Austin Rogers may shift from advising U.S. Sen. Rick Scott to running for Congress himself. Sources close to Rogers, the General Counsel for Sen. Rick Scott, confirmed he is exploring a run to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn in Florida’s 2nd Congressional District. The Lynn Haven Republican and Panama City native has worked for Scott.
The Federalist Society member holds both a law degree and a master’s in Theology from Duke University, where he also served on the Duke Law Journal and Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy.
Before graduate school, he earned a bachelor’s in International Business in 2012 from Lakeland-based Southeastern University, then pursued a second degree in Theology from Wheaton College.
After clerking in the Middle District of Florida for Chief Judge Steven D. Merryday, Rogers worked for international law firm White & Chase, then took a job working on Capitol Hill.
He started work in 2023 as Senior Counsel of Oversight and Investigations for the Senate Judiciary Committee when it was chaired by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, and rose to Chief Counsel within four months. He continued working for the Committee under its new Chair, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, and stayed there until taking a job with Scott last July.
He has been an active bar member in Washington, where he is also a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association and active in his local church.
Dunn announced last week that he would not seek re-election at the end of his fifth term.
Rogers, if he runs, will enter a rapidly crowding Republican Party field that already posts a couple of heavy hitters.
Republican Party of Florida Chair Evan Power, a Tallahassee Republican, filed for the seat last week. So did Keith Gross, another attorney who previously challenged Scott in a Republican Primary for his Senate seat in 2024.
