WASHINGTON Rebekah Jones, who was fired from Floridas coronavirus dashboard manager, is back in Florida to run against Rep. Matt Gaetz. Gaetz is one of Trump's closest allies.Florida Governor could face a challenge if she returns. Ron DeSantis is a Republican who made handling the coronavirus pandemic an integral part of his political rise. Jones claims that Jones was fired last year after refusing to alter statistics in order to meet the governor's request to quickly reopen the country during the national lockdown. She and the DeSantis government have been fighting for the truth about the coronavirus since then.DeSantis' version of the story is best summarized by the slogan "Dont Fauci My Florida" on merchandise that the governor has been selling. This slogan has come under intense criticism in recent weeks. According to the White House, DeSantis has obstructed the proper public health response to the coronavirus. The governor is coping with the overwhelming demand for hospitals in Florida. Fox News and conservative outlets have given him plaudits for his efforts to fight mask mandates and vaccine requirements.Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking at a press conference Tuesday. He stressed that the COVID-19 increase in Florida will not last. (Wilfredo Lee/AP)This approach is being resisted on the ground. Schools could lose funding under DeSantis' latest executive order if they impose mandates for masks. But they do so anyway. Local leaders also believe that DeSantis is trying to exacerbate the situation to gain support from his Republican base. According to Dan Gelber, the Democratic mayor for Miami Beach, DeSantis has made it difficult to ensure safety. He compared DeSantis to a Pied Piper who is leading everyone off a cliff.DeSantis, who was seemingly invincible throughout spring, suddenly appears vulnerable as both a presidential candidate and as a governor, who will be running for reelection next season. He is now trailing Rep. Charlie Crist (one of two main Democrats who are challenging him in the gubernatorial race). The Drudge Report recently featured headlines about Florida Hospital Hell. This is a must-read article for conservatives.Continue the storyFlorida's spike supports Jones case against the governor, even if she doesnt have to use it against Gaetz, whose First Congressional District also includes the Florida Panhandle. This region is a Republican redoubt. It last sent a Democrat from Florida to Washington in 1992. Trump won the Panhandle in 2020 with margins of nearly 50 percent in some places.Gaetz is the son a prominent Florida politician. Jones was raised in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Maryland in a working class family. Gaetz is a useless emissary to the Florida Panhandle. Jones describes him as a Trump loyalist who has little interest in helping ordinary people. Although she plans to run independently, she will not have the support of local Democrats. However, it also means that she won't be burdened with the ideology associated with party membership.His campaign calls her campaign a "sideshow". Harlan Hill, ex-Trump adviser and Gaetz campaign spokesperson, said that she is not a serious candidate. Rebekah would hide your children and lock you down, Harlan Hill said to Yahoo News.Rebekah and Rep. Matt Gaetz (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos courtesy of Rebekah, Patrick Semansky/AP).Gaetz is likely to be supported by Floridians. He won reelection in 2020 by 30 points. He now faces allegations of sex traficking. This may not affect his chances of winning given the margins he's enjoyed thus far. He could be helped by Jones and a Democratic candidate, who could split the opposition against him.Jones' candidacy could pose a greater threat to DeSantis. Jones has advocated for DeSantis's freedom-over-fear approach towards the pandemic over his more cautious Democratic counterparts. Jones's position is vigorously refuted by DeSantis, and her campaign seems more focused on keeping Jones out of the White House rather than recalling Gaetz from Capitol Hill.Florida has been the epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic since Jones' declaration to run for office. It now accounts for half of all US cases during the second quarter of July. Last week, Florida had more cases per day (16.038 on Tuesday) than Germany (10.735 that same day), despite having four times the number of residents.DeSantis stated that he refused to transform Florida into a Faucian dystopia with masked faces, social distancing rules and masked faces. He didn't seem to be aware of the potential costs associated with this position. These are evident in the last few days. Florida recorded 21,683 cases on Saturday, which is the highest daily total since the outbreak.Deaths due to lag infections are also on the rise. On Aug. 4, Florida had 140 deaths, which is more than the 116 in New York, California Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Jersey, and Connecticut.Santa Rosa Beach attorney Daniel Uhlfelder is leading an effort against the governor in 2022. He has used statistics to prove DeSantis wrong and said that the governor acts for show. He doesnt care.DeSantis claims it has provided security for seniors and other vulnerable individuals while allowing others to enjoy their freedom. DeSantis was able to keep schools open despite the protests of teachers' unions. This made him a hero for parents tired of months of Zoom schools.On Tuesday, the line at Miami's COVID-19 test site was long. (Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images).DeSantis was happy to be the hero. Make America Florida has become a rallying call for his confident and boisterous camp. However, the state's economic recovery has not been as strong as the governor would have us believe. Economists from the University of California Los Angeles published a June study that found that states that retained their restrictions longer had a faster recovery, with California's economy performing better than Florida's.DeSantis was also reluctant to launch the unrelenting vaccine effort that the pandemic required, even though other governors, including some Republicans, were