https://www.facebook.com/110047718058030/

Jon Ward, MD, Panama City, FL (2026)

06/15/2026

Well the Facebook poll results are in and you all have us a two way tie at 344 votes a piece for Austin Rogers and Luke Murphy each at 38%, Jim Norton in third with 170 votes or 19%, and in a very distant 4th and 5th both at 2% with just about 20 votes apiece- Keith Gross and Evan Power.

Now the honest caveat about a Facebook poll. It is heavily influenced by the social media presence of the candidates and the followers of the original post. So likely understated is the support of the candidates I’ve been somewhat critical of and overstated the ones I’ve been more positive about, but it does show genuine support for the candidates with significant votes.

I’d encourage everyone to read the comments from the candidate supporters on that post to learn more about what those closer to the candidates think about their pick. Those endorsements matter just as much as mine. I’m close to making a decision, hopefully later this week or early next week!

06/11/2026

Here’s a great video highlighting some facts I uncovered about Keith Gross - candidate for FL-2. Please share with all your friends and family. All they need to remember- “If it smells gross, throw it away.”

06/04/2026

Hey friends- I wanted to give everyone an update on why I haven’t posted on schedule for my endorsement. To be honest, my research has caused me to engage with the candidates and their campaigns in open dialogue. I am definitely down to three of the five. I will make an endorsement soon.

Second- my dad had a sudden medical emergency this week so my attention has been directed elsewhere. He’s going to be fine and has nearly fully recovered, but it’s just one of life’s curveballs and my focus has been elsewhere.

Last- the hospital I’ve been involved with has a huge deadline for a state and federal grant application that would be transformative for North Walton County. It’s crunch time… and it’s due on June 10th.

Given all of these factors - the earliest I’ll be ready to make an endorsement is June 13th and it will probably be closer to June 20th.

Appreciate y’all’s patience and understanding!

05/28/2026

Luke Murphy — Candidate Series, No. 5

Closing out the candidate series with Murphy’s profile. Norton, Power, and Rogers profiles already up. Same lens for each. After this one, I’ll take some time before sharing my endorsement.

Murphy’s Record as Soldier, Author & Businessman

▪️ Two Iraq combat tours. Purple Heart.
101st Airborne Division.

Led a fire team during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Returned for a second deployment in 2005-2006 as a Staff Sergeant leading a reconnaissance team. Awarded the Purple Heart and multiple Army commendations for service during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

▪️ Recovery from catastrophic combat injury.

April 25, 2006, Sadr City. Staff Sergeant Murphy was leading a reconnaissance team when his Humvee triggered an EFP — the deadlier type of IED, capable of piercing armored vehicles. The blast traumatically amputated his right leg above the knee and severed his left leg in half. Still conscious, Murphy gave orders for the driver to crash into a wall because he knew the vehicle was about to explode. Medical evacuation, Landstuhl, Walter Reed. Endured 30+ surgeries over 12 months. Medically retired in 2007. Subsequently earned an FSU degree in Political Science (2011), ran marathons, and built a public speaking and real estate career.

▪️ Award-winning author and national speaker.

Co-author of Blasted by Adversity: The Making of a Wounded Warrior (2015), which won the Florida Authors & Publishers Association Gold Medal President’s Book Award. Endorsed by Gens. Stan McChrystal and Richard Cody — two of the most respected military leaders of his generation. Speaks for Fortune 500 companies, the Pentagon, and university commencement audiences.

▪️ Florida real estate broker. Multiple professional roles.

Partner at Southern Land Realty (Tallahassee), specializing in working farms and recreational lands. Also works at Mid Florida Prosthetics and Orthotics coordinating care for amputees and orthotic patients. Active national keynote speaker.

▪️ Q1 2026 fundraising: $135K, no self-funding.

Raised $135,410.13 between January 1 and March 31, 2026 — essentially all of it in the six weeks after his February 11 candidacy filing. 100% from individual contributions. No party committee money, no PAC money, no candidate self-loans. $130,561 cash on hand entering Q2. A grassroots-style fundraising profile in a field where other candidates have leaned heavily on self-funding or institutional money.

▪️ No elected office, public agency leadership, or legislative staff experience.

Murphy’s professional record is personal accomplishment — military service, business ownership, speaking career, and advocacy for wounded veterans. He has not held elected office at any level, served on legislative staff, or led a public agency. Voters weighing the federal role can decide how much pre-existing governance experience they want their representative to bring to Washington.

What’s on his side.

