Jennifer Barbosa, a Republican who once ran for Congress in California, has filed to challenge U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee in a Florida GOP Primary.
Now a Plant City resident, Barbosa appears to be the latest Republican to answer a call from former President Donald Trump for an "America First" candidate in Florida's 15th Congressional District.
Barbosa on April 23 filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) to run in CD 15, and on April 24 filed paperwork with the state. She has until April 26 at noon to qualify as a candidate.
She has run for federal office before, challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff in his California district in 2020 as an independent. She won less than 6% of the vote in a jungle Primary in California's 28th Congressional District. Republican Eric Early advanced to the General Election and lost to Schiff, who is now the front-runner for a U.S. Senate seat in California.
Barbosa's website said she lived in Florida for most of the last 40 years, starting in 1976. She graduated from Shorecrest Prep in St. Petersburg but moved to California some time after graduating from Vanderbilt University and served on the Hollywood Studio District Neighborhood Council before she ran for Congress, according to Ballotpedia.
Lee, a former Florida Secretary of State, won her seat in Congress in 2022, emerging from a crowded Republican field for an open seat before besting Democrat Alan Cohn. The recently drawn district was widely viewed as the new seat Florida picked up from reapportionment after the 2020 Census, and was the most closely divided seat in the state in the 2020 Presidential Election.
If Barbosa qualifies, she will face Lee, who already paid a qualification fee, as well as Dade City Republican James Judge, who also qualified after shifting his candidacy from Florida's 12th Congressional District.
Pasco County conspiracy theorist and podcaster Brian Perras also moved his candidacy with the FEC from CD 12 to CD 15, but he has yet to qualify.
Trump recently called for a Primary challenge to Lee, likely stemming from the fact that she was the only member of Florida's congressional delegation to endorse Gov. Ron DeSantis for President this cycle. DeSantis dropped out of the presidential race after losing to Trump in Iowa, at which point Lee immediately endorsed Trump.
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