Lucas Overby to be lone challenger to David Jolly as Democrat drops out of race

Due to an unforeseen set of circumstances in the last two days, Libertarian Congressional Candidate Lucas Overby, who had originally intended to wait until 2016 to run for the Congressional District 13 (CD–13) seat here in Florida, announced Friday afternoon (May 2) he would in fact enter the race for Congressin this November’s election.

Libertarian Lucas Overby

With Wednesday’s unexpected withdrawal of the Democratic Candidate Manuel Sykes from November’s CD–13 contest, Overby and his team felt the relatively unpopular Republican David Jolly should not go unchallenged this fall. After the deadline for a Democrat to file for election had passed Friday afternoon, Overby publicly announced his campaign for CD–13.

During the special election held in Congressional District 13 (CD–13), covering the majority of Pinellas County, Libertarian Congressional Candidate Lucas Overby gained a lot of recognition and respect from his constituents in his district. Thousands of supporters verbally promised to support Overby over Democrat Alex Sink and Republican David Jolly in the March 11 Special Election.

However, establishment Republicans campaigned hard the last weekend before the race, using the cliche “lesser of two evils argument”, trying to scare constituents into believing voting for Overby would sweep Sink into office. Karl Rove commissioned Rand Paul to record a robocall on Jolly’s behalf, specifically targeting the 20,000 voters most likely to support Overby in the Special Election. By Tuesday, bringing a 15 percent in increase in support for David Jolly in the last two days of the election, and leaving Overby with a disappointing (though respectable through outsiders eyes) five percent of the vote.

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About the Author

Brian Cole - Brian C. Cole expanded his writing talents for Examiner.com. Politically Brian discovered the Libertarian Party and its commitment to free markets, free trade, social tolerance and non-intervention abroad. Currently, Brian serves as the Region 8 Representative to the Libertarian Party of Florida for Hernando, Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas Counties. He also works as Vice-Chairman for the Libertarian Party of Hillsborough County. Passionate about rugby Brian became one of the players for the Tampa Bay Krewe Rugby and writes regularly about Florida rugby events. Brian is a huge music fan, preferring songs that utilize actual instruments over the computer-generated tracks that tend to dominate too many of the mainstream radio stations today. He updates fans on different music events, especially in the central Florida area.