TAMPA BAY - Official Hillsborough County Republican Party voter guides were altered during early voting to highlight one candidate in the Congressional District 14 primary: Mike Beltran.
Photographs reviewed for this article show an official party guide with Beltran’s name underlined. Multiple witnesses say they encountered copies with his name circled. The official guide endorses no candidate in the race — a point the party has now confirmed on the record.
The markings were not confined to a single location. After being alerted to the issue, Rocky Rochford campaign manager Jaime Arellano Harding says he visited ten Hillsborough County early-voting locations to determine how widespread the problem was. He says he found marked guides at all ten — each highlighting Beltran.
The party has since acted, ordering the guides discarded, barring the volunteers involved from its voting sites. Hillsborough Republican Executive Committee president Carmen Edmonds issued the following statement:
It was brought to my attention today and was handled immediately. The early voting sites in question were called and the volunteers were told to throw the voter guides away, as this is completely unacceptable behavior. An email was sent out to all candidates and tent coordinators reminding them of our Party rules and loyalty oath.
The volunteers in question were asked to not return to any of our voting sites the rest of the primary. The Hillsborough County Republican Party has not and will not endorse any candidate in the CD 14 primary.
An Endorsement the Party Never Made
The document at the center of the dispute identifies itself as the “August 2026 Official Voter Guide for Hillsborough County Republicans,” paid for by the party and “not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”
In the CD-14 primary, it lists eight candidates: Beltran, Michael Marcell, John Peters, Robert “Rocky” Rochford, Gabriel E. Soriano, Kevin M. Steele, Ergin “Batman” Tek and Bea Valenti. Where the party makes endorsements, the guide identifies them. In this race, it makes none.
A circle or underline on an official party document carries weight a campaign flyer does not. A Republican voter receiving the official guide with one candidate singled out could reasonably read the marking as guidance from the party itself. The party gave no such guidance. Someone added it — and added it for Beltran.
Beltran Was Present While Marked Guides Were Distributed
Two named witnesses say marked guides favoring Beltran were being handed out at the Bloomingdale Regional Public Library early-voting location while Beltran himself was present.
Arellano Harding says he witnessed the distribution firsthand. Pastor Elvis Piggott separately described the same scene publicly: “How do we have a Republican tent at a Republican primary handing out Republican voter guides with Michael Beltran’s name circled, while people wearing Beltran shirts are distributing them and the candidate stands there and allows it?”
Piggott’s photographs show individuals in Beltran campaign apparel and Beltran campaign signs alongside a banner advertising “Republican Voter Guides.”
Beltran’s presence does not establish that he marked any guide or instructed anyone to do so. But it places him at a location where, according to two named witnesses, altered official party documents favoring his candidacy were moving through the hands of his own supporters.
A Marked Guide Handed to His Opponent
According to candidate and former naval commodore Rocky Rochford, Republican volunteer Steve Emerson personally handed him an official party voter guide at an early-voting location while Emerson was standing next to Beltran. The guide, Rochford says, was already marked to highlight Beltran.
“Steve Emerson personally handed me one of the official Republican voter guides while he was standing next to Mike Beltran. When I looked at it, Beltran’s name had already been marked. I don’t believe he realized what he had handed me,” Rochford said.
Emerson later acknowledged the marked guides existed, writing: “When it came to my attention about the voters guides I took them up and made sure that the rest were unmarked.”
Rochford’s account does not establish that Emerson made the markings. If accurate, it does establish that altered guides favoring Beltran were in the possession of a volunteer distributing them within feet of the candidate. Emerson has not explained where the marked guides came from, when he first noticed them, or how many were distributed before he collected the rest.
A Witness Says He Saw the Marking Take Place
At the Platt early-voting location, Naval Commander Patrick Snow says he witnessed Jim Hickey, an individual affiliated with Josh Wostal’s campaign, marking forms to highlight Beltran, and confronted him.
A communication between Edmonds and Arellano Harding is consistent with that account: “Jimmy was notified and told to stop circling candidates on our forms. He was leaving that voter site as I was talking to him.”
The evidence reviewed does not establish that Wostal knew about or authorized the conduct, or that the Beltran campaign directed the activity at Platt. The candidate being circled, according to Snow’s account, was not Wostal. It was Beltran.
The Party Responds Swiftly
Internal communications obtained by Sunshine Newswire show Edmonds addressing the issue directly as it unfolded: “I cannot have volunteers at our voter tents in shirts of candidates with primaries... I cannot have you handing out voter guides with candidates circled or underlined.” She cited complaints from multiple campaigns, invoked the party’s loyalty oath, and concluded: “So pick one... Beltran or HREC and go with it. Just don’t mix the two.”
These communications and the HREC statement confirms several facts: the marked guides were real. The party regarded them as unacceptable. The volunteers involved are barred from party voting sites for the remainder of the primary. And the party has endorsed no one in the race — meaning the markings around Beltran’s name represented an endorsement that does not exist.
A Rival Candidate Responds
Kevin Steele, one of Beltran’s opponents in the CD-14 primary, issued a statement directly accusing Beltran of orchestrating the alterations:
It’s a shame my opponent, Mike Beltran has illegally corrupted the local party’s volunteers and has resorted to cheating to beat us on Tuesday. He’s a desperate candidate who will obviously go and say anything, including corrupting good local republicans, to win. These are the desperate acts of a very desperate man.
Steele’s characterization goes beyond what the evidence reviewed for this article establishes. No document or witness account reviewed here establishes that Beltran directed the alterations or the volunteers involved. Steele’s statement reflects the conclusion of a rival campaign, not a documented finding.
But it is significant for a different reason: a fellow Republican candidate is now publicly leveling the accusation on the record, in his own name, days before the primary. The controversy is no longer confined to witnesses and party officials. It has entered the race itself.
What Is Established, and What Is Not
The evidence reviewed for this article does not establish that Beltran personally ordered anyone to alter a guide, whether the markings across locations were coordinated, or how many voters received altered copies.
What it does establish: official Republican Party voter guides were altered. The alterations favored one candidate. Marked guides were found at every location a witness checked. The party confirmed the alterations occurred, condemned them, removed the guides, and told all volunteers involved to no longer operate the polling locations. The party’s response to the markings demonstrates not only the commitment to ensuring fair election standards, but also fairness compatible with their commitment to have an open primary process for all candidates.
The question remains: did the Beltran camp take advantage of the open process in an effort to manipulate voters into thinking an endorsement was made by Edmonds and HREC?
Some Republican voters received what appeared to be their party’s neutral guidance and instead held a document altered to favor Mike Beltran. He remains the one figure at the center of this story who has said nothing about it.
With Election Day days away, Hillsborough County’s republican voters deserve an answer.
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