Matt Gaetz

Profile Overview

Matthew Louis Gaetz II ( GAYTS; born May 7, 1982) is an American politician, lawyer, and political commentator who served as the U.S. representative for Florida's 1st congressional district from 2017 until his resignation in 2024. His district included all of Escambia, Okaloosa, and Santa Rosa counties, and portions of Walton County. A member of the Republican Party and a self-described libertarian populist, Gaetz is widely regarded as a proponent of far-right politics as well as a staunch ally of Donald Trump. In October 2023, Gaetz filed a motion to vacate that led to the removal of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The son of prominent Florida politician Don Gaetz and grandson of North Dakota politician Jerry Gaetz, Gaetz was raised in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. After graduating from William & Mary Law School in 2007, he briefly worked in private practice before running for state representative. He served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2010 until 2016, and received national attention for defending Florida's "stand-your-ground law". In 2016, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, and was re-elected in 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2024.
In 2020, Gaetz was accused of child sex trafficking and statutory rape. After an investigation, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) decided not to charge him. In December 2024, the House Ethics Committee released a report which found evidence that Gaetz paid for sex—including with a 17-year-old—and abused illegal drugs during his tenure in the U.S. House of Representatives. The committee report did not find sufficient evidence that he had engaged in sex trafficking as defined in federal law.
On November 13, 2024, President-elect Donald Trump announced he would nominate Gaetz to serve as United States attorney general, which some Senate Republicans received poorly. Upon Trump's announcement, Gaetz resigned from the House of Representatives. A week later, he withdrew himself from consideration for the post of attorney general. Though he had already won re-election to the 119th United States Congress, he submitted a letter of resignation prior to the swearing in. Gaetz started hosting The Matt Gaetz Show, a political talk show airing weeknights on One America News Network in January 2025.