Incendiary MAGA Republican Anthony Sabatini withdrew from the GOP primary for Congress against incumbent Dan Webster on Thursday evening, less than an hour after former President Trump endorsed Webster instead of him.
Sabatini, a former state lawmaker and the Lake County GOP chair, has been a staunch Trump supporter. He has been attacking Webster for months as a “RINO” – Republican in name only – and describing him as “senile.”
But Trump, who met Thursday with GOP Congress members, later endorsed a slew of incumbents, including both Webster and U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Tampa. Lee was the lone Congress member from Florida to back Gov. Ron DeSantis over Trump in the presidential primaries.
“Congressman Daniel Webster is doing a terrific job representing Florida’s 11th Congressional District,” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social at 6:16 p.m. Thursday. “Daniel Webster has my Complete and Total Endorsement—HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”
At 7:03 p.m., Sabatini posted to X that he was dropping out.
“Today, Donald Trump endorsed the incumbent in my race,” Sabatini wrote. “I don’t always agree with Donald Trump’s endorsements, but I understand the political reality of what they are.”
Sabatini instead filed Friday to run for a seat on the Lake County Commission in District 1.
“[Congressional] District 11 will have to wait for another day,” he wrote.
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Webster slammed Sabatini as an “aspiring career politician” in a statement Friday.
“This is the second time Anthony Sabatini filed against me for Florida’s 11th District just to later withdraw from the race,” Webster wrote, citing Sabatini’s aborted run in the district in 2022 before switching to challenge Cory Mills in District 7. Mills defeated Sabatini in the GOP primary and was elected to Congress that November.
“After seeing his defeat against Rep. Cory Mills last cycle, I had hoped Anthony would reflect and run a campaign focused on the grave issues facing our country,” Webster wrote. “Instead, he continued to lower himself with lies and mistruths about my proven conservative record until nothing remained of his character.”
Sabatini had become notorious for his controversial and often insulting social media posts, and had been warned by Republican leadership in Tallahassee to tone it down before he even attended his first legislative session in 2019.
In just the last few months, he blamed the crash of a ship into a bridge in Baltimore on “DEI,” or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion; called for a full-scale moratorium on all immigration; called for the Florida Civil Rights Act to stop “anti-white discrimination;” and defended those charged with defacing LGBTQ Pride flags painted on city streets, calling one a “political prisoner.”
As Lake GOP chair, he pushed through a platform emulating the Texas Republican platform that, among other things, called for an abortion ban from conception, ending gay marriage and rights, and eliminating nearly all gun laws.
Sabatini repeatedly stressed his strong loyalty for Trump, occasionally posting simply “MAGA” on social media sites. Following Trump’s convictions in New York last month, he posted a photo of himself with Trump captioned, “AMERICA STANDS WITH DONALD J TRUMP!!!!”
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Webster, seeking his eighth term in Congress, was redistricted into a seat in 2021 that included the Trump bastion The Villages, the sprawling senior community. He defeated far-right extremist Laura Loomer in the 2022 GOP primary there by just 7 points, and a Sabatini win this year seemed like a distinct possibility.
Webster, like most incumbent Republicans, had become a strong supporter of Trump himself. He visited Trump’s trial in New York City last month and called it a “farce.”
“I am humbled and honored to receive President Trump’s complete and total endorsement in my race for Congress,” Webster said in a statement. “I look forward to putting an end to this Biden manufactured crisis with President Trump back in the White House and Republicans in control of the House and Senate in January. Our children’s and grandchildren’s futures are on the line.”
