Campaign finance reports filed with the Florida State Division of Elections reveal the conservative Florida Courage PAC recently donated $25,500 to District 1 School Board Member Beverly Slough’s candidate committee and $25,000 to District 4 candidate Tammie McClafferty’s committee.
The PAC is chaired by William Stafford Jones, a longtime operative in state Republican Party politics who previously served as Alachua County GOP Chair, led the state party’s Constitution and Rules Committee, and chaired dozens of other political committees across Florida.
Over the years, political opponents have accused Jones and groups he has led of distributing misleading mailers, obscuring the true sources of campaign spending, falsely implying endorsements and attempting to mislead voters through deceptive text messages.
Florida Courage, the PAC backing Slough and McClafferty, has been active since 2023. Since then, it has raised $6.5 million, with an average contribution of $89,505, and spent $5.2 million.
Its donors mostly consist of other conservative political committees, including $750,000 from the Republican State Leadership Committee in Washington, D.C.
Slough, first elected in 2002 and seeking a seventh term, has raised nearly $40,000 for her campaign in addition to the $25,500 contributed to her political committee. Her opponent, financial professional Kevin Allen, has raised about $17,000.
Meanwhile, McClafferty is in a three-way race with Leif Jonassen and Jillian Tozer to succeed retiring Board Member Kelly Barrera. McClafferty’s campaign has raised a separate $28,500, while Jonassen has $7,650 and Tozer has raised $5,600.
Neither Slough nor McClafferty responded to requests for comment before publication.
