Political rival of Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna gets 3 years in prison for threats

Romy Ellenbogen, Tampa Bay Times on May 22, 2025

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A onetime congressional opponent of Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday for threatening to have her killed.

William Braddock, 41, was secretly recorded in 2021 saying he had access to a “hit squad” and that he could make Luna “disappear,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Braddock briefly ran against Luna in the Republican primary for Florida's 13th Congressional District before she was first elected.

According to court evidence, Braddock said he would be the next representative for the district and said Luna was “ignorant so I don’t have a problem taking her out, but I’m not going to do that dirty work myself obviously.”

The St. Petersburg Police Department investigated Braddock’s comments in 2021 but initially closed their investigation without any criminal charges. That same year, a Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge denied Luna’s temporary stalking injunction against Braddock.

At the conclusion of those cases, Braddock flew to Thailand and then settled in the Philippines until he surrendered to authorities there in June 2023.

Upon his return to the United States in 2024, he was federally charged with interstate transmission of a threat to injure, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He pleaded guilty earlier this year.

Luna has since won election and reelection to office as the representative for Florida’s 13th Congressional District.

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