ORLANDO, Fla. – A Republican candidate for Florida Senate can continue to sue a campaign committee run by Florida Senate Republicans for libel, a judge ruled Monday.
Bowen Kou is running in the Republican primary for Florida Senate District 13, which represents part of Lake and Orange counties.
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In June, Kou sued the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee over a mailer sent out on behalf of Kou’s opponent, Keith Truenow, that Kou says questions whether he and his donors are sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party.
The mailer asks, “Why are Chinese donors (from all over the country) flooding Bowen Kou (Lake County State Senate Race) with cash?” Then, it shows lists of donors with Asian-looking names to Kou’s campaign, taken from the Florida Division of Elections website. The lists leave out any donors with non-Asian-looking names. At the bottom, the mailer says that “80% of Kou’s donations are from outside of Florida,” with an arrow pointing to several states, and another pointing to a map of China with the Communist flag over it. You can see the mailer in the document below.
Kou is an American citizen who fled China in 2012 after he says he was jailed for bringing his grandmother an English language Bible.
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The FRSCC’s attorney, in responding to the lawsuit, said it should be dismissed because “the mailer doesn’t say what he says it says.” It also said that even if Kou’s claims were accurate, he “still fails to state his libel claim because he doesn’t adequately plead facts concerning the elements of his claim,” basically saying that Kou doesn’t show that the defendant had doubts about the claims in the mailer and published it anyway, i.e. “actual malice.”
Fifth Circuit Judge Dan Mosley, however, ruled Kou’s lawsuit and the mailer were legally sufficient to keep the case open.
Kou told News 6 last month the mailer has not only hurt his campaign, with people questioning whether he supports the Chinese government, it has also made his donors fearful.
Kou owns several Asian grocery stores nationwide and says many of his donors are friends, family, and business associates. He says many of the donors are Republicans and American citizens of Chinese descent.
A News 6 analysis of the campaign financial records back in June showed Kou funded $1.2 million out of $1.4 million in campaign donations, and several thousand dollars in donations also came from his businesses.
Since the lawsuit was filed, the FRSCC came out with a TV ad and a website that continued the attacks on Kou, accusing him of taking “government bailouts.”
The Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee is a fund managed by Republicans in the Florida Senate, and chaired by incoming Senate President Ben Albritton. News 6 attempts to contact the committee and Albritton were not returned.
Kou’s opponent, State Rep. Keith Truenow, is term-limited in the Florida House and has been endorsed for the Senate by top Republicans around the state, including Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Back in June, Truenow told News 6 he would not comment on the lawsuit, but he did say: “If someone were to look into some of those (donors) they might find out where the money came from. Look, I’m just trying to put out there that people need to look into their candidate.”
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