Rick Roth ★

⚠️ REVIEW FLAG (narrowed 2026-09-11) — Ray's Heritage, LLC is now independently confirmed; Roth Farms, Inc. itself still lacks direct Sunbiz confirmation — recommend a follow-up entity-name search.

⚠️ REVIEW FLAG — Direct structural overlap between his agribusiness ownership and his legislative influence over agricultural/water/labor policy affecting that same industry; the ProPublica-documented H-2A/immigration-bill example is a concrete instance of this dynamic, though not itself a violation.

🔴 PRIORITY — Roth supported heat protections for student athletes but opposed extending similar protections to outdoor workers, a category that includes agricultural laborers in his own industry, shortly before an OSHA finding connected a lack of heat protection to a farmworker's death at a company employing H-2A workers. This is a specific, well-documented voting-record inconsistency directly relevant to his own economic interest as EAA farm owner; recommend the operator review this section directly alongside the existing Category 1/2 findings.

None beyond the Voting Record PRIORITY flag above.

None beyond the item already documented above.

⚠️ REVIEW FLAG (narrowed 2026-09-11) — Comprehensive list now self-reported via survey (Trump, CPAC, Rep. Gerwig) but not yet independently verified against a primary source; recommend confirming before treating the list as fully established.

⚠️ CROSS-REFERENCE — See the existing Category 3 PRIORITY finding for context relevant to an overall character-consistency assessment; not re-scored here. ⚠️ SURVEY DISCREPANCY (2026-09-11): Roth's survey (Q29) identifies his current church as Community of Hope Church in Loxahatchee, not Truth Point Church. He describes Truth Point (West Palm Beach, founded 2007) as a past affiliation from earlier in his life, alongside Christ Fellowship Church (2001–2008), and notes that Truth Point's founding pastor — his son-in-law — has since relocated out of state to pastor a different church. This does not contradict the underlying fact that he helped found Truth Point; it does mean the previously-sourced description of his current church (from Vote Smart) is now out of date. The Findings above are left as originally sourced and dated; this note reflects the current picture per his own account.

⚠️ REVIEW FLAG (narrowed 2026-09-11) — A specific debate commitment is now self-reported (COBWRA, 2026-08-06); this date predates his 2026-07-22 survey submission, so by his own account the debate had likely already occurred by the time of the survey. Recommend confirming independently (news coverage or COBWRA records) that it took place as stated.

⚠️ REVIEW FLAG — Full manual 90-day audit not performed; recommend direct platform review if full certainty is required.

⚠️ REVIEW FLAG — While self-funding avoids third-party PAC influence, the scale of personal wealth deployed by a sitting agribusiness owner is worth reading alongside the existing Category 2 PRIORITY unverified-business-history finding. ⚠️ SURVEY DISCREPANCY (2026-09-11): Roth's survey (Q34, submitted 2026-07-22) self-reports a different total: $70,150 in contributions (21.9%) + $250,100 in personal loans (78.1%) = $320,250. This is lower than the $349,000 cumulative total reported by Florida Politics as of the Q1 2026 filing deadline — which predates his July survey submission, so the later self-reported figure would ordinarily be equal to or higher than the earlier press-reported cumulative total, not lower. Both figures agree on the core pattern (roughly 75–80% self-funded via personal loan/bank account), so this does not appear to mischaracterize his funding sources — but the totals do not reconcile, and this has not been resolved this pass. Possible explanations include differing reporting definitions ("added since leaving office" vs. total-to-date), loan repayments reducing a later-reported balance, or a reporting-period mismatch. Presented factually for voters and the operator; not an accusation.

None beyond the standard PAC-notation format above.

⚠️ SURVEY DISCREPANCY (2026-09-11) — Independent verification found HB 991 (2026) was sponsored by Reps. Jenna Persons-Mulicka and Dana Trabulsy, not Roth, and it passed in 2026 — after Roth's House service had already ended (2024), meaning he was not a sitting legislator able to vote on it. His survey's "we passed HB 991" framing claims credit for a bill he had no role in passing. His other stated positions in this metric (voter ID, restricted VBM eligibility) are standalone policy preferences not tied to a specific bill-sponsorship claim and are not affected by this discrepancy.

⚠️ REVIEW FLAG (2026-09-11) — The specific land-trust/PUD bill-authorship claim could not be independently confirmed via a legislative bill-sponsor search this pass (unlike the Environment/Everglades claim below, which was independently confirmed). The 2022–2023 statewide insurance reforms he cites are real and well-documented, but reflect the Legislature's broader action, not something specific to verify as personally his.

⚠️ SURVEY DISCREPANCY (2026-09-11) — Independent verification found SB 318 (2026, Educational Scholarship Programs) died in Messages in the House (last action 2026-03-13) — it did not pass and is not law. Available bill-history sources list Sen. Gaetz, not Roth, as the filing senator. As with HB 991 above, Roth had also already left the Legislature (2024) before the 2026 session in which this bill was considered, so he could not have personally voted on it. His survey frames this as something he "supported" and accomplished ("I supported landmark funding reform"), which overstates both his role and the bill's outcome. His broader stated preference for school choice/vouchers/ESAs is not itself contradicted by this — only the specific SB 318 claim is.

None — cross-reference resolved with a modest positive finding. [UPDATED 2026-09-11] ✅ SURVEY CLAIM INDEPENDENTLY CONFIRMED — Roth's survey (Q26) states he "authored legislation to redirect funding toward protecting the Indian River Lagoon and subsidize septic-to-sewer conversions at 50%," plus support for northern water storage/Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) wells, the DeSantis initiative dedicating 95% of Seminole Gaming Compact revenue to Everglades restoration, and coastal-resilience infrastructure. Independent verification found Roth was a co-introducer of HB 1379 (2023), which strengthened Florida's wastewater-treatment requirements and funded septic-to-sewer conversions in the Indian River Lagoon watershed (enacted alongside SB 1632; the state separately allocated $100 million for Indian River Lagoon-area projects). This substantiates the substance of his claim, though "co-introducer" is a more precise description than "authored." The ASR/water-storage and DeSantis/Seminole Compact claims were not independently re-verified this pass. Sources: Orlando Weekly — "GOP Florida Rep. Rick Roth is a farmer who spent 30 years fighting to keep his immigrant workforce" — 2026-08-27; Florida House of Representatives, HB 1379 (2023) bill history — 2026-09-11