Genuine combat hero with a documented record of post-injury accomplishment. Author of an award-winning memoir endorsed by some of the most respected military leaders of his generation. Built and runs a real estate business in Tallahassee. Opened for Donald Trump at a 2015 campaign rally; recognized by Gov. Rick Scott in his 2015 inauguration speech for entrepreneurial spirit and post-injury recovery. The grassroots fundraising profile — all individual donors, no party or PAC money, no self-funding — suggests a base built person by person.

Endorsement coming. Same lens applied across all five candidates.

05/26/2026

Austin Rogers — Candidate Series, No. 4

Working through the FL-2 Republican field one candidate at a time. Same lens for each. Norton and Power profiles already up. This is Rogers. Murphy Thursday. Fundraising comparison and my own vote announcement coming after all four profiles.

Rogers’s Record as Senate Counsel & First-Time Candidate

▪️ Genuine Bay County roots.

Mosley High alumnus. Third-generation Panhandle on his father’s side.
Rogers is a Panama City native and Mosley High School graduate. His father, Capt. Clark Rogers, was a USAF Thunderbirds Solo pilot from 1992 to 1994 and now trains pilots at Tyndall Air Force Base. His mother taught at Lynn Haven and South Port elementary schools. The biographical foundation for a Panhandle campaign is real.

▪️ Elite academic credentials.

Duke Law, Wheaton theology, Southeastern undergrad.

BA in International Business from Southeastern University (Lakeland, 2012), where he played college soccer. Second BA in Theology from Wheaton College. Law degree and MA in Theology from Duke University. Clerked for Chief Judge Steven D. Merryday, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Then practiced at the international law firm White & Case before moving to Capitol Hill.

▪️ Federal experience and legal scholarship.

Chief Civil Counsel, Senate Judiciary Committee, then General Counsel to Sen. Rick Scott.

Joined the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2023 as Senior Counsel for Oversight and Investigations under then-Chairman Lindsey Graham. Subsequently promoted to Chief Civil Counsel. Moved to Sen. Rick Scott’s office as General Counsel from June 2025 to February 2026.

Published First Amendment scholarship in Duke Law Journal and Marquette Law Review, with a forthcoming article in Florida Law Review. The Washington literacy and legal credentials are real.

▪️ Trump-aligned positioning. America First, border security, law enforcement framing.

Public campaign rhetoric anchored in border security, law enforcement, military, and America First framing — matched well to the district’s primary electorate. Federalist Society member.

▪️ Q1 2026 FEC filings — Panhandle Patriots PAC. Two donors comprised the entire $2M Q1 super PAC. Both are Austin Rogers’s immediate family.

$1,600,000 from Joseph A. Daou, Rogers’s father-in-law, Clearwater Beach, FL. Lebanese-American businessman, owner of Savis Inc. Daughter Hala Daou MD married Austin Rogers March 5, 2021 (Zola wedding registry).

$400,000 from Clark Rogers, Austin Rogers’s father, Tyndall AFB, Bay County, FL. Former USAF Thunderbirds Solo pilot, 1992–94.

Treasurer in Mountain Brook, Alabama. Bank in McLean, Virginia. Both donors deposited on March 30 — the day before the FEC quarter closed.

▪️ Authorized campaign committee tells a similar story.

Of approximately $725K raised by Rogers’s campaign committee in Q1, $350K is a personal self-loan. Outside the candidate’s own pocket and his immediate family, his entire two-month operation has raised roughly $375K. About 14% of his committee money came from inside FL-2.

▪️ Family money is 87% of the Rogers-orbit total.

Combine the campaign ($725K, 48% self-loan) with the super PAC ($2M, 100% family), and approximately $2.35M of the $2.7M in the Rogers orbit comes from Austin Rogers, his father, and his father-in-law.

▪️ Recent Hill departure.

Worked for Sen. Scott as General Counsel only from June 2025 to February 2026. Eight months on the Senate payroll, then announced a congressional candidacy in his boss’s name fifteen days before the super PAC registered.

▪️ Scott has explicitly not endorsed.

Per Fox News, Scott has stated he has no current plans to endorse anyone in the race. Rogers is running on Scott’s name; Scott has not reciprocated.

▪️ The contradiction.

Panhandle Patriots PAC press release (Feb 20, 2026): support “from Bay County to Lafayette County.” FEC filing (Mar 31, 2026): two donors — one in Bay County (his father), one in Clearwater (his father-in-law).

Luke Murphy profile closes the series Thursday. Same lens.

