TALLAHASSEE — A Republican candidate for the Florida House spent years involved with a group identified as a white supremacist organization and in 2017 attended the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
Marshall Rawson, a 34-year-old from Bradford County, seems all but certain to win a seat in the heavily GOP-leaning district come November — an election that also offers voters the chance to elect Florida’s first Black governor.
Rawson has dismissed criticisms of his involvement in the League of the South, which the Anti-Defamation League identifies as a neo-Confederate white supremacist group. He said he was involved with the group a decade ago, and said his Republican primary opponent was the reasonhis involvement was being resurfaced.
In a text, Rawson said he attended the Charlottesville rally to defend the statue of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, which the city council intended to remove. The council’s plan to remove the statues is what ignited the right-wing groups to rally.
He also directed the Times/Herald to a statement he posted on Facebook in which he decried “defenders of historical monuments” being called racists.
Video and photos obtained by the progressive news outlet Talking Points Memo show Rawson hugging and shaking hands with some attendees.
Another picture captures him standing in a crowd that includes James Alex Fields Jr., who was later sentenced to life in prison for hate crimes after he drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at the Charlottesville event, injuring dozens and killing a woman.
“We arrived late on the second day after the march and after police dispersed a riot,” Rawson said in a text. “Pictures are of us and a large group walking back to the parking lot.”
Rawson, in response to questions about his presence at the rally, said he will “continue to fight for affordability for all Floridians” and that he will “defend the natural beauty and heritage of our great state.”
After winning his August GOP primary with about 55% of the vote, Rawson seems likely to win his race in November against Democrat Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson for Florida House District 10. The seat covers rural, deeply red parts of the state, including Columbia, Baker, Union and Bradford counties, along with the rural northern part of Alachua County.
In 2020, President Donald Trump won the district with 70% of the vote.
The head of the Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Fried, on Wednesday referred to Rawson as a “Republican candidate for higher office marching alongside Nazis.” She called on prominent state Republicans like Gov. Ron DeSantis and gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds to denounce Rawson’s behavior.
Spokespeople for Donalds and DeSantis did not immediately return a request for comment. Nor did a spokesperson for the Republican Party of Florida.
“Republicans need to take a stand,” Fried said in a statement. “Either they give a home to extremists in their party or they root it out once and for all.”
Previous social media posts on Rawson’s page show his admiration for Confederate soldiers. Rawson, a member of the Florida State Guard, in a 2024 post said it was “no coincidence” that he received his deployment orders on Confederate Memorial Day.
“It is a daily honor and privilege to have the family heritage that I do,” Rawson said, ending his post with “Deo Vindice,” the inscription on the Great Seal of the Confederacy.
Rawson has been a longtime conservative political activist. He was a former legal aide for Secretary of State Cord Byrd, according to Florida Politics. Rawson’s website also shows he was endorsed by former U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho.
On social media, he said his involvement in the League of the South was from 2013 to 2016 and was focused on demonstrating against immigration policy, anti-gay marriage activism and Confederate monuments.
But Florida Politics reported that a flyer from a 2021 Florida League of the South event that included the phrase “succession is coming!” showed Rawson listed as one of the participants.
Talking Points Memo also reported that several people with extremist ties donated to Rawson’s campaign, including Michael Tubbs, who pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges. Prosecutors in that case said he sold stolen weapons to white supremacy groups and planned on targeting Black and Jewish-owned businesses, according to NBC News.
Another donor to the campaign, Sam Dickson, is a lawyer who represented members of the Ku Klux Klan like David Duke. Dickson, in an interview with Talking Points Memo, said Rawson personally asked him to provide a donation. Dickson said Rawson made clear to him that “he’s taking a stand against discrimination against white people,” according to Talking Points Memo.
On social media, Rawson said the news outlet was “attempting to play gotcha games” by looking into the campaign donors.
“Many of our contributors I know personally. Many I do not,” Rawson said on social media. “Any contributor to or supporter of our campaign understands that they are supporting our agenda, not the other way around.”