Anthony Sabatini has dropped his bid to succeed U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster in Congress.
Sabatini, a Lake County commissioner, has endorsed former state legislator Carey Baker in a field of candidates running in the Republican primary.
Sabatini immediately jumped into the race when Webster announced he would be retiring. However, Sabatini had run into some strong headwinds.
Sabatini faced the potential ire of President Trump after Advance Liberty PAC sent out a campaign mailer with a photo of Trump and Sabatini. The flyer called Sabatini “the Trump Choice for Congress.” The mailer apparently came to the attention of the Dhillon Law Group in Alexandria, Virginia, which represents Trump and Never Surrender Inc., Trump’s leadership PAC. The letter ordered Advance Liberty PAC to stop using Trump’s likeness in its campaign materials. The letter made clear that Trump had not endorsed Sabatini and apparently was not inclined to do so.
Trump’s endorsement has been pivotal in the past. In 2024, Sabatini launched an insurgent challenge against Webster, but Sabatini gave up the fight when Trump announced he would be endorsing Webster.
In addition, Sabatini had refused to resign from his Lake County Commission seat, as required by Florida’s resign-to-run law. Sabatini tried to fight it in court but came up short.
Below is a statement issued by Sabatini explaining his decision to drop his Congressional bid:
“While it would’ve been an honor to serve our great community in Congress, today I’m withdrawing from the race for FL-11. I based my decision on 2 reasons.
First, qualifying to run for Congress would require me to immediately resign from the Lake County Commission. It would be irresponsible to do so because there’s too much on the line for Lake County—my seat would likely be given to a corrupt political insider who will vote to drown Lake County with overdevelopment & do nothing to advance true conservative policy. We filed a lawsuit to strike down the unconstitutional “resign to run” law but unfortunately it was too late for a challenge to be fully heard & decided on the merits before the qualifying date.
Second, our district needs a great leader from Lake County to be our Representative; Carey Baker & I would’ve split too many votes within our home of Lake County to be competitive in the larger primary race. We have not had a true Lake County leader represent our district in Congress since Syd Herlong in the 1960s. Therefore I’m asking all of my supporters to get behind Carey Baker for US Congress—one of the few truly honest & principled people I’ve worked with in government.
Thank you to all of my patriotic supporters & friends who helped us along the way & knocked on thousands of doors. I will continue to fight for our County, State and Nation—this is not the end, but only the beginning—stay tuned.”