05/24/2026

Just a little schedule change with the FL-2 Congressional candidate series. A Facebook post scheduling error had my campaign contribution post which was intended for next Friday posted last Friday.

New plan- Austin Rogers on Tuesday, Luke Murphy Thursday. Works better since no one would be paying attention over the Holiday weekend anyway. Endorsement coming in June.

05/22/2026

Friends —

Remember back in the 2010s when people running for Congress had some level of expectation that they would be part of their community, and that they would show their support by raising their campaign money from people who actually live here?

Man, I miss the good old days.

So a few weeks ago, like a lot of you, I started getting flooded with mailers and Facebook ads from candidates running for our open congressional seat in Florida’s 2nd District. And I got curious. I went straight to the public FEC filings (anyone can — it’s all at FEC.gov) and added up where each of the five Republican candidates’ Q1 2026 money is actually coming from. I classified every itemized donor by their mailing address and matched it against our district lines.

Here is what the public record shows.

Of every dollar each candidate raised in Q1 — including the money they loaned themselves to make their totals look bigger — here is the share that actually came from real donors living inside FL-2:

• Jim Norton — 85.5% from inside the district. $224,866 from 211 donors across 12 of our 14 counties. No self-loan.

• Luke Murphy — 81.9% from inside the district. $109,064 from 68 donors, almost all concentrated in the Tallahassee area. No self-loan.

• Evan Power — 23.2% from inside the district. $73,804 from 45 donors, mostly Tallahassee lobbyists and political consultants. To make the numbers work, Mr. Power loaned his own campaign an additional $150,000.

• Austin Rogers — 12.7% from inside the district. $90,866 from 80 donors. The largest single source of his outside money was $128,000 from a cluster of households in the Chicago, Illinois suburbs. Mr. Rogers loaned his own campaign $350,000.

• Keith Gross — 0.1% from inside the district. $6,750 from five donors. Yes, five. Mr. Gross personally wrote his own campaign a $5,000,000 check on March 30 — part of $5.5 million in self-funding for the quarter. Out of every $1,000 raised by Mr. Gross’s campaign in Q1, one dollar came from someone in our district.

Now, I will admit I am old-fashioned. I keep thinking that a person who wants to represent us in Congress ought to be someone whose neighbors are willing to chip in for their campaign. Someone whose dentist, accountant, real estate agent, and church friends believe in them enough to write a check.

But what do I know? Apparently the modern model is to introduce yourself to the voters by mail, after you’ve already filed the paperwork. And if you can’t find any donors, you just write yourself a check and call it a campaign.

I will have more to share later this week about who I am supporting and why. For now, the public record speaks for itself — even if it does sound a lot like the bad old days that I keep being told are actually the good new ones.

— Jon

05/22/2026

Evan Power — Candidate Series, No. 3

Working through the FL-2 Republican field one candidate at a time. Same lens for each. This is Power. Rogers Monday, Murphy Wednesday. Fundraising comparison and my own vote announcement coming after all four profiles.

Power’s Record as Lobbyist & Party Chair
▪️ 2018 DUI arrest with loaded handgun in vehicle. Tallahassee Police body cam footage. Power refused a breathalyzer.
The case took more than four years to resolve. On March 20, 2023, Power pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of reckless driving. Sentence: six months probation, 50 hours community service — with a handwritten judge’s note offering a $500 buyout in lieu of service. Power’s explanation to the Tallahassee Democrat: “I was tired and a distracted driver and made a mistake.” The arrest video became public in January 2024, eleven days after Power won the RPOF chairmanship, and has accumulated over 935,000 views.
▪️ Running for federal office while remaining state party chair. Not stepping down.
Power has explicitly stated he intends to remain RPOF Chair through January 2027 — throughout the August 2026 primary and the November general election. In March 2026, the RPOF Executive Board passed Rule 33 to formalize fundraising restrictions on the sitting chair while he runs federally. Keith Gross has filed an FEC complaint alleging Power has leveraged the chair position improperly. Florida law requires resignation from many state offices upon qualifying for federal office; the party chair role is not among them.
▪️ Lobbyist for paying clients while seeking Congress. Currently registered with Ramba Consulting Group.
Power has been a Ramba Consulting Group lobbyist since 2016. The firm is among Florida’s top-25 lobbying firms, with approximately 50 paying clients per quarter and roughly $2.5–$2.9 million in annual revenue. Among Ramba’s reported clients: the Florida PACE Funding Agency, Florida Chiropractic Association, Florida Concrete & Products Association, Cellebration MIA, AT&T, Florida Power & Light, Motorola Solutions, and dozens of others. Whether the lobbying activity continues during the federal campaign — and into a potential Congressional term — is the relevant question for voters.
▪️ Took over RPOF after the Ziegler scandal.
Power assumed RPOF chair duties December 17, 2023, after Christian Ziegler’s removal amid sexual battery and video voyeurism allegations. Formally elected January 8, 2024 and subsequently won a full term election.
▪️ Strong institutional Republican endorsements.
Endorsed by U.S. Reps. Aaron Bean, Kat Cammack, Randy Fine, Anna Paulina Luna, and John Rutherford. Endorsed by Florida AG James Uthmeier. Significant fundraising capacity and political network in Tallahassee.
▪️ RNC and partisan organizational experience.
Serves on the Republican National Committee’s Rules, Election Integrity, and Presidential Nomination Process committees. Three-time RNC delegate. Republican Presidential elector in 2024. Florida GOP outraised Democrats and grew its voter registration advantage during his tenure.

