Debbie Mayfield says Cord Byrd slow-walked disqualifying her from Special Election ballot

Rep. Debbie Mayfield is firing back at Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd in court as she continues to fight to appear on the ballot in a Special Election in SD 19.

Mayfield petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to intervene, arguing the State Department overstepped by disqualifying her when no one else had legally challenged her candidacy.

She continues to make the case for the high court quickly reinstating her to the ballot; timing matters, as Brevard County mails out ballots to military and overseas voters Friday.

The newest Mayfield motion was filed in response to attorneys for Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd defending disqualifying her from the ballot. Mayfield says that Byrd’s Office should have informed her earlier of a potential qualification issue related to having served eight years in the Senate already.

“On the merits of Mayfield’s eligibility, the Secretary’s interpretation of Section 4 is wrong. As explained in the Petition, the plain wording and intent of Section 4 is to prohibit incumbents from running for re-election to an office they have held for the preceding eight years. Moreover, it is not true that if Mayfield were elected to SD 19 she would serve twelve consecutive years in that office. She has not been in that office since her term ended in 2024,” the filing to the Florida Supreme Court reads.

The Division of Elections rejected Mayfield’s candidacy in Senate District 19 because she already served in the seat for eight consecutive years, including most of 2024. She was elected to the House in November.

Despite the interregnum between her election and the upcoming Special Election, the state’s attorneys argue that running again would violate term limit rules on lawmakers running for an office they have already held for eight consecutive years.

Mayfield’s lawyers say the move disenfranchises voters in SD 19 and denies Mayfield’s right to be a candidate. They also contend that Mayfield wasn’t given a window in which she could dispute the state’s position.

“In support of his argument for rolling back the availability of quo warranto relief, the Secretary suggests Mayfield could have pursued declaratory and injunctive relief in circuit court. However, until the Secretary made a determination on Feb. 5, 2025 that Mayfield was not qualified, any effort by her to obtain declaratory or injunctive relief in circuit court would have been dismissed for lack of ripeness,” the filing maintains.

Mayfield takes a similar position regarding the state contention that she should have preemptively sought an advisory opinion regarding her eligibility from the Division of Elections. Her attorneys claim she was “confident” that she was a qualified candidate, and that the Division was under no obligation to offer a “timely” opinion.

The filing also argues that it’s “clear” that Section 4 of the constitution, which the state argues precludes her eligibility, was not intended to apply to a non-incumbent.

“The ballot summary for the amendment resulting in Section 4 stated the amendment “(l)imits terms by prohibiting incumbents who have held the same elective office for the preceding eight years from appearing on the ballot for re-election to that office.”

Mayfield served in the Senate from 2016 to 2024, and could not seek another term in November due to term limits. She instead ran for and won a seat in the House last cycle representing House District 32.

But when Sen. Randy Fine, her successor in the Senate, resigned to run for Congress, Mayfield announced she would seek her old Senate seat in a Special Election. She had already submitted an irrevocable resignation from the House when the state disqualified her.

Currently qualified candidates include former Melbourne City Council member Tim Thomas; Marcie Adkins, who challenged Fine for his House seat in 2020; and Mark Lightner III, a University of North Florida business graduate and Brevard County native.

Mayfield has claimed the state is punishing her for her support of Donald Trump in the Presidential Primary in 2024 against Gov. Ron DeSantis. She says the Florida Department of State has been weaponized against her.

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Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics contributed to this report.

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