looking for incentives or stipulations to persuade people into taking their shots.In an apparent attempt to win favor with anti-vaccine supporters, Florida's governor chose the opposite. In an attempt to stop them from getting vaccines, he sued cruise ship operators who operate out of Florida ports. A poll showed that DeSantis' ban was not supported by more than three quarters of Floridians.Baylor University epidemiologist Dr. Peter Hotez watched in June as DeSantis mocked Ingraham and Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham. This segment is viewed by millions. Hotez watched the more transmittable Delta variant wreak havoc on the state several weeks later. This was just as he had predicted would happen if vaccination rates were not drastically increased.DeSantis is pictured with Laura Ingraham, anchor on Fox News.Hotez said that we have seen many of these governors from red states put ideology above public health. Jeff Zients, White House pandemic response coordinator for Florida, disclosed Monday that Texas and Florida were responsible for nearly a third of all coronavirus new cases in the United States.This surge suggests that DeSantis may have declared victory over coronavirus too quickly (President Biden has been accused doing the same). Although the governor tried to blame the media, it is unclear how much traction this argument will gain with the state's dire situation. A Monday editorial in the Orlando Sentinel charged DeSantis with lacking courage to fight the disease.The bitter rivalry between the 32 year-old data scientist, who wants to become a congresswoman, and the 42-year old governor, who, according to all accounts, wants the presidency, has been revived by the new surge.Jones claims that DeSantis has denied the existence of COVID-19 Florida since the beginning. His cruel policies continue to be punished by the people.This could make the race for the Panhandle less about Jones or Gaetz than it is on Jones, the governor who played a significant role in Floridians' experience of the pandemic. Uhlfelder states that people will either be drawn to her or away from her depending on their feelings about Ron DeSantis. This is pretty obvious, I believe.Jones will campaign against Trump-DeSantis/Gaetz in the unlikely event her congressional bid gains traction. This is at the exact same time that DeSantis is running for reelection, and also preparing for his widely expected White House run. This could upset the prickly governor who has earned the nickname "porcupine" and once attacked Jones by name. Jones is unemployed, has been living in exile in Maryland, and has just moved to the district she would like to represent.DeSantis and Vice President Mike Pence speak to the media in Orlando, May 2020, as part of an initiative to provide personal protective equipment for nursing homes. (Chris O'Meara/AP).Jones is a geologist by training. She was originally hired to monitor hurricanes. She created the state coronavirus dashboard for the Pandemic, which won her praise from Dr. Deborah Birx (the White House coronavirus taskforce coordinator at the time).This didn't last. Jones was fired by the Florida Department of Health in May 2020. Jones promptly filed a whistleblower lawsuit, alleging retaliation because she refused to alter statistics to suit DeSantis' attempt to force a quick and universal reopening. Jones was granted whistleblower status in May 2021. This was a win, but not enough to fully validate her claims.Taryn Fenske (DeSantis's communications director) says that no decision has been made regarding the merits. Whistleblower status does not support any claims.Armed Florida law enforcement officers raided Jones' home on Dec. 7, last year with guns drawn. They wanted to execute a warrant on Jones' computer equipment. They believed she was responsible for accessing an emergency alert system of the Department of Health and sending a message to employees saying: "Speak up before 17,000 people are killed."Jones claims that she did not send the message.Rebekah Jones was raped by the state police on December 7, 2020. (Florida Department of Law Enforcement).Her animosity towards DeSantis was heightened by the raid. Jones states that it would be a mistake for me to hold Ron DeSantis personally accountable for the harm he has done to my family. She fled Florida for Maryland shortly after the raid. She is now returning to Gaetz, several months later.Jones is not the only one who believes that Jones has a vendetta against him. As his press secretary, he recently hired Christina Pushaw. Pushaw had previously written a highly critical article about Jones. She noted this when she applied for a job at the DeSantis administration.Jones believes Pushaw helped conservative outlets to malign Jones. Pushaw was also sued by Jones for harassment. The case was eventually dismissed.Pushaw stated to Yahoo News that she has no ill will towards Rebekah Jones. I wish her all the best. I don't want to talk about her any more. I've moved on and I hope she has too. The judge stated that we are both opinionated women and will never be able to see eye-to-eye, but we each have the right of free expression.Jones' professional and personal conduct have also been questioned. According to a spokeswoman, Jones was charged with cyberstalking in connection to a romance affair. She has been permanently suspended from Twitter for trying to draw attention to her case in The Miami Herald through what Twitter calls platform manipulation (also known as spam).She used to occasionally launch broadsides before her suspension that appeared to weaken her standing with former supporters, such as Jake Tapper, CNN anchor, and Florida-based epidemiologists, who didn't share her views.Jones is unsure if the negative publicity that she received recently was intentional. Gaetz, the incumbent, is currently the subject of a sextrafficking investigation which could lead to a federal conviction.Carollyn Taylor, her campaign manager, doesn't think Gaetz's allegations will make a difference in the race. Taylor claims that the district has reached an agreement with Gaetz. She calls him trash. He is our trash.____Yahoo News has more information:
