Florida Democrats led by Nikki Fried have been vocal that Florida is in play in the 2024 Presidential election.

 The Democrats have spent the past 3 years organizing, fundraising and preparing to deliver Florida and its 30 electoral college votes to the Biden campaign.  Meanwhile the Republican Party of Florida has spent the past year mired in chaos, confusion and controversy.  Florida Party chair Christian Ziegler was stripped of his authority in a high profile scandal less than a year ago. 

The chaos and degeneracy of the Republican Party of Florida seems to have reached all the way to the county level ahead of Donald Trump’s historic reelection bid.   St. Johns County, Florida is the latest example of what not to do regarding political activity. 

Situated on the coast of northeast Florida, St. John’s County is a picturesque setting filled with beaches, beautiful and more history than anywhere else in America. St. Johns County is also situated in CD-6, the district formerly represented by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.   St. Augustine is the most notable city in the county.  The county is one that contains substantial wealth, earning it the distinction of the wealthiest county in the state of Florida.  St. Johns County has an average household income exceeding $100,000 annually.   While substantially Republican in voter registration, the county appears to be on the razor’s edge of Democrat infiltration. 

Politics in St. Johns County appeared to be typical until 2022.  A new political action committee was formed by two transplants to the area, Angelica Gross and Lisa Gaglianese.  The stated purpose of this PAC was to “assist America First candidates who had never held an elected office”.  Angelica and Lisa quickly built a coalition of grassroots candidates, with Gaglianese even stating, “no one gets elected in St. Johns County without going through me.  I am the kingmaker”.  On the surface this new Political Action Committee seemed to be focused on grassroots conservative candidates, but under the surface it bore all of the hallmarks of a prototypical Indivisible operation. 

Since the inception of the PAC formed by Gaglianese and Gross, nearly $133,000 in funds have been raised with $118,000 being spent on a variety of categories.  Notably, Paterson himself appears to have been a contributor to the We The People Elect Patriots PAC as late as 2023. 

As the 2022 campaign season wore on, the pair of Gross and Gaglianese ostracized any grassroots candidate who refused to follow their orders.  As election season ended, they appeared to turn their attention to the local Republican Party.  Gross even went as far as to make a phone call requesting three percenters to attend a local party meeting to intimidate members.  She stated that the party was “not acting right”.  The local party at the time was led by Roy Alaimo, and the duo was upset that the candidates from their PAC were not given automatic endorsements from the party and were left to go through the standard endorsement procedure. 

Upon Alaimo’s successful completion of his term as Party chair, a relative unknown was elected to lead.    Blake Paterson had briefly served as the treasurer of the county party but now found himself leading the organization.  Blake Patterson served as the party chair until March 2024 when he was removed by the Republican Party of Florida due to a grievance. 

It was stated with Paterson’s removal that Vice chair Jamie Parham would assume control of the Republican Party of St. John’s County with a new election held within 60 days.

Paterson and Parham had a history of division within the organization.  Paterson had even went as far as to attempt to bar Parham from entering Party meetings by use of police.  In a video shared by Parham, Paterson boldly taunts him to share the fact that he will not be able to enter the meeting with the RPOF. 

Fast forward to May 9^th, 2024.  An election was held within the St. Johns County Republican Party to elect a new chair.  Although already a duly elected vice chair, Parham felt the need to continue his service and decided to campaign to be permanently elected into the chair position.  Parham’s toughest competitor would come from a new member in Denver Cook.  Cook had only joined the Republican Party of St. Johns county on 4/11/2024.  Less than a month before the election was held.  On the night of 5/9/2024 each candidate was given 2 minutes to verbally state their case as to why they should be elected chair of the Republican Party of Saint Johns County.  During Parham’s speech the crowd was disruptive by audibly yelling to the point where Parham was unable to be heard.  Officials from the Republican Party of Florida were in attendance; however, they were unable or unwilling to restore order.  8 additional candidates were nominated that night.  All of which declined the nomination and then used their allotted 2 minutes to endorse and praise Denver Cook.  Blake Paterson appears to be in full support of Denver Cook’s leadership, opting to send an email to the chapter’s membership praising the election results.  The email was delivered on 6/10/2024 as this story was initially being written. 

I reached out directly to former chair Blake Patterson for comment via email, he responded, however he declined to give comment. 

Normally a party chair election would fly under the radar and take place with no fanfare.  But in Saint Johns County fashion, this was not a typical election.

On May 9, 2024 REC secretary Linda Thompson sent an email to the members of the SJCREC in preparation the chairman’s election that would take place on 5/11/2024.  Thompson stated that of the 19 new members inducted in April, only 4 would be eligible to vote due to paperwork errors being committed by the others invalidating their membership.  Among those deemed ineligible were MAGA activists Charles & Jessico Bowman.  Also included was the wife of acting chair Reanna Parham. 

There was no specific reason given as to why the Bowmans or Reanna Parham were deemed ineligible to participate in the election.  A records request for their paperwork shows the required forms to be completed with all necessary information. 

In an even stranger turn of events, it appears as if Denver Cook were elected as the chairman of the Saint Johns County Republican Party without being a valid member.  Cook’s original paperwork submitted to the Supervisor of elections on 4/24/2024 was missing several key pieces of information. 

Proving that Cook was aware of the issues on his original filing, Cook then resubmitted his paperwork on 5/16/2024 with the errors corrected.  The resubmission took place after the chairman’s election had been concluded. 

You might be wondering why a local political party election is so important.  In this instance, despite raising over $100,000 from donors this local chapter of the Republican Party is left with less than $3,000 in funds to campaign on behalf of President Trump.  A case was opened with the Saint Johns County Sherrif’s Office in regard to the missing funds, however it has now been referred to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to handle due to the size and scope of the investigation.  Denver Cook appears to be the hand selected candidate to replace Patterson.  Was he the product of a misinformation/disinformation by Galianese and Gross?  Will the RPOF take action on his invalid chairmanship? 

It is important to remember that in the world of politics, believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear.  We will update this story once with additional information as the legal investigation concludes!