Army veteran and attorney Earle Ford announced on Thursday that he is withdrawing from the Democratic primary for Florida’s 13th Congressional District and will instead seek the state’s chief financial officer position, a move that effectively consolidates the Democratic field ahead of the August primary.
Ford had raised more than $500,000 since entering the race in October 2025, making him one of the top fundraisers among the nine Democrats who had filed to challenge Republican incumbent Anna Paulina Luna.
His decision follows the redrawing of Florida’s congressional map by Governor Ron DeSantis, which made the district slightly more Republican-leaning by removing southern Pinellas County from the boundaries, including a significant Democratic voter base in St. Petersburg.
Ford framed his exit not as a retreat but as an opportunity, describing the CFO race as a platform to improve the daily lives of Floridians by tackling the state’s insurance crisis, reducing costs, and restoring accountability in Tallahassee.
His departure largely clears the field for retired Brigadier General Leela Gray, who entered the race in February and quickly emerged as the most viable Democratic challenger based on fundraising and public profile.
Gray raised approximately $565,000 in the first quarter of 2026 alone, nearly matching Luna’s own fundraising of around $585,000 for the same period, an unusually competitive position for a Democratic challenger in a district that has twice returned Luna to Congress.
Gray’s campaign announced on Monday that she raised more than $100,000 in the ten days immediately following DeSantis’s signing of the redistricting plan, suggesting that opposition to the redrawn map was itself generating donor energy.
Gray said she intends to remain in the race and has framed her campaign around cost-of-living concerns including housing, insurance, gas prices, and groceries, arguing that Luna has failed to address the issues that matter most to Pinellas County residents.
Seven additional Democrats remain in the primary alongside Gray, though none had raised more than $100,000 as of the most recent Federal Election Commission filing deadline, leaving Gray as the clear frontrunner in the nomination contest.
On the Republican side, Luna is facing a nominal primary challenge and holds more than $1.4 million in cash on hand, giving her a substantial financial advantage heading into the general election campaign.
Ford joins a CFO race that currently has one other Democrat, though that candidate had raised just $125 as of March 31, making Ford the significantly better-resourced entrant into what is expected to be a competitive statewide contest.
Former state Senator Annette Taddeo is also expected to enter the CFO race, and sources suggest internal polling shows her well positioned, a development that may complicate Ford’s path to the Democratic nomination for that office.
Luna first won the Pinellas seat in 2022 and retained it in 2024, both times defeating nationally backed Democratic challengers, making the district one of the more closely watched battlegrounds in Florida’s midterm landscape.
