Florida Republican candidate marched with neo-Nazis in infamous Charlottesville rally: report

A Republican running for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives marched with neo-Nazis in the infamous “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to a new report.

Marshall Rawson — who has touted his activism in preserving Confederate soldiers' monuments across North Florida — marched alongside the League of the South during the deadly Charlottesville rally, Talking Points Memo, an independent political news organization, reported Monday.

The League of the South is described by civil rights organizations as a white supremacist group that advocates for the secession of Southern states.

Rawson and his now-wife Megan were seen on video arriving at the Charlottesville rally and being greeted by name by League of the South members, according to Talking Points Memo, which reviewed the footage.

The Republican was also seen in a photo taken during the protest standing near neo-Nazi James Alex Fields Jr., who later drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, the news outlet reported.

Fields was sentenced in 2019 to life in prison for federal hate crimes related to the car attack that killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injured dozens more.

“Over the entire span of my adult life, I’ve been very active defending historical monuments from destruction or removal, and I feel that way about almost all monuments, not just those associated with southern history,” Rawson told Talking Points Memo in response to their reporting.

The Independent has reached out to Rawson for comment.

Rawson writes on his campaign website that he will defend “our cultural heritage against attacks from the radical left,” citing his efforts to protect monuments dedicated to Confederate soldiers.

Over the past decade, state and local officials across the country have removed these monuments and other Confederate symbols due to their ties to white supremacy.

The Charlottesville rally was sparked by the city council’s decision to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The statue was melted down in 2023.

Rawson wrote in a May 2025 Facebook post that he was involved with the League of the South from 2013 to 2016.

He said his involvement with the group “consisted exclusively of myself and the organization demonstrating against the unfettered immigration/ ‘gang of eight’ amnesty policies that were hurting local workers, defense of marriage activism that was a response to Federal Activist Judges overthrowing state law, and then later in defense of our historic monuments that were being attacked by woke rioters and weak politicians.”

Rawson won the Republican primary for the Florida House District 10 last month and will face off against Democrat Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson in November.

Malwitz-Jipson called the new reporting about Rawson’s involvement in the Charlottesville rally “extremely alarming.”

“We must put hatred, secession, and fear behind us as a country, which means we cannot elect Marshall Rawson,” the Democrat wrote on Facebook Monday.