What’s on his side.
Twenty years of Florida Republican Party organizational experience. Marco Rubio’s former legislative aide. Helped deliver historic Republican wins in heavily Democratic Leon County, including Corey Simon’s state senate seat — the first time that seat had been held by a Republican since Reconstruction. Strong fundraising network and significant institutional endorsements from Florida and national Republican figures. Considerable familiarity with how Washington works through his lobbying career.

Austin Rogers profile Monday. Same lens.

05/20/2026

Jim Norton — Candidate Series, No. 2

Working through the FL-2 Republican field one candidate at a time. Same lens for each. Last week was Keith Gross. This week, Jim Norton. Fundraising comparison and my own vote announcement coming after all four profiles.

Norton’s Record as Superintendent of Gulf County Schools

▪️ The scale of the job. ~$28.3M annual budget. 262 staff. 1,915 students.

Real executive experience. He has no federal track record. What he says about federal issues right now is what he says; there’s no voting history to compare it against.

▪️ The hurricane rebuild. Category 5 Hurricane Michael, direct hit on Gulf County, October 10, 2018. Schools reopened October 23 — 13 days later.
Wewahitchka High lost part of its roof. Port St. Joe High lost a huge portion of its roof and a skylight. Norton set an aggressive opening target and met it. Elementary schools temporarily housed both elementary and secondary students until the high schools could be rebuilt. Education Week ran a feature on the rebuild. Norton later described Michael as a “real-life rehearsal” for any crisis.

▪️ COVID-19: face-to-face instruction kept as the priority. Limited, strategic closures. No wholesale shutdowns after spring 2020.
In August 2021 Norton said publicly: “Face-to-face instruction is the most effective educational model.” Closures during his tenure were targeted — three days during a September 2021 local case surge, early dismissal before Christmas 2020. Through the statewide spring 2020 closure, the district delivered roughly 1,000 free meals per day to students by bus.

▪️ January 2026 swatting incident. Multi-agency coordinated response. Schools closed the following day for community recovery. No injuries.

▪️ Most recent independent financial assessment: clean. Florida Auditor General Report 2023-085 (FY2022 audit).
No internal control deficiencies. No noncompliance findings. Material compliance with federal awards. The district’s financial statements were “presented fairly, in all material respects.”

▪️ Most recent operational review: mixed, with a recovery. Florida Auditor General Report 2026-031 (October 2025).
Gulf was named among 10 Florida districts that failed to comply with statutory budget transparency requirements for FY2023-24. State district grade history: B (2021-22), B (2022-23), C (2023-24), back to B (2024-25). A single-year drop that has since been recovered.

The Allen Boyd staff role.
Norton was a field rep for U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd (D) from 1997 through July 2003. Boyd was a founding Blue Dog who voted for Iraq War authorization (October 2002) and border security legislation (September 2001) during Norton’s tenure on his staff. Boyd lost his seat in 2010 — seven years after Norton left. Voters can decide how much weight to give a six-year Democratic staff role more than 20 years ago.

What’s on his side.
Fourth-generation Gulf County resident. Appointed by Gov. Rick Scott in 2011. Won five elections since, most unopposed. The longest-serving school superintendent in Florida. Will resign as superintendent at year-end if he qualifies — clean transition, no “running for federal office while keeping the day job.”

Evan Power profile Friday. Same lens.

Jon Ward, MD

06/15/2026

06/11/2026

06/04/2026

05/28/2026

05/26/2026

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