by Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
Aaron Dimmock, the underdog Republican challenging Matt Gaetz in Florida’s First Congressional District GOP primary in the Panhandle next month, is running what can only be described as an unusual race.
Dimmock is a retired Navy officer who heads the Missouri Leadership Academy in St. Louis, some 700 miles away from Pensacola, the heart of the congressional district. It is legal for him to do so, as a Missouri state law was changed in 2020, according to an official with the Missouri Office of Administration.
“I actually hopped in because no one else did,” Dimmock told the Phoenix in a phone interview conducted earlier this week. “It’s not easy to go up against someone who’s been in politics for 15 years as a first-time candidate. It was a chance I couldn’t let him go unchallenged. So, I kept an eye [on the race] through April and saw that no one else locally had opted in at the state or local level, so I felt compelled.”
