
Palm Coast City Council member Charles Gambaro late Thursday announced he will challenge U.S. Rep. Randy Fine in the 2026 primary for the 6th Congressional District seat Fine won in a special election last April.
Gambaro cited Fine’s absence from the district, his reversal on pledges to tour Palm Coast’s troubled wastewater infrastructure and to open an office locally, his continuously “outrageous” comments regarding the Gaza war (as long as Israeli hostages aren’t returned, “starve away,” Fine said of a Gaza population of 2 million in famine) and his poor constituent services among the reasons that spurred him to join the race.
“I don’t need this, but I feel obligated to step in,” Gambaro said in an interview this morning.
“Our current representative is not present. He doesn’t live in our district and doesn’t care to be part of our community,” Gambaro, a local resident for over two decades, said. “That, coupled with outrageous comments and behavior from a sitting member of Congress regarding very critical foreign policy issues is just something that cannot be tolerated.”
A spokesperson at Fine’s congressional office said the office could not take campaign-related questions, but that those questions were forwarded to the campaign team, which had not responded before this article initially published.
The resign-to-run law does not apply to federal offices, and would not apply anyway since the next House term does not begin before January 2026, two months after the end of Gambaro’s term on the council. He intends to serve out that term. He was appointed to the council last fall, an appointment Mayor Mike Norris challenged in court in a losing bid to unseat him.
After the council censured Norris for the second time last month, Gambaro won his colleague’s support to ask the governor to suspend or remove the mayor from office. That request is pending, and unlikely to result in the mayor’s removal.
With Council member Dave Sullivan’s plan not to run in the 2026 election, Gambaro’s decision creates the second open seat on the council–an opening that gives the embattled Norris a chance to make a play for a majority aligned with him. The seat Theresa Pontieri holds is also up. Pontieri has not said whether she will run. “I plan to remain in local politics,” she said today, which hints at a run for another office such as the County Commission, in which case there would be an unprecedented three open seats in the same election. The risk of ending up in the minority won’t be encouraging her to stay
“I’m confident that a member of our community will come forward to continue the good work that our council’s pursued,” Gambaro said. “We’ve got great members on our advisory boards, and I will do everything I can to assist, to encourage members of our community to run for city council. It’s important.”
Gambaro would be the fourth Republican to announce a run against Fine, joining Aaron Baker of Sorrento, Alexandra van Cleef of Palm Coast and Joshua Vasquez of Ocala in the Republican primary. Democrat Ronnie “Ron” Murchinson-Rivera of Sorento is running, as is independent Purvi Dilip Bangdiwala of Ormond Beach.
A brigadier general in the U.S. Army Reserve, Gambaro was a senior advisor to the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, a special assistant to the assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Director for Gulf Affairs and the Middle East Strategic Alliance at various points during the first Trump administration, advising the national security adviser on policy matters. The alliance was a precursor to the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and four Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Fine, known for verbal brutality and discriminatory initiatives when he was in the Florida legislature–among them the “don’t say gay” bill and a proposed ban on flying pride flags in public places–has shifted, since his campaign and election to Congress. He’d called his Democratic opponent, Josh Weil, “Jihad Josh,” and his rhetoric now echoes that of the most racist advocates in the Israeli government of what has been a genocidal war against Gaza’s Palestinians (among them Bezalel Smotrich, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Yoav Gallant).
The Council on American-Islamic Relations and several Democratic members of Congress condemned him early in his tenure, but now so have far-righ Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene. The American Jewish Committee, the advocacy organization, denounced his comments about Gaza as “unacceptable.” The Brevard County Republican Executive Committee voted overwhelmingly to unseat Fine as a committeeman. Even the the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the far-right pro-Israel lobbying organization, appears to have distanced itself from Fine. AIPAC denies doing so. But as The New Republic noted this week, Fine’s name was removed from AIPAC’s database of pro-Israel politicians it supports. (A pdf of the page screenshot today is here.)
“There have been other members of Congress that have spoken out against his outrageous comments, and AIPAC, one of the largest political action committees in Washington, has removed their endorsement of Fine, which is stunning,” Gambaro said. “So it’s troubling that a member of Congress would behave in this way and have a complete lack of regard for truly representing the residents of the 6th Congressional District.” He intends to pursue AIPAC’s endorsement, if not the president’s–his former boss.
