Matt Gaetz wins GOP primary in Florida

Matt Gaetz wins primary after fending off attacks over sex-trafficking investigation

MIAMI — Rep. Matt Gaetz defeated his Republican primary opponent Tuesday in one of Florida’s most conservative congressional districts, NBC News projects, as voters declined to hold a federal sex crimes investigation against him.

Gaetz, the self-styled firebrand endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who also managed Gov. Ron DeSantis’s transition team in 2019, spent $1.1 million on local TV ads to drive home his MAGA bona fides. Challenger Mark Lombardo spent at least $500,000 calling Gaetz’s character into question in three ads.

But ultimately, Trump’s endorsement — and Gaetz’s deep roots and relentless campaigning in the district — carried the day for Gaetz, who was a state representative from the Panhandle area before he won his congressional seat in 2016.

Trump is dominant in the district, which he carried by more than 33 percentage points in 2020.

In one commercial, Lombardo insinuated, without evidence, that Gaetz was an informant who ultimately gave the FBI evidence to execute a search warrant Aug. 8 at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2022-election/matt-gaetz-wins-gop-primary-florida-rcna44378

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