Anthony Sabatini - Wikiwand

Anthony Frank Sabatini (born October 20, 1988) is an American politician, attorney, and military officer serving as a Lake County commissioner since 2024; representing the 1st district. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2018 to 2022 and as a city commissioner for Eustis, Florida from 2017 to 2018. He is well known for his staunch support of President Donald Trump.^[2]^[3]

Quick Facts Member of the Lake County Commission from the 1st district, Preceded by ...

Anthony Sabatini
Official portrait, 2024

Member of the Lake County Commission from the 1st district
Incumbent
Assumed office November 5, 2024
Preceded by	Doug Shields
Chair of the Lake County Republican Party
In office December 2022 – December 2024
Preceded by	Walter Price
Succeeded by	Taylor Yarkosky
Member of the Florida House of Representatives from the 32nd district
In office November 6, 2018 – November 8, 2022
Preceded by	Larry Metz
Succeeded by	Thad Altman
Member of the Eustis City Commission from Seat 2
In office January 1, 2017 – April 30, 2018
Succeeded by	Michael Holland

Personal details
Born	Anthony Frank Sabatini (1988-10-20) October 20, 1988 (age 36) Smithtown, New York, U.S.
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Francheska Sabatini
Residence	Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida^[1]
Education	University of Florida (BA, JD)
Occupation	Politician lawyer soldier
Website	Official website
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch/service	United States Army
Rank	Captain
Unit	Florida Army National Guard

Born in Smithtown, New York in 1988, Sabatini moved with his family to Florida the following year. In 2012, he graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and history and earned his Juris Doctor from the Levin College of Law in 2017. After beginning his legal career, Sabatini was elected to the Eustis City Commission in 2016, serving until his resignation to run for the Florida House of Representatives in 2018. During his tenure in the State House, he supported term limits and gun rights, while opposing red light cameras and gender reassignment surgery for minors.

In 2022, he was the runner-up in Florida's 7th congressional district Republican primary, losing to Cory Mills. In December 2022, Sabatini was elected chair of the Lake County Republican party.

In August 2024, Sabatini defeated incumbent Republican Doug Shields in the Lake County Commission's 1st district election and assumed office on November 5, 2024.

Early life and education

Sabatini was born in Smithtown, New York, in 1988 and moved with his family to Florida the following year.^[4] In a high school photo, Sabatini and a friend were pictured in blackface.^[5]^[6] In his freshman year of college, he was photographed in brownface.^[7]^[8] He earned bachelor's degrees in philosophy and history from the University of Florida in 2012 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law in 2017.^[9]

Career

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Perspective

Sabatini is an infantry officer in the Florida Army National Guard. He was appointed to the City of Eustis Code Enforcement Board and later elected to the Eustis City Commission in 2016 and resigned from the office on April 30, 2018, to focus on his campaign for the Florida House of Representatives.^[10]^[11]

Florida House of Representatives (2018–2022)

Sabatini's official portraits during his first (left) and second (right) terms in the Florida legislature

Sabatini defeated Monica Wofford and Shannon Elswick, to win the August 28, 2018 Republican primary, winning 46.7% of the vote.^[12] In the November 6, 2018 general election, Sabatini defeated Democrat Cynthia Brown, taking 56.48% of the vote.^[13]^[14]

In 2019, Sabatini proposed amendments to make the Swamp Restaurant in Gainesville a landmark to protect it from demolition.^[15]^[16] The restaurant was temporarily closed, but not demolished, and eventually returned.^[17]

On January 13, 2020, Sabatini introduced HB 1365, which would have made it a felony for doctors to provide hormone therapy or gender reassignment surgery for transgender minors.^[18]

In 2020, Sabatini introduced legislation allowing Floridians with valid concealed carry licensed to carry firearms on public colleges and universities.^[19]^[20]^[21]

Sabatini has sponsored legislation to enshrine eight-year term limits for Florida's school boards.^[22]^[23]^[24]^[25]

Sabatini has introduced legislation to ban red light cameras in Florida.^[26]^[27]^[28]

2022 U.S. House campaign

On March 8, 2021, Sabatini announced that he would challenge incumbent Republican representative Daniel Webster for Florida's 11th congressional district. He later suggested he might not wind up running against Webster due to redistricting.^[29] On June 7, 2021, he announced he would challenge incumbent Democratic representative Stephanie Murphy for Florida's 7th congressional district due to redistricting.^[30]

Sabatini lost the 2022 Republican primary to Cory Mills in August 2022.^[31]

