Former Florida congressional candidate is sentenced to prison for threatening to kill rival Anna Paulina Luna

A former Republican candidate for Congress in Florida was sentenced to three years in prison for threatening to kill his political rival, Anna Paulina Luna.

William Braddock, 41, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was sentenced in Tampa federal court Wednesday after being charged with interstate transmission of threat to injure. Braddock pleaded guilty in February.

Braddock made threats against his main political opponent, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who was the Republican frontrunner in Florida’s 13th Congressional District during the 2021 primary, according to court documents.

Braddock, a former marine, at the time claimed Luna was “his only obstacle to winning that race,” and would disparage her as a way to interject himself into her life, the Department of Justice said in a press release.

Damning evidence revealed that Braddock threatened to have Luna murdered if she continued to poll well in the race, telling an acquaintance of hers on the phone he would “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and make Luna “disappear.”

“I will be the next congressman for this District. Period. End of discussion. And anybody going up against me is f***ing ignorant for doing so,” he told the acquaintance, according to the DOJ.

A recording of the phone call was also leaked to Politico in 2021, revealing the extent of Braddock’s threats.

“I really don’t want to have to end anybody’s life for the good of the people of the United States of America. That will break my heart. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done,” he said.

“Luna is a f***ing speed bump in the road. She’s a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood.”

In the call, Braddock went on to call Luna “a piece of s***.”

Luna went on to win the primary and congressional seat.

Soon after, he fled to Thailand before settling in the Philippines. He later surrendered to authorities in Manila in June 2023 before he was transported back to the U.S. in September 2024, according to the DOJ.

The charge he faced carried a maximum sentence of five years in prison.