An Alachua County Republican running for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives this midterm season is drawing criticism for his ties to a controversial southern group and his attendance at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
“Unite the Right” protested the planned removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee in Emancipation Park.
The night before the rally, a group of white supremacists, Ku Klux Klansmen and neo-Nazis marched through the University of Virginia’s campus chanting antisemitic comments. The rally turned deadly the next day when one of the demonstrators rammed his car into a group advocating for the removal, killing one person and injuring 28 others.
Marshall Rawson, a 34-year-old UF law graduate, has faced national scrutiny after the public discovered his attendance at the rally and his ties to the League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center deemed a white supremacist group. Rawson has been seen at many of the league’s events, including speaking at a conference and protesting with members of the organization.
Rawson did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Alligator over the course of three weeks.
Tyler Foerst, the chair of the Alachua County Democrats, said Rawson’s prior involvements are “grotesque” and questioned Rawson’s ability to govern all the citizens he represents.
“I don’t understand how he can claim that he’s going to represent all his constituents when he very clearly supports an organization that doesn’t believe that his non-white constituents should be citizens,” Foerst said.
Although Rawson claims he had little involvement with the League of the South, Foerst said those claims hold little weight given his yearslong history with the organization and his attendance at the Charlottesville rally.
“He needs to answer for this,” Foerst said. “He needs to quit trying to downplay this and pretending that it doesn’t matter.”
Rawson, who defeated Chase Brannan in the Republican primary to represent Florida House District 10 — which covers Bradford, Columbia, Union, Baker and the northern portion of Alachua County — said the media is trying to run a last-ditch narrative to sway voters.
“I was upfront and outspoken about my brief attendance at the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in Charlottesville,” Rawson wrote in a post on X.
In the post, which included a video, Rawson said he and his wife were in attendance with another couple to defend the legacy of Robert E. Lee.
Throughout his campaign, Rawson has been outspoken about preserving Southern history. On his campaign website, he wrote he will focus on “defending our cultural heritage against attacks from the radical left and spineless politicians.”
Preserving the “native South” is part of the League of the South’s mission.
The league was founded in 1994 by Michael Hill, who previously taught at Stillman College, a historically Black college in Alabama. Hill, a self-proclaimed southern nationalist, has spoken against the presence of minority groups in the South since founding the league.
“The Browning of America, and my native South, was not something to which I assented, and I surely do not approve of it,” Hill wrote in a 2016 Pledge of Allegiance on the League of the South’s website.
Rawson previously protested the SPLC, claiming the organization was attempting to pervert the definition of marriage by straying away from traditional Christian marriages.
Mark Solomon, a 67-year-old retired lawyer and Valencia Community College professor, wrote Rawson a letter of recommendation for his law school applications and said he continues to support him.
Solomon, who lives in Gainesville, said he’s known Rawson and his mother for over a decade, and he believes Rawson has the potential to become governor someday.
A Jewish American, Solomon recalled telling Rawson the individuals he was surrounding himself with years ago could come back to haunt him.
“I told him, ‘You need to disassociate yourself with these people,’ not because they were pro-South, just because I felt they were antisemitic.” Solomon said.
Others saw potential in Rawson’s future and attempted to attach themselves to him, Solomon said, but Rawson could succeed without them.
Still, Solomon said Rawson is a great, hardworking person, and he wrote his letter of recommendation because of it. Solomon emphasized that he’s “sensitive” to racism and antisemitism, and he doesn’t believe Rawson is either of those things.
Solomon wasn’t familiar with the League of the South, he said, but he doesn’t believe the SPLC is a reliable source, regardless.
“I didn’t trust SPLC for years. I’ve always felt they’ve been a sham corporate organization,” Solomon said. “The groups that they were against, some of them are just moms that are religious.”
Solomon cited the Tea Party, which the SPLC has spoken against, as an example. Solomon said the Tea Party, a conservative populist political movement, was a group of individuals concerned about national debt. However, the SPLC has tried to brand the movement as anti-American and racist, Solomon said.
Landon Roughton, a 20-year-old UF history junior, said Rawson’s efforts to preserve Southern history by attending the “Unite the Right” rally shouldn’t be cast in a negative light.
“Conserving Florida’s history, whether it be good or bad, is still something that we have to do in Florida,” Roughton said. “I don’t think we should be tearing down statues, changing names of places.”
Roughton said he believes Floridians want to see elected officials focused on conserving Florida’s rural communities, and Rawson is focused on just that. He added that he’s happy to see a young conservative winning his primary and standing up for what he believes in.
Roughton has met Rawson a few times, and he’s come away thinking of him as a moral, personable man, he said. Individuals shouldn’t be judged by their past involvements alone, he added.
“People make mistakes all the time,” Roughton said. “I don’t think you should judge someone based off something that happened 10 years ago.”
Rawson’s opponent in the House District 10 race, Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, said there is no place for racism in the Florida Legislature.
“My campaign is not asking voters to overlook differences on policy,” Malwitz-Jipson said in a Sept. 17 Facebook post. “I am asking voters to consider what kind of leadership they want representing them in Tallahassee.”
The two will face off Nov. 3.
Contact Logan McBride at lmcbride@alligator.org. Follow him on X @logandmcbride.
Logan is a senior journalism student and the Alligator's Fall 2026 Enterprise Politics reporter. He previously served as a reporter on the Alligator's Metro Desk, covering K-12 Education and the City/County Commissions. In his free time, he enjoys watching sports, movies, or spending time with his cat and girlfriend.
