Palm Beach County Pol Drops House Bid After Trump Voices Opinion
Mayor Sara Baxter heeded the president's Truth Social plea.
When President Trump speaks, Florida politician Sara Baxter listens.
The Palm Beach County mayor and District 6 commissioner late Thursday night ended her brief run for Congress and reentered her county-commission race after a public nudge from Mr. Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago property sits in the county. Friday noon was Florida’s filing deadline.
Ms. Baxter announced Monday she would run in the Republican primary for Florida’s 22nd Congressional District, held by Democratic Congresswoman Lois Frankel, 78. The newly redrawn seat stretches across western Palm Beach and Broward counties through rural Hendry and Collier counties to Marco Island on the Gulf Coast.
Mr. Trump posted on Truth Social Thursday night, “Sara Baxter is a fantastic person, and highly qualified for many top political jobs but, on a somewhat selfish basis, I would rather her stay on the Palm Beach County Commission (where so many important things are happening!), than run for Congress. Thank you, Sara!”
Within hours, Ms. Baxter told WPTV-5, an NBC affiliate, she would drop her congressional bid and reenter the commission race. “Just had the honor of speaking with President Donald Trump on the phone tonight. I’m grateful for his tremendous leadership and I’m proud to consider him a true friend,” she said. “There’s more work ahead, and I’m ready to keep serving the people of Palm Beach County. Let’s get to it.”
The 22nd district, which Ms. Frankel represents as the incumbent of the old 21st, was significantly redrawn in a plan Governor Ron DeSantis approved in May. Florida Politics reports Mr. Trump would have carried the new configuration with nearly 55 percent of the 2024 vote, though President Joe Biden won the district’s previous lines in 2020. A crowded field of Republicans is competing for the nomination in the August 18 primary.
Ms. Baxter, a former retinal angiographer, flipped her commission seat from the Democrats in 2022.
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