Former St. Johns Sheriff Joins GOP Primary in State Senate District 7

The race for Florida’s District 7 state Senate just got more interesting. The Republican primary election for the seat has now grown to three candidates, with former St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar entering against Tom Leek. Also running is Gerry James, a financial advisor from Ponte Vedra Beach. Shoar was St. Johns County’s sheriff from 2004 to 2021, winning election from his county’s voters four times. He’s also served as Chief of the St. Augustine Police Department. After his time as sheriff, Shoar served as Director of Investigations for the Woolsey Morcom law firm, a post he still holds. He’ll have an uphill battle defeating Leek, who’s won election to the Florida House of Representatives four times. Leek, James, and Shoar are running to fill the seat of incumbent Senator Travis Hutson, who’s being term-limited out of office after this November’s elections. Leek so far has been endorsed by Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, Congressman Michael Waltz, and several other legislators at both the federal and state level. More recently a string of advertisements have hit the airwaves accusing Leek of being too liberal for the Republican voters of his district. The winner of the GOP primary, so far solely consisting of Leek, Shoar, and James, is currently set to face the lone Democratic candidate in the general election: George ‘T’ Hill II. According to her campaign website, Hill is a transgender woman who left the Republican Party and is not accepting any financial contributions. “I will stand with President Trump, as I did in 2016, and again in 2020, to stop illegal immigration, combat Biden’s inflation and get our insurance costs under control,” Shoar said in comments reported by conservative news outlet Florida’s Voice. “Together, we will restore a sense of law and justice in our country.” A quote from Leek published in the Daytona Beach News-Journal paints Shoar in a lighter shade of red. “David Shoar is employed by the very billboard personal injury law firm who is behind The Truth Matters political committee that has leveled more than $2 million in attack ads against me in recent weeks,” Leek said, referencing the aforementioned attack ads and Shoar’s employer. “His dubious claim he is unaware that these Democrat-funded attacks are emanating from his law firm would make him the only person in St. Johns County unaware of it. If the truth mattered, David Shoar would admit he’s doing the liberal Democrats’ bidding.”