Former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), President-elect Donald Trump’s failed nominee for Attorney General, hinted Saturday that he might consider a bid for Florida governor.
Gaetz quoted a tweet by former Rep. Anthony Sabatini (R-FL), who wrote “[Matt Gaetz] will be the next Governor of the State of Florida, including an animated .gif of the state flag waving in the wind.
His tweet came just days after his nomination for the nation’s top law enforcement job was derailed by allegations—contained in an unreleased House ethics report—that he paid for sex, slept with a 17-year-old girl, and took illegal drugs.
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According to a lawyer for one of them, Gaetz allegedly paid for two women to travel to New York, watch his appearance in Fox News and go to the Broadway production of Pretty Woman.
He withdrew his name from consideration for the country’s top law enforcement post Thursday after Trump phoned him up and told him he didn’t have the support among Senate Republicans to be confirmed.
Gaetz has denied the allegations against him.
Florida’s incumbent Republican Governor Ron Desantis will be ineligible to run in the next Florida gubernatorial election in 2026 and will leave office in Jan. 2027.
That would leave an opening for Gaetz, who would presumably still be dogged by the scandalous allegations that turfed his AG nomination.
Desantis, meanwhile, still has his eyes set on becoming president, despite a failed run for the GOP nomination during which he was mocked as “Meatball Ron” by Trump and finished n a humiliating third place in his own state.
Politico reported in August that Desantis was undeterred by Trump’s elevation of Vice President-elect JD Vance as his MAGA heir apparent and is still laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential bid.
