Another Top Election Official from a Red State Jumps Ship

July 26, 2026 china

Kat Stansell

July 27, 2026

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(And Secretary of State?)

Both Florida AND now Texas have had their chief election officials resign suddenly and with no explanation;

Is this defense or offense? Are the states of FL and now TX, planning to investigate these women, Maria Matthews and Jane Nelson, or are they getting rid of them in the attempt to plan a good defense?

Or were these two nearly simultaneous resignations of top state election officials, just an unlikely random occurrence? That’d be nice, but…

Remember, these two states have a total of SEVENTY electoral college votes, or 25.9% of those necessary to officially elect a candidate. Both Florida and Texas are important to the outcome of national elections.

Jane Nelson, TX SOS, has resigned, effective the day after President Trump’s announcement about Chinese election interference. Nelson was the longest serving Republican woman in TX government, having served in the state Senate for 30 years before being named Secretary of State in 2022.

Friday was Nelson’s last day as SOS. On Thursday, she announced her team sent notices to several county election offices prompting them to investigate 8,537 voters whose registrations bear commercial property addresses.

From KXAN Austin,

“Texas law requires voters register with the address where they reside. It’s a second-degree felony for Texans to misrepresent their residential address when registering to vote.

“Maintaining voter rolls requires continual review,” (Nelson) said in a Thursday press release. “We are working with counties to make sure they can take action on registrations tied to commercial mailboxes in order to prevent fraud and voter confusion ahead of the November Election.”

HUH??? Shouldn’t the person responsible for a state’s elections be part of looking into this herself? Sheesh…. I’m just old-fashioned, I guess.

Maria Matthews, Florida’s Director of Elections, also resigned suddenly, as you already know, also with no explanation ,on the Monday before President Donald Trump’s speech. Matthews actually bailed “retroactively”, announcing on July 13, that her last day of office had been June 30, 2026, although she would help out until the end of July.

Did Matthews so this to get things in order for her replacement, or to help destroy evidence? Why the sudden need for a replacement? At this point, I think these are fair questions.

Both Matthews (FL) and Nelson (TX) had been in LONG service to their states. Last Substack, I told you that Matthews had been Director of Elections since 2013, under Governor Jeb Bush. Even before that, however, Matthews was given important roles.

In 2006, Matthews testified before the FL Dept of State concerning the recent “hanging chads” issue, which led to the use of voting machines. Here is her full statement:

Testimony of Maria Matthews, Assistant General Counsel for the Florida Department of State, July 13, 2006

Maria Matthews has been a part of Florida election administration for over 20 years, and was active in the state’s DOE during the hanging chad issue.

Jane Nelson served in the TX Senate under Governor GEORGE Bush served TX from 1995 – 2000. She was first elected to the TX Senate in 1992.

My question is this:

Why are those in charge of elections in both states bailing at the same time, after a Presidential speech about stole voter records; and curiously enough, both with a history of working with Bush brothers? Maybe it is coincidence, maybe not.

When I heard the TX news, this thought popped into my crowded head. Take it for what it’s worth…

*****

In 2020, the then-SOS of the United States, Mike Pompeo, warned America’s governors . . . to be wary of China, which he said was targeting individual U.S. states in a strategic effort to expand its economic and political influence.

He said a Chinese government-backed think tank has assessed all 50 governors on their attitude toward China and assigned each one a label: “friendly, hard-line or ambiguous.” Abbott was on the “ambiguous” list, and DeSantis, “hardline”.

Of course, anyone who really knows DeSantis,, knows that he makes statements that are what he thinks his audience wants to hear. Then does something entirely the opposite.

Such was the case with doing business with the Chinese in Florida.

From the NY Post, 2022:

“On the campaign trail, the 45-year-old DeSantis has said he would “reorient” US foreign policy to prioritize the Indo-Pacific region and signed legislation preventing Chinese Communist Party affiliates from purchasing land near military bases.

HOWEVER . . .

Cirrus Aircraft — a subsidiary of Aviation Industry Corp. (AVIC) of China — opened two new locations in central Florida in 2022.

One of those was at the Orlando Executive Airport, 12.7 miles away from the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division.”

Also, I might add that 1400 acres of rural western FL, were sold to a Chinese business which raises animals to be used in testing – just BEFORE the legislation was signed.

There are more, well-hidden. As of April, 2026, there are 2,527 Chinese restaurants doing business in Florida today. Since we know that many AI centers can be as small as a back room of an office, we must put these into the count.

Ok, back on track. Two senior election officials in conservative states have abruptly resigned their positions. It seems to me to be far more than coincidence.

I believe that these Matthews and Nelson may well have something from which to run. Was it what what current head of Homeland Security, Markwayne Millin has aid after Trump’s speech last week?

“Officials in states that refuse to support the federal government’s election integrity effort could face serious consequences”

“I will tell you, the states that choose not to participate with the SAVE program and they choose not to participate in securing the elections, we will make sure that we make those states a priority to look at who voted in their states and hold them, the election officials, accountable,” Millin said in a video posted to X.

Run girls run?

Just sayin’.

I am going to digging around to find if similar things are going down in other states.

E-Mail Kat Stansell: [email protected]