Florida lawmakers are distancing themselves from the elections-focused conspiracy group.
By Alice Herman/Suncoast Searchlight
Original Air Date: December 10, 2025
Host: Defend Florida was founded in the wake of the 2020 elections by a pair of Trump supporters in Sarasota and Manatee County, and it quickly became a political force. But now, Florida lawmakers are distancing themselves from the elections-focused conspiracy theory group. Alice Herman with Suncoast Searchlight has the details.
Raj Doraisamy, the leader of Defend Florida, spoke at a town hall event in Lee County. Screengrab from Defend Florida on YouTube via Suncoast Searchlight
Alice Herman: Less than five years ago, the group had a direct line to Governor Ron DeSantis’ office. Back in 2022, they met with the governor’s office multiple times and claimed credit for creating the state’s controversial Office of Election Crimes and Security. Now, Defend Florida members refer to Tallahassee lawmakers as a “brick wall.”
Don Gaetz: Apparently, there’s nothing wrong with voting in Florida. If the president of the United States, who’s very critical of voting practices elsewhere, voted and said it worked out well, that should be a good message for all of those who wring their hands about voting in Florida.
AH: That was Senator Don Gaetz, the Republican chair of the Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections during a committee meeting last month. In an interview after the meeting, Gaetz told me he thought that Defend Florida had lost clout.
Palm Beach supervisor of elections Wendy Sartory Link spoke at a November meeting of the Florida Senate Committee on Ethics and Elections Screengrab from The Florida Channel via Suncoast Searchlight
Even as that group’s influence wanes in Tallahassee, election skeptics see signs from Washington that Trump still has their backs.
Those signals include the president’s recent appointment of a high-profile conspiracy theorist to a role overseeing election security for the Department of Homeland Security. Closer to home, staffers from the Center for Renewing America, a think tank founded by Trump’s powerful director of the Office of Management and Budget, appear at Defend Florida’s events.
And election deniers are seeking to push the White House to take up interventions on their behalf. On a late October call that a leader of Defend Florida hosted, that conviction was on full display.
Influence of the Sarasota-founded election conspiracy theory group Defend Florida has waned in Florida’s capital of Tallahassee even as its membership grows. Photo by Sean Pavone on iStock via Suncoast Searchlight
Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader who was convicted of sedition for his role in the January 6 insurrection, joined a call hosted by one of Defend Florida’s leaders. He told the more than 20,000 viewers who tuned in that grassroots election skeptics could sway Trump.
Tarrio urged for the release from prison of Tina Peters, a former Colorado election clerk. Peters was convicted and sentenced to nine years for overseeing a data breach while she was searching for voter fraud. It’s a repeated refrain that election-denying activists have rallied around for months. Within weeks, the federal Bureau of Prisons requested the Colorado Department of Corrections transfer Peters to state custody, setting up a standoff between Trump and the state of Colorado.
Tarrio put it simply.
Enrique Tarrio: It’s an uphill battle right now, and I think the administration is on our side, so we just gotta keep getting loud.
AH: Reporting for Suncoast Searchlight, this has been Alice Herman. To read the full article, please visit suncoastsearchlight.org/defend-florida-election-tallahassee.
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