Since she was first elected in 2022, Central Florida State Representative Republican Carolina Amesty has been a political target by the Orlando Sentinel. Now, going into the 2024 Election season, the Sentinel shows no signs of relenting.
Florida Daily sat down with Amesty and her campaign team. They told us the newspaper has taken on somewhat of a self-anointed conservative giant-killer role in seeking to antagonize those with a future or who are “particularly bothersome to the liberal elite.”
In Rep. Amesty’s case, she seems to check the box for both considerations. A daughter of Venezuelan immigrants, Amnesty is familiar with the failed experiment of socialism in their former country and doesn’t want to witness that here in the U.S.
Amesty isn’t shy about her Christian faith. She regularly shares her testimony and other stories about her faith on the campaign trail. Her campaign team speculates that her outward expression of her faith may be one of the reasons why the Sentinel targets her for criticism.
The Sentinel’s focus on Amesty began during the months leading up to the 2022 General Election and continues to this day. Reporters at the newspaper questioned Amesty’s character, her business dealings, and her family’s private Christian university and made allegations of fraud and impropriety.
The Amesty campaign describes the articles as “hit pieces,” and says the articles about her are nothing more than manufactured smoke and no fire.
The Orlando Sentinel”s Allegations:
• Amesty did not have the net worth to support a sizeable donation to her own campaign.
Amesty’s campaign says that’s false, and Amesty owns a piece of commercial real estate with market data that supports the estimated net worth.
• Amesty lied about studying abroad at a foreign university.
Not true, says the campaign. They showed Florida Daily where the information is easily found online (You can see the documentation HERE)
• Amesty turned in a fraudulent report for her university.
Amesty says that’s another false claim by the reporters at the Sentinel.
We asked Amesty if these accusations are false, then why exactly would the Sentinel imply she had filed fraudulent applications for the university.
“The Sentinel’s so-called education reporters are wrongly assuming that it is improper to include in our application the resumes of potential professors that could teach at Central Christian but never have,” said Amesty. “The reality is that this is exactly what all universities are required to do in anticipation of employing a professor. Whether they ever teach or not, their resumes must be submitted to the State for evaluation.”
Amesty provided us with a response from the Florida Department of Education that concurs, and the Florida Department of Education has taken no action related to the so-called fraudulent application.
There was also a question related to whether the university had properly requested an exemption for the property taxes of a home purchased by the university for the president’s residence. The issue may have felt a little complicated because Amesty’s father is the president of the school, but a further review indicates that there are many colleges and universities that purchase or lease off-campus housing for their presidents.
Amesty tells Florida Daily her family ultimately opted to pay the taxes because the politics were spiraling out of control. But is there really anything improper about a non-profit university seeking to be exempted from paying property taxes on a residence for its chief administrator?
Then, last month, the Sentinel unveiled another attack piece on Amesty, questioning whether an almost 90-year-old former professor could remember signing a notarized document related to his employment. He said he could not remember signing it. The Sentinel ran a story alleging that Amesty notarized a document without his signature, implying the professor had been pushed into a scheme of some sort. Yet, this professor worked at the school for over two years, and Amesty’s school has the employment records and 1099’s to support the fact.
Ultimately, the stream of allegations led Amesty to file a defamation lawsuit against the Orlando Sentinel.
“I’ve never seen this level of persecution for someone in a legislative position, but I can understand why. The liberal media hate pro-business, pro-border wall, pro-life conservatives,” said Amesty’s political consultant, Brett Doster.
Doster said the Sentinel has unfairly targeted his client with constant misleading hit pieces.
“What Amesty and her family have gone through is exactly why good people don’t want to run for office,” said Doster.
