Former Representative Matt Gaetz, who withdrew as President-elect Donald J. Trump’s nominee for attorney general ahead of the release of a House Ethics panel report that accused him of “regularly” paying for sex and using drugs, said that he was “starting to think about running for governor” next year in Florida.
The contest for the open seat in Mr. Trump’s adopted home state is expected to draw significant interest next year, as Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was elected in 2018 and 2022, is term-limited.
“I have a compelling vision for the state,” Mr. Gaetz, a far-right provocateur, told the Tampa Bay Times in a report published on Tuesday.
In a telephone interview with The New York Times on Wednesday, Mr. Gaetz said that he had spoken to Mr. Trump about a possible bid for governor and that he “knows that I have that ambition.” He declined to elaborate on their conversation, other than to say that the president-elect had shared advice with him and that he expected several of Mr. Trump’s other allies would contend for the job.
Requests for comment were also left with Mr. Trump’s aides.
Mr. Gaetz, 42, cruised to a fifth term in his safely Republican House district on Florida’s panhandle on Nov. 5. But he resigned his seat on Nov. 13, shortly after Mr. Trump chose him for attorney general, trying to short-circuit the release of an Ethics Committee report that concluded he had engaged in sexual misconduct and taken illicit drugs, allegations that he has denied.
He also filed an 11th-hour lawsuit in federal court in an attempt to stop the report’s release, but that effort failed.
