TALLAHASSEE — Leon Circuit Judge Lee Marsh July 17 dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit seeking to knock U.S. Rep. Cory Mills off the ballot, ruling that the challenge to the Republican congressman’s qualification paperwork does not provide a legal basis for the court to intervene in the election.
In an oral ruling from the bench, Marsh said the case ultimately turns on the limits of judicial authority and the role Florida law assigns to election officials. He rejected arguments from GOP primary challenger Michael Johnson and attorney Gavin Rollins of the Sabatini Law Firm that alleged defects in Mills’ candidate oath should invalidate his qualification for the Aug. 18 Republican primary.
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Bale Dalton is a Democrat running for U.S. Congress in Florida’s 7th District in 2026.
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“Ultimately, the voters get to decide who they want to represent them in the United States Congress,” Marsh said. “At this point, the voters may look behind this. They can look behind a lot of things, and they can make their choice.”
Johnson told USA TODAY Network Florida in a text that he will appeal.
“We cannot let people get away with violating Florida notary laws, elections forms, and legal requirements,” Johnson wrote in the text.
Republican congressional candidate Mike Johnson speaks to the Tiger Bay Club of Volusia County on June 11, 2026, at the Halifax River Yacht Club in Daytona Beach, Fla. He is running in Florida’s 7th District, covering southern Volusia and all of Seminole counties.
What did Cory Mills allegedly do wrong?
To qualify as a congressional candidate, Mills submitted documents including a candidate oath that was signed and stamped by a legal notary public. In this case, Alejandro Blair, a Florida notary public and the chief of staff to Florida Congressman Greg Steube.
Johnson is contending Mills and Blair were in Washington on June 4, the date of the notarization, and that Blair is not a legal notary public in the District of Columbia.
Circuit Judge Lee Marsh is running for re-election to his spot on the 2nd Judicial Circuit bench.
Marsh said the controlling issue is the language adopted by the Florida Legislature. He concluded the law, Section 99.021 of Florida Statutes, and precedent requires candidates to file paperwork certifying they meet constitutional and statutory qualifications for office.
The statute assigns the Secretary of State to review and certify qualification documents.
Marsh specifically declined to expand the statute to authorize courts to look behind qualification paperwork and determine whether an alleged defect in a notarial act disqualifies a candidate from office. The Legislature, he said, assigned election officials the responsibility for accepting qualification documents, and the court could not create additional requirements that do not appear in the statutory language.
Who is challenging Cory Mills in the Republican primary?
Rollins, who represented Johnson in the hearing, works for the law firm headed by former state legislator Anthony Sabatini, who lost to Mills in the 2022 GOP congressional primary.
Marsh dismissed the complaints with prejudice; finding any further proceedings would be futile, signaling that the plaintiffs had no viable legal path to refile the case in circuit court.
U.S. Rep. Cory Mills testifies during a hearing in a Columbia County courtroom on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. Mills’ ex-girlfriend Lindsey Langston, a Republican state committeewoman and the reigning Miss United States, sought a restraining order against Mills.
Mills represents Florida’s 7th District, covering southern Volusia and Seminole counties. He is being challenged in the Aug. 18 Republican primary by three candidates: former television news anchor Ryan Elijah of Sanford; Port Orange businesswoman Sarah Ulrich; and Johnson, a retired Department of Defense executive who lives in Altamonte Springs and ran unsuccessfully against Mills in 2024.
Mills is endorsed by President Donald Trump and is facing an ethics investigation in the House covering a range of issues, including the 2025 temporary restraining order in Columbia County barring him from contacting an ex-girlfriend who alleged he threatened to release sex videos if she didn’t get back together with him.
The ruling marks a significant victory for Mills, who had asked the court to throw out the challenge and allow his reelection campaign to proceed uninterrupted.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Judge dismisses effort to disqualify Florida congressman from primary