional district. The race was called by the AP at 8:54 pm.
In November, Jones will face Gaetz.
Jones was able to remain on the ballot after the appeals court ruled in her favor. Jones was disqualified from the primary ballot in August due to the fact that she hadn't been registered as a Democrat for a full year. According to a USA Today-Florida newspaper report, documents show that Jones initially registered as a Democrat in Maryland, but changed her registration to "unaffiliated" in June of last year.
Jones said that she only voted as a Democrat in Maryland. The other voter registration changes were not done by her. Candidates for partisan elections in Florida must be registered as members of their party for a full year before they can be considered.
The validity of a duly qualified candidate's sworn party affiliation cannot be challenged and used as a basis for disqualification according to the ruling of the 1st District Court of Appeals. According to the panel, the underlying law doesn't allow for disqualifying a party candidate if she isn't a registered party member during the year.
Jones was fired in May 2020 for multiple performance issues. She became a left-wing hero after she claimed that she was targeted because she refused to manipulate data to support the reopening of the state. She appeared on national TV, was the subject of glowing profiles in mainstream news outlets, launched her own Covid tracker, and raised $500,000 online.
Her personal life came under scrutiny and she was accused of peddling conspiracy theories. There was insufficient evidence or no evidence that Jones was asked to alter the state's Covid data. Jones had accused several state officials of wrongdoing.
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