After a backlash from the state’s top Republicans, the Palm Beach County Republican Party has backed away from its official, public support for Mike Caruso, the party’s nominee for county circuit clerk and comptroller who has been arrested and charged with sex abuse involving a young child. Early this week, the county Republican Party posted a “voter guide” on various social media accounts ...

Michael Caruso, the former Palm Beach County clerk of court, enters the courtroom at the Orange County Courthouse in Orlando, Fla., for a bond hearing in his child sexual abuse case on Friday, Aug. 28, 2026.

Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel/TNS

After a backlash from the state’s top Republicans, the Palm Beach County Republican Party has backed away from its official, public support for Mike Caruso, the party’s nominee for county circuit clerk and comptroller who has been arrested and charged with sex abuse involving a young child.

Early this week, the county Republican Party posted a “voter guide” on various social media accounts urging voters to support its nominees for federal, state and local offices. It was a routine, election-year guide, except that it included Caruso.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, at a news conference Tuesday in West Palm Beach, said the county party withdrawing support was the right thing to do, and he blasted the original move to include Caruso in the voter guide.

“It was ridiculous,” DeSantis said. “They made a mistake.”

“Just as you’re innocent until proven guilty in a criminal matter, as everyone should be, that does not mean a political party should just support someone by default rather than take a look at the circumstances of the situation.”

Caruso was arrested in August on five felony counts related to sex abuse charges involving a young child. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The case remains open in the circuit court of Orange County.

U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., wrote Monday evening on social media that the county party’s support for Caruso was “disgusting. Mike Caruso should IMMEDIATELY withdraw. The people of Palm Beach deserve better.”

DeSantis, too, criticized the endorsement Monday night, posting on social media that it was “disappointing to see this endorsement. Some things are bigger than party.”

Caruso was once one of the governor’s closest allies in the Florida House of Representatives. When the previous clerk resigned to take a new job, DeSantis appointed Caruso to the county job. DeSantis suspended Caruso immediately after he was charged, something he mentioned repeatedly in his two-minute, 10-second answer to a question about the endorsement on Tuesday.

“Party is fine, but it’s not the end all be all. Sometimes you just got to do the right thing, and I think the right thing in this position is not to be endorsing a candidate that is under those potential very serious charges,” DeSantis said Tuesday.

DeSantis said the standard for deciding on political support is far different than the standard for finding someone guilty of criminal charges.

“Criminally, the process is going to play out, and he does deserve the presumption of innocence there, but in the political context to have been removed from office because there was sufficient evidence to do it, to me, that’s enough to say no dice,” he said.

The Palm Beach County Young Republicans said the county party’s endorsement of Caruso was hurting other county Republicans running in this year’s elections.

“We unequivocally do not endorse Mike Caruso,” the Young Republicans wrote, adding that the “endorsement has had an incredibly negative impact on Jon Maples’ race, and other local races. We have been called horrible names, such as ‘pedo protectors’ while door knocking and phone banking” because of the endorsement. (Maples is a Republican candidate for state House of Representatives.)

Earlier Monday, state Republican Chair Evan Power distanced the statewide organization from what the Palm Beach County organization had done.

“The @FloridaGOP does not support Mike Caruso. We pulled our support the moment he was arrested, and asked the local party to pick a replacement, which they did. Mike refused to withdraw. Mike Caruso has every right to defend himself-but he does not have the time or platform to run a campaign. He should have stepped aside to allow the party to move forward,” Power wrote.

If Caruso had quickly resigned as a candidate after his arrest and suspension from office, Palm Beach County Republican Party leaders could have replaced him with a candidate whose name would have appeared on the ballot.

He didn’t do so. The Miami Herald reported Monday that Caruso, through a spokesperson, said he was still running for the job.

“I maintain my innocence and remain a candidate for Clerk of the Circuit Court and Comptroller. My name is on the November ballot, and I intend to win this election,” he said in the statement. “If the voters elect me, my intention is to take office and continue serving Palm Beach County.”

After the criticism from the top elected Republicans and from the other party organizations, the county organization changed its voter guide. It deleted the version that urged people to vote for Republicans including Caruso and posted a new one just before 10 p.m. Monday night on its social media accounts.

The updated version no longer lists Caruso or the office of Palm Beach County clerk of the circuit court and comptroller.

Democrat Yvette Drucker is also on the ballot, running for the position.

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Staff writer Juan Ortega contributed to this report.

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