Congressman Bill Posey, the Republican who represented Brevard County in the U.S. House since 2009, will retire at the end of his term and is throwing his support behind another prominent Brevard County Republican for the seat.
Posey, who represents U.S. House District 8, announced Friday on Facebook that, even though he had qualified to run for another term in Washington, he needed to suspend his reelection campaign because of “circumstances beyond” his control.
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Posey did not elaborate on what that meant.
Instead, Posey said he would support former Florida Senate President Mike Haridopolos to replace him. Haridopolos filed to run and qualified for the seat just before the qualifying period closed Friday.
“Without going into a lot of personal details, stars aligned during the past week and Mike decided he was ready for Congress. I enthusiastically endorse him and will do everything I can to help him get elected,” Posey’s statement said.
Posey said Haridopolos, who was the Florida Senate president from 2010 to 2012, was his congressional finance committee chairman. Posey said he had been mentoring Haridopolos to replace him.
Haridopolos will face a primary challenge in August from Republicans Joe Babits and John Hearton, who had already filed to challenge Posey for the Republican nomination, according to the Florida Division of Elections. Two Democrats are also running for the seat.
Posey worked at Kennedy Space Center and was also in real estate. He got involved with the city of Rockledge in the 1970s, and parlayed that into a career in politics, including stints as state representative and state senator for Brevard County in the 90s and early 2000s.
He won his first election to Congress in 2008, where he was a stalwart conservative. Posey said he would finish out the current term in Congress while also supporting Haridopolos and former President Donald Trump.
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