Gambaro, unprompted in the interview, cited John Mica, the former Congressman whose district once included Flagler County, as a model of congressional representation. Mica, an arch-conservative, was known for such stellar constituent services that on that count alone he repeatedly won the News-Journal’s endorsements in the 2000s, when it was a family-owned newspaper.
Mica had been Gmabaro’s representative when he was growing up in Oviedo and began his career. “He absolutely was a master of constituent services,” Gambaro said. “Anytime I had an issue as a resident, his chief of staff, Rusty, and the team were on it. Any time I decided to go to Washington, he would personally tour me through the U.S. House of Representatives, sit in the gallery, show me his voting card. That’s the example that I hope to fulfill as a member of Congress.”
Gambaro’s very first bill, he said, will be to seek funding for beach renourishment, followed by requests for infrastructure and roads, with a focus on local needs, as well what he calls “healthcare infrastructure.”
As for the race’s heavy fundraising lift ahead, “we’re poised very well. I feel very confident that we’re going to have a good first quarter and that’s part of the reason of making a jump into the race now,” he said, “because it does require significant fundraising in order to get your message out and be successful in winning both the primary and the general election. So we feel very confident that we’ll raise the money to be successful.”
He plans a formal campaign kickoff in Palm Coast in coming weeks.
Gary Kunnas says
NOT A CHANCE. I BELEIVE HE IS A TOTAL PUPPET FOR ALFIN, DANKO AND CLUESS. PLACED IN VACANT SEAT ON COUNCIL TO CAUSE HAVIC FOR MAYOR NORIS !!!! A total space cadet !!! Daddy pushed him thru the service and did nothing to earn anything !!! His mouth runs with no clue of what it is saying. A TOTAL FRAUD !!!!!
Dennis C Rathsam says
The folks of P/C are jumping for joy! Time to elect a real councilman!
MM says
This is GREAT news. Would be wonderful to have Mr. Gambaro running. From what I see on the City Council, he is honest, straight forward and a no games kind of guy.
Here's my educated opinion says
I would never vote for Gambaro.
He seems to have a problem with people in general.
So big deal, he’s a brigadier general. We never hear the end of it. Maybe he got to where he is by continually bullying and demeaning and stepping on people on the way up, and trying to destroy people he doesn’t find acceptable . . . as he’s done during his time on the PC City Council. There are many many very accomplished and very capable people in Palm Coast who are secure enough in themselves that they don’t have to continually shove their hard-earned accomplishments in everyone’s faces.
I think he’s got a huge ego problem, and doesn’t take well to anyone standing up to his bullying.
I have a lot going for me also (education, life accomplishments, worldwide travel, charity work, etc), but I don’t continually shove it in people’s faces.
So he’ll be spending time campaigning for office while serving on the city council. That in itself says a lot about his commitment to the city council position.
1. I will not vote for Gambaro.
2. I will not vote for Pontiere FOR ANYTHING in the political realm. (especially Mayor of Palm Coast or county commission).
Time for some new blood in politics.
NJ says
As a life-long Conservative Republican and a Cold War Veteran I will SUPPORT Charles Gambaro if: (1) He will work to Recover the $27,000.00 that was SCAMMED from a Palm Coast Disabled Veteran (who served 20 yrs including 2 tours in Vietnam) by WINRED (a PAC) using it’s ” TRICK Credit Card Donation” ( read the 2024 CNN report about WINRED’s TRICK Credit Card Donation SCAM). While Mike Waltz was our Congressman and did receive FUNDS from WINRED; he REFUSED to HELP this Disabled Veteran Recover his $27,000.oo. Randy Fine has also received FUNDS from WINRED, but I am sure if he would HELP this Palm Coast Disabled Veteran. And (2) have “Town Hall Meetings” which Mike Waltz REFUSED to do for 6 yrs.
JimboXYZ says
Another one that was put in place, not around long enough ? Maybe Norris was right to have sought someone that would be around a little longer ? Can’t fix problems with instability, the position is a high turnover role. Alfin was looking for similar in 2024, then he ran for re-election. Norris sandbagged with legacy Alfin.