Screenshot courtesy The Florida Channel: Eddie Speir testifies at the Florida Senate.

Nearly every cycle, U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan must fight off a halfway threatening electoral opponent. This time around, the nine-term incumbent faces a red monster of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ creation.

Eddie Speir, the now-former trustee for New College of Florida, filed to challenge Buchanan in a Republican primary. The founder of Inspiration Academy would not have any platform for such a run but that DeSantis made him the local face of a hostile university takeover.

Now, don’t misinterpret this. I neither think Speir poses a tremendous threat to Buchanan nor that DeSantis groomed Speir to take on the Republican co-chair of Florida’s Congressional Delegation. And while it’s tempting to ignore this, DeSantis elevated Speir months before Buchanan publicly snubbed the Governor by endorsing Donald Trump for President.

Yet here we are. Speir’s brief stint as one of six new DeSantis trustees at New College put him the center of a national news story with enormous local ramifications. With a perpetual presence in the region as a bona fide Bradenton resident, he earned disproportionate mentions in area headlines.

It started with the controversial town hall alongside new trustee Chris Rufo where the two started publicly calling to fire administrators. It continued as Speir blogged his wildest fantasies about New College on Substack, fantasizing about firing the entire New College faculty and hiring back only the ones new trustees deemed worthy. He demanded a new president and counsel for the school — and got those. And he stayed controversial by lurking the campus near daily proselytizing his Christian worldview on a public university campus.

Yet these antics proved too much even in a political environment where ties to DeSantis make even the most controversial figures invulnerable to consequence. The Florida Senate, which this year signed off on a Florida Surgeon General who manipulated science to support anti-vaxxer theories, refused to take up Speirs nomination. Rufo, who mocks students on Twitter during trustee board meetings, was confirmed.

Speir suggested Corcoran, a former Florida House Speaker, turned lawmakers against him because the trustee spent too much time on campus. I suspect Speir did himself the disservice of driving to Tallahassee and letting senators meet him. That this courtesy poisoned the well in the Capitol portends badly how a campaign will go. 

DeSantis appointed Speir once, but given the opportunity did not put him back on the trustee board, he chose to move on.

Speir left the situation without his trustee seat, but gained plenty of name ID. In today’s post-Donald Trump, there’s political capital in becoming notorious. More, Speir now bears the brand of an enemy of the establishment.

If liberals are addicted to victimhood, conservatives hold the same proclivity for martyrdom. Speir’s crucifixion by Tallahassee elite have him an audience to hear his plight, a donor base of those who hate power enough to bet against it, and a notoriety unknown before his appointment.

Persecution now drips from Speir’s Substack now as he attacks the incumbent.

“When I think of our current Congressman, Vern Buchanan, I can’t tell the difference between him and the rest of the Washington elite,” Speir wrote. “Vern Buchanan has been in Congress since 2007. And in these last 16 years, we have witnessed a shocking erosion of our individual rights and liberties. Where has Vern Buchanan been?”

I’ll leave it to the House Ways and Means Vice Chair to inform voters of his accomplishments. After mincing past primary opponents like Martin Hyde and James Satcher, it’s unlikely Speir will pose a greater threat.

But no one should forget what raised this nuisance to the size it could gnaw on Buchanan’s heels.

Jacob Ogles is contributing senior editor to SRQ MEDIA.

Screenshot courtesy The Florida Channel: Eddie Speir testifies at the Florida Senate.