U.S. Rep. Brian Mast won't face Gold Star mother Karen Vaughn in GOP primary

Stuart Gold Star mother and Republican activist Karen Vaughn will not mount an Aug. 28 primary challenge against U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City.

"At this time, my family and I have decided that it would not be in the best interest of our community to push forward with a political campaign with just a little over four months to go until the Republican primary," Vaughn said in a statement to TCPalm late Tuesday.

On April 4, Vaughn told TCPalm she was considering running because many people in District 18 — representing Martin, St. Lucie and northern Palm Beach counties — had approached her to challenge Mast because of his voting record and policy positions.

"I have been humbled by the outpouring of support," Vaughn said in the release. "Constituents of (the district) have been reaching out to me since August 2017, asking me to challenge Mast in the 2018 primary based on their displeasure with many of his votes since taking office."

Second Amendment

A major factor in the race, Vaughn said, is Mast's recent decision to call for a moratorium of AR-15 sales, which has drawn some criticism from several conservatives.

Mast's bill would create a 60-day moratorium on the sale or transfer of "assault rifles." During that time, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be required to file a report that would define the term "assault weapon" and make policy recommendations on gun sales.

Vaughn urged Mast and other Republicans to not veer from President Donald Trump's ideas and beliefs.

"As an ardent supporter of our president and the America First agenda, my advice to our congressman, and any other Republican looking to hold their seat in November, is to help deliver on the promises Trump campaigned on and won," Vaughn said. "Do not forsake the Constitution or the Second Amendment. Do not cave to political pressures of the media and political elite. Run with our president, not from him."

Mast votes in line with Trump's recommendations about 93 percent of the time, according to a vote analysis from FiveThirtyEight. He has disagreed with the administration's stance on a massive spending bill and some environmental issues, including amending the Clean Air Act to allow more pollution.

However, he has campaigned heavily on the GOP's tax reform plan and supported the GOP-led effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Primary challengers

The district is one of several swing districts Democrats hope to flip this fall.

Nonpartisan political analysts, including Cook Political Report, InsideElections and Sabato's Crystal Ball, predict Mast will keep his seat, but the race could be close.

Two other Republicans have filed pre-candidacy paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission. One is Mark Freeman, a Palm Beach County physician who lost to Mast in a crowded 2016 primary. He came in third, trailing Martin County School Board member Rebecca Negron by nearly 10 percent. The other is Dave Cummings of Fort Pierce.

People sometimes misconstrue the district, said Jacob Perry, a Republican consultant for several previous district candidates, including Mast in 2016. Just because voters lean Republican doesn't mean they're ultra-conservative, Perry said.

An Army veteran who lost both legs in a bomb explosion, Mast is tough to challenge solely because of his stance on military-style weapons, Perry said.

"If we're in an environment now, where a guy who left two legs in the ground in Afghanistan, isn't allowed to ask whether a civilian should own military weapons," Perry said, "then what's the point of politics?"

Democratic challengers

Mast's campaign announced Tuesday he currently has more than $1.5 million cash.

Democrat Lauren Baer, who served as a foreign policy official in the Obama administration, has raised "more than $1 million," her campaign said Tuesday, but did not provide specific numbers. Her primary opponent, attorney and Navy veteran Pam Keith, has not released her latest fundraising numbers.

Mast and Baer got enough petition signatures to appear on the ballot without paying a filing fee. Keith will pay the $5,000-plus fee because she didn't get the required 5,110 signatures by the April 2 deadline, campaign manager Rummi Khan said Tuesday.

The deadline to quality for the race is May 4.

Nasty primaries

Far-right and far-left challengers have become more common in recent years, though more often with seats in state legislatures than Congress, said Susan MacManus, a political science professor at the University of South Florida.

They can lead to nasty primaries on both sides of the aisle that hurt incumbents in the general election, especially in high-stakes districts like 18, MacManus said.

Vaughn bowing out improves Mast's chances in November.

"When you have horribly competitive or very vivid primaries, it makes it very difficult to put parties back together again for what is going to be a very competitive general election," MacManus said.

Gold Star mother

Vaughn's son, Navy SEAL Aaron Vaughn, was killed in 2011 along with 29 others when their helicopter was shot down in Afghanistan.

Since then, Vaughn and her husband, Billy, have been vocal critics of the Obama administration, on two particular points:

Rules that ban service personnel from firing at a potential threat unless they are fired at first. The policy was enacted to decrease the amount of civilian deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The decision to reveal which Navy SEALs were responsible for the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, saying it put a target on the backs of others in the same unit.

Karen Vaughn is best known nationally for speaking at the Republican National Convention in 2016.

"There is no adversary the U.S. military cannot defeat if we unbind them from the restrictive, ludicrous rules of engagement they've been forced to fight under for the past seven years," Vaughn said in the speech.

The Vaughns also founded Operation 300, a nonprofit that hosts camps and provides support for family members of soldiers who are killed.