Rochford Camp Calls for Accountability and Transparency Standards Among FL-14 Candidates
Rochford defends campaign team targeted with litigation threats for sharing public voter registration records.
TAMPA, Fla. -- Retired Navy Capt. and Commodore Rocky Rochford, Republican candidate for Florida’s 14th Congressional District, issued a statement today calling for higher standards of conduct, transparency, and accountability among candidates seeking federal office in FL-14.
The statement follows a documented incident in which Rochford’s Campaign Director was told to persuade his father, a veteran journalist and member of the campaign team, to stop sharing and speaking publicly about voter registration records obtained from an official government database.
“Candidates for Congress should welcome scrutiny, not try to silence it,” Rochford said. “When a journalist publishes public records from an official government database, and the response is a demand letter threatening litigation, that tells voters something important about how that candidate would handle the responsibilities of public office.”
On July 3, journalist and commentator Laura Loomer published an article reporting that New York City Board of Elections records show an FL-14 Republican primary candidate has maintained an active voter registration in Brooklyn since 2002 and that records indicate a vote was cast under that registration in the November 2025 NYC mayoral election.
Following the publication, Loomer received a demand letter threatening defamation litigation. Her attorney, R. Alex Andrade of Moore, Hill and Westmoreland, P.A., responded on July 9 with a six-page letter confirming that he independently verified the active voter registration using the NYC Board of Elections website. The attorney noted that he could not independently confirm the same candidate’s voter registration in Florida, as a search of the statewide database returned no record found.
Andrade’s response cited truth as an absolute defense to defamation, referenced the actual malice standard required for public figures, and warned that pursuing litigation would expose the claimant to financial liability under Florida’s anti-SLAPP statute, Section 768.295.
The litigation threats did not stop with Loomer. At a recent public event, an FL-14 candidate approached Rochford’s Campaign Director, Jaime Arellano Jr., and told him to instruct his father, Jaime Arellano Sr., to stop sharing and speaking publicly about Loomer’s reporting. Arellano Sr. had been discussing the voter registration findings both on social media and during public speaking engagements. The candidate stated that he was suing another Republican primary opponent and anyone else who continues to share the information. When Arellano responded that he does not control what his father says, the candidate told him, “As his son, maybe you need to tell him not to get sued.”
Rochford said his decision to speak publicly was driven by principle, not politics.
“I watched the weaponization of the American legal system used against President Trump for years. I will not stand by while the same tactics are used against the people I intend to represent in Congress. Jaime Arellano and his family are part of this campaign and part of this community. When a candidate for federal office uses the threat of litigation to silence private citizens for sharing public records, that is not a political dispute. That is an abuse of the legal system. And if I won’t stand up for the people on my own team, how can voters trust me to stand up for them?”
Rochford noted the significance of who was being targeted.
Jaime Arellano Sr. is a Nicaraguan journalist and recipient of the 2024 Eleanor Roosevelt Medal of Merit. For more than 30 years, he was one of Nicaragua’s most recognized political commentators, reaching over 1.2 million television viewers. His journalism made him a target of the Ortega regime. Between 2006 and 2018, there were four assassination attempts against him. He was arrested multiple times. In 2019, after the Trump administration pressured Nicaragua to grant amnesty to political opposition figures, he became the first to return from exile. One day later, he survived another assassination attempt.
In 2021, he was arrested again and suffered a heart attack during detention. In February 2023, the United States negotiated the release of 222 political prisoners, including Arellano. Upon his release, the Ortega regime stripped him of his Nicaraguan citizenship and confiscated his businesses, properties, and bank accounts. On July 20, the Ortega regime declared that Nicaragua will never hold elections again, effectively abolishing democracy in the country Arellano spent his life trying to protect. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the decision a confirmation of the regime’s true authoritarian nature.
“A man who survived four assassination attempts and political imprisonment for the crime of speaking the truth was indirectly threatened with an American lawsuit for sharing a public record and speaking about it publicly,” Rochford said. “A congressional candidate pressured a son to silence his own father. That is not how candidates for Congress should conduct themselves. Using the legal system to intimidate private citizens into silence is the tool of the regimes Jaime Arellano spent his life fighting against.”
Rochford said the broader issue is one of standards for candidates seeking to represent FL-14 in Washington.
“Members of Congress face scrutiny every day from journalists, constituents, oversight committees, and political opponents. Any candidate who cannot handle a journalist reporting public records without reaching for a lawsuit is not prepared for that responsibility.”
Rochford also noted that candidates running on election integrity platforms should hold themselves to the same standard they demand of voters.
“If you are going to champion the SAVE America Act and demand that every voter prove citizenship at the ballot box, your own voter registration practices need to be beyond reproach. That is not a partisan position. That is a baseline expectation for anyone seeking federal office.”
Rochford contrasted the approach with his own record of accountability during 33 years of military service.
“I have been questioned, investigated, and scrutinized at every level of command. That is what accountability looks like, and a man of integrity stands on it. I have never once threatened to sue someone for doing their job or exercising their constitutional rights. Leaders do not silence questions. Leaders answer them.”
Rochford also completed the Congressional Operations Seminar at Georgetown University’s Government Affairs Institute and earned a master’s degree in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, where he was named an Arleigh Burke Fellow and a Vice Admiral Samuel L. Gravely scholar.