{"id":314095,"date":"2026-06-20T12:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/314095\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T12:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:46:08","slug":"anthony-bonna-lands-a-huckabee-blessing-as-his-hd-85-endorsement-wall-keeps-rising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/314095\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Bonna lands a Huckabee blessing as his HD 85 endorsement wall keeps rising"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Bonna has another endorsement to staple to the pile \u2014 this one with a national, faith-and-values flavor.<\/p>\n

The Port St. Lucie City Councilman and Republican candidate for House District 85<\/a> announced Friday that he\u2019s earned the backing of Huck PAC<\/a>, the political committee founded by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee \u2014 now Donald Trump\u2019s Ambassador to Israel. The group called Bonna a \u201cpro-life champion\u201d and listed him as one of just two names in its latest endorsement slate, alongside Ohio U.S. Sen. Jon Husted.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo receive the endorsement of Huck PAC is both humbling and encouraging,\u201d Bonna said, crediting Huckabee\u2019swillingness \u201cto speak openly about his faith and convictions for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a tidy add for a candidate who has spent the cycle methodically boxing out the field. A former St. Lucie County Commissioner \u2014 appointed by then-Gov. Rick Scott in 2018 \u2014 and a longtime GOP state committeeman, Bonnaalready claims Scott, term-limited HD 85 incumbent Toby Overdorf<\/a>, Americans for Prosperity Action, Associated Industries of Florida PAC, Florida Realtors PAC<\/a>, Florida Right to Life PAC and a long roster of Treasure Coast badge-and-business names. With Primary Election rival Thomas Colter\u2019s path narrowing, Bonna is running like a man who\u2019d rather lock down August now and spend the fall looking at November.<\/p>\n

He may need the cushion. Democrat Wayne Richter<\/a>, a Stuart criminal-defense attorney, filed for the open seat and posted a not-nothing $82,000 in his first month \u2014 proof national Democrats would love to make a Martin\u2013St. Lucie stretch competitive. The seat leans Republican, and Overdorf has held it comfortably since 2018. But \u201cleans\u201d is doing some work in a midterm where the top of the ticket is unsettled, and Richter\u2019s early haul is the kind of number that gets a district penciled onto somebody\u2019s target list.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

For now, Bonna keeps stacking. The Huckabee nod won\u2019t move many votes in a GOP-friendly Treasure Coast district, but it reinforces the lane he\u2019s running in \u2014 pro-life, anti-spending, law-and-order \u2014 and hands him another logo for the mailers. In a race that may be decided less by persuasion than by who clears the Primary Election upright, that\u2019s rather the point.<\/p>\n

The Primary Election is Aug. 18. The General Election is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

Ed. note: This story was drafted with assistance from AI. Editorial judgment, sourcing, and final review were performed by Peter Schorsch and the Florida Politics editorial team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Bonna has another endorsement to staple to the pile \u2014 this one with a national, faith-and-values flavor.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-314095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}