2024 U.S House campaign

In April 2023, Sabatini declared his candidacy for the U.S House of Representatives, again challenging Daniel Webster for the Republican nomination for Florida's 11th congressional district.^[32] He withdrew from the race in June 2024 after Donald Trump endorsed Webster.^[33]

Lake County Republican Party (2022–2024)

In December 2022, Sabatini was elected chair of the Lake County Republican Party.^[34]

In December 2024, he stepped down as county party chair and endorsed Carey Baker for the position, who was defeated by Taylor Yarkosky.^[1] Following a February 2025 county party meeting in which Florida Highway Patrol officers removed new county party members, Sabatini criticized Yarkosky's leadership and called for a new county party chair.^[35]

Lake County Commission (2024–present)

In August 2024, Sabatini was elected to the Lake County Commission, defeating incumbent Republican Doug Shields.^[36]

Political positions

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Perspective

Gun rights

Sabatini has supported constitutional carry legislation to allow Floridians to carry concealed firearms without first acquiring a permit. Sabatini described permit requirements as a requirement for persons "to beg government permission and pay money for the exercise of their fundamental God-given right."^[37] Sabatini introduced constitutional carry legislation in 2020, 2021, and 2022; the legislation was endorsed by Republican governor Ron DeSantis but did not pass the Republican-controlled legislature; Sabatini criticized several fellow Republicans for failing to back the bill.^[38]^[39]

Black Lives Matter protests

In response to the protests following the murder of George Floyd, Sabatini posted a tweet that suggested that protesters who unlawfully enter businesses would be met with an AR-15 rifle; he posted a similar suggestion on his Facebook page with the caption "Don't Tread on Me".^[40] The sentiment was widely condemned, with Florida State Representative Cindy Polo deriding it as "clearly inflammatory" and "inciting violence".^[41] Nikki Fried, Florida Agriculture Commissioner, called for Sabatini to be reprimanded. House Speaker José Oliva found no "direct or preemptive threat" in Sabatini's comments and did not take punitive actions.^[42] Sabatini also drew criticism from Florida state senator Shevrin Jones for referring to Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis as "disgusting, lawless thugs" in a tweet calling for their arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment.^[43]

During the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, following the shooting and death of three men in Kenosha, WI, Sabatini tweeted "KYLE RITTENHOUSE FOR CONGRESS."^[44]

"Cancel culture" and the media

Sabatini has made multiple critical statements of "cancel culture", tweeting that, "If Socrates was out philosophizing in American society today, he would be cancelled real quick".^[45] He has called for repealing Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, arguing that it allows online platforms to remove conservative perspectives.^[46]

COVID-19

In July 2020, a Florida resident filed an ethics complaint against Sabatini in connection with his involvement in several mask mandate lawsuits.^[47] The complaint was in response to a press release about the lawsuit that printed Sabatini's official House email address as the press contact and alleged that this violates a Florida State Statute about misuse of public position.^[47]

Sabatini has filed at least 14 lawsuits during the COVID-19 pandemic challenging local ordinances requiring the use of face coverings.^[48] On September 2, 2020, he received his sixth loss from the filed suits that have so far been heard.^[49]

Donald Trump

Sabatini has proposed renaming the Florida section of U.S. Route 27 the "President Donald J. Trump Highway".^[50] During Trump's reelection bid announcement in Orlando on June 18, 2019, a rally goer attacked an Orlando Sentinel reporter filming the event. The reporter tweeted the encounter, to which Sabatini replied "MAGA". for which he was again criticized for supporting violence.^[51]

Sabatini has repeatedly supported Republican attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden. He has repeated disproven conspiracy theories about the election, and has called for audits of the results in Hillsborough County, Miami-Dade County, Broward County, Palm Beach County, and Orange County.^[52]

Following the FBI's August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago, Sabatini said Florida should "sever all ties with DOJ immediately" and added that "any FBI agent conducting law enforcement functions outside the purview of our State should be arrested upon sight".^[53]

Supreme Court

Sabatini criticized President Joe Biden's pledge to nominate a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court following Justice Stephen Breyer's announcement that he would retire, tweeting, "Biden MUST be impeached for his anti-white racist exclusion of any white nominee to the Supreme Court".^[54]^[55]

Francisco Franco

In 2022, Sabatini quoted Spanish dictator Francisco Franco on Twitter, tweeting that “I answer only to God and to History.” In response to criticism of Sabatini's tweet, Sabatini posted a picture of Franco with President Dwight Eisenhower and stated that critics of his tweet were "extremely un-American."^[56]