Florida voters have elected Republican Marshall Rawson to the state House, after reporting linked him to the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville and alleged posts calling for the execution of LGBTQ+ people.

Rawson, 34, won a seat in Florida’s House of Representatives on Tuesday, defeating Democrat Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson. He won with 68.15 per cent of the vote, reports Decision Desk HQ.

A state House seat can shape education, healthcare and civil rights policy that directly affects LGBTQ+ residents, and Rawson’s win has renewed attention on allegations about his past. 

What has been alleged about Rawson’s posts and ties?

A Talking Points Memo investigation said it documented extremist social media posts, including posts calling for the execution of LGBTQ+ people and condoning slavery.

TPM also reported that an account on X called RockOfDixie, which it claimed appeared to belong to Rawson, posted: “Multiculturalism kills and public lynchings worked.” 

TPM said it had located footage from the Unite the Right rally on 12 August 2017 in which League of the South members greet Rawson by name, and that separate video from the same day appears to show him carrying a League of the South flag. 

TPM also reported that a photo it obtained showed Rawson standing near neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr during the day’s chaos, shortly before Fields drove his car into counter-protesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring dozens of others.

What has Rawson said about the League of the South?

In statements to the press and on social media, Rawson claimed his activism with the League of the South from 2013 to 2016 “consisted exclusively” of demonstrating against “unfettered immigration”; against gay marriage; and in defence of “historic monuments” under attack by “woke rioters.”

Rawson was scrutinised over extremist posts, among them comments applauding Uganda’s law that mandates the death penalty for certain same-sex relations and remarks invoking biblical arguments for slavery.

In 2023, a Florida Republican lawmaker drew condemnation after he appeared to call for the eradication of the LGBTQ+ community while defending an anti-drag bill.