Matt Gaetz

This virtually assured Gaetz of victory in the general election; with a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+22, the 1st is Florida's most Republican district, and one of the most Republican in the nation.

Gaetz's grandfather, Jerry Gaetz, was the mayor of Rugby, North Dakota, and a candidate for lieutenant governor of North Dakota at the 1964 North Dakota Republican Party state convention, where he died of a heart attack.

After graduating from William & Mary Law School, Gaetz worked at the law firm Keefe, Anchors & Gordon (now AnchorsGordon) in Fort Walton Beach.

In October 2021, the Florida bar suspended Gaetz from practicing law due to unpaid fees.

Matthew Louis Gaetz II (born May 7, 1982) is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the U.S. representative for FL's 1st congressional district since 2017.

The district includes all of Escambia, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa counties, and portions of Walton County.

A member of the Republican Party, he is widely regarded as a staunch proponent of far-right politics as well as an ally of former president Donald Trump.

Sources describing Gaetz as "far-right" include:

The son of prominent Florida politician Don Gaetz and grandson of North Dakota politician Jerry Gaetz, Gaetz was raised in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

After graduating from the William & Mary Law School in Williamsburg, Virginia, he briefly worked in private practice before running for state representative.

Matthew Louis Gaetz II was born on May 7, 1982, in Hollywood, Florida, to Victoria (née Quertermous) and Don Gaetz, who later became a prominent local politician.

He grew up near Fort Walton Beach, and graduated from Niceville High School.

He graduated from Florida State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Science in interdisciplinary sciences, and from the William & Mary Law School in 2007 with a Juris Doctor.

Gaetz's father represented parts of northwest Florida as a member of the Florida State Senate from 2006 to 2016, and was Senate president from 2012 to 2014.

Gaetz was admitted to the Florida Bar on February 6, 2008.

When his subcommittee was considering legislation that would keep suspects' mugshots off the Internet until their convictions, Gaetz brought up his 2008 arrest and non-conviction, arguing that his mistakes made him who he is and that publicly available mugshots "could be a problem for those unaccustomed to publicity".

He served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2010 until 2016, and received national attention for defending Florida's controversial "stand-your-ground law".

In March 2010, after Republican state representative Ray Sansom's resignation on corruption charges in February 2010, Gaetz ran in the special election to succeed Sansom in the 4th district, which included southern Santa Rosa County and Okaloosa County.

In a crowded Republican primary that included Craig Barker, Kabe Woods, Jerry G. Melvin, and Bill Garvie, Gaetz won with 43 percent of the vote.

In the special general election, Gaetz defeated Democratic nominee Jan Fernald with 66 percent of the vote.

During his campaign, Gaetz received almost $480,000 in contributions, about five times more than anyone else in the field, and almost 50 times more than Fernald, including $100,000 of his own money.

Gaetz was unopposed for a full term in 2010.

In 2012, following the reconfiguration of Florida House of Representatives districts, Gaetz's district no longer contained any of Santa Rosa County.

He was reelected unopposed in 2012 and 2014.

While serving in the state house, Gaetz and state senator Joe Negron proposed legislation that would hasten the execution of many inmates on Florida's death row by requiring the governor to sign a death warrant for those who had exhausted their appeals.

He also joined state senator Greg Evers in proposing legislation to eliminate the federal ethanol content mandate that 10 percent of gasoline sold in Florida contain ethanol; Governor Rick Scott signed the legislation in May 2013.

In 2013, Gaetz announced that, in 2016, he would run for the 1st district State Senate seat held by his father, Don Gaetz, who was term-limited in 2016.

Gaetz was one of two members to vote against a Florida bill criminalizing revenge porn, in 2015, after having successfully blocked the bill previously.

Florida House speaker Will Weatherford announced that he would order hearings on the stand-your-ground law.

Gaetz, the chairman of the Criminal Justice Subcommittee, was tasked with reviewing the legislation; he announced before hearings that he would not support changing "one damn comma", but said he would listen to both sides' testimony.

After the hearings, he authored legislation to allow defendants who successfully used a stand-your-ground defense during trial to be able to expunge relevant information from their criminal records.

In 2015, Gaetz supported the presidential campaign of Jeb Bush.

In 2016, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and was reelected in 2018, 2020, and 2022.

Bush emailed Gaetz about introducing a bill to change the 2016 Florida Republican presidential primary to an earlier date in order to benefit Bush, Florida's former governor.

Don Gaetz, then the president of the Florida Senate, also endorsed Bush, along with several other members of Florida's state legislature.

On March 21, 2016, Gaetz withdrew from the race, choosing instead to run for the U.S. House seat representing Florida's 1st congressional district; the incumbent, Jeff Miller, had announced 11 days earlier that he would not seek reelection.

On August 30, 2016, Gaetz won the Republican primary with 35.7 percent of the vote to Greg Evers's 21.5 percent and Cris Dosev's 20.6 percent, along with five other candidates.

In 2020, Gaetz was accused of sex trafficking and having sexual relationships with minors.

After an investigation, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) decided not to charge him, though Gaetz remains under investigation of the House Ethics Committee.

In October 2023, Gaetz filed a motion to vacate which led to the removal of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.