Miami
Former HD 94 Democratic hopeful says he will not back Elizabeth Holmes
Bobby Eugene Williams Jr., who sought the seat and now lists himself as a 2028 contender, said he will not work for this year’s Democratic nominee. He did say he plans to help José Javier Rodríguez in the Attorney General race.
Bobby Eugene Williams Jr., a West Palm Beach pastor and Palm Beach County School District paraprofessional, is distancing himself from Elizabeth Holmes in the race for Florida House District 94.
According to Florida Politics, Williams filed to run for the seat on Feb. 10 but did not qualify in June. His campaign website now presents him as a candidate for the 2028 cycle.
In a post on X, Williams said he will not support Holmes and that he is completely opposed to her holding the position. The comment came in reply to Nikki Barnes, a Tallahassee progressive and former Florida member of the Democratic National Committee, who had urged him to get involved now in canvassing events and voter outreach in the district.
Williams answered that he is already active in the community where he intends to run. Later, when Barnes asked about Democratic Attorney General candidate José Javier Rodríguez, Williams said he believes Rodríguez will win and that he will make calls and speak with voters for that campaign.
That means Williams is willing to work for a Democrat this fall, but not for the Democrat running for the seat he once sought himself.
Florida Politics also noted that it previously reported on Oct. 3 that Holmes, a teacher at William T. Dwyer High School, told students they could earn community service hours by sharing her campaign posts on Facebook. The district’s Office of Professional Standards opened a file and later closed it without finding a violation.
The outlet further reported on Oct. 7 that a 2008 Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office report says Holmes threw a soda at a man at the Mall at Wellington Green and later sent him an anti-gay slur by text. According to that report, she told a deputy she had sent the message.
Holmes is running against Republican Meg Weinberger and no-party candidate Doug Barrow. State filings cited by Florida Politics showed Weinberger with about $117,000 in her campaign account, compared with $2,000 for Holmes and about $8,000 for Barrow.
House District 94 includes Acreage, Loxahatchee, Loxahatchee Groves, Westlake, parts of Royal Palm Beach and Palm Beach Gardens, and the Glades. Florida Politics reported that Republicans hold an active voter registration edge over Democrats there, 46,302 to 38,721, with another 29,317 voters registered with no party. The outlet also said Donald Trump carried the district by nearly 10 points in 2024 and that Weinberger won the seat that year with 55% of the vote against Democrat Rachelle Litt.
Sources
About this piece. Written by El Notero with AI assistance, from reporting published by the outlet cited above. El Notero did no original reporting on this story.
