TALLAHASSEE — Yukong Zhao, a GOP candidate for the Seventh Congressional District, has won an injunction bringing him one step closer to having his name on the ballot for the upcoming election in August.
Zhao sued Florida's Secretary of State Laurel Lee in the Second Judicial Circuit Court when he was disqualified from being on the Republican ballot. The Florida Division of Elections said he missed April's filing deadline.
In the lawsuit, Zhao claimed his campaign mailed the paperwork and it arrived before the 10:30 a.m. deadline on April 25, but that elections officials didn't check the mail prior to the deadline. He also argued that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Division of Elections didn't abide by its own emergency actions, which included softening ballot filing rules so that prospective candidates wouldn't have to put their health at risk.
Zhao's campaign said the court ruled in his favor, granting him a temporary injunction, and that the ruling recognized his campaign was "wrongly hampered by bureaucratic red tape."
"Starting immediately, I am back on the campaign trail, where I will continue to advocate for the American Dream, defend the Constitution and fight against the kind of red tape that was used to delay my appearing on the ballot," Zhao stated in a news release.
Mark Ard, spokesmen for Florida Secretary of State, declined to comment since it's still an active case.
A final hearing is scheduled for June 16.
Richard Goble, a financier, and Dr. Leo Valentin, a radiologist, did qualify to have their names appear on the Republican ballot. The winner of the Aug. 18 primary would face the incumbent Rep. Stephanie Murphy in the general election in November.
Zhao is nationally recognized as a Chinese-American civil rights activist and is a businessman in Orlando. He and his team are hoping the court will make a final ruling siding with him, so that his name will officially be put on the ballot.