When a Washington Free Beacon report revealed a connection between Florida congressional candidate Aaron Baker and convicted pedophile Matthew Lucas, Baker sought to downplay the ties, describing Lucas as a "co-worker from 3 years ago" and arguing that he was unaware of Lucas's 2016 guilty plea to the felony sexual abuse of a 13-year-old boy.
But a Free Beacon analysis suggests a far closer relationship between Baker and Lucas than the candidate has acknowledged: The two have spent birthdays and holidays together and socialized with each other's families.
Baker, who has the backing of the insurgent gubernatorial candidate James Fishback, has mounted a primary challenge to unseat freshman Rep. Randy Fine (R.) in Florida's deep-red Sixth Congressional District. Baker's father, Edwin Blackwelder, is a convicted murderer and drug dealer. Blackwelder owns Baker's home and has done business with his campaign. But Baker's relationship with Lucas is even more troublesome.
Lucas has a disturbing criminal history. He was charged in 2015 with five criminal counts, including sex abuse of a minor. Lucas, then 35 years old, sexually assaulted a 13-year-old boy, including performing multiple sex acts on the victim and coercing the victim to perform sex acts on him, according to court records. The boy told police that "he and suspect Lucas performed various sexual acts on each other at the suspect's grandparent’s house" in Baltimore. The records reveal that Lucas had exposed himself to the victim on another occasion and had shown the boy various pictures of male genitalia.
Lucas pleaded guilty to one felony count of sexual abuse of a minor and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but his sentence was suspended, and he received just five years of probation. Lucas remains a registered sex offender in Maryland.
While Baker is attempting to play down his relationship with Lucas, the registered sex offender can be seen in the background of a video posted to Baker's campaign account in May 2025 at a bladder cancer charity event. Just months later, in August 2025, Lucas donated to Baker's campaign.
Before that, in September 2024, Baker posted a photo and video of himself with Lucas, a second person he described as his "step-dad," and a newly adopted dog. In the video, Lucas appears to be driving Baker and the dog. Baker and Lucas are repeatedly pictured together in social media posts throughout 2023, including at Baker's birthday party, where he and Lucas pose arm-in-arm with Baker's partner, James Buete, in front of a cake.
Other photos show Baker and Lucas together at an intimate birthday dinner for Lucas's mother and a meal with Blackwelder. Yet another shows Lucas and Baker at a get-together with Buete's parents. In February 2025, Baker, who was wearing a Baltimore Orioles jersey, reposted that picture with Lucas on his campaign account to show his support for the baseball team.
The ties between Lucas and Baker, a Florida native who appears to have lived in Maryland until recent years, don't stop with the Orioles. While Baker told his followers on X that Lucas "has never been in my home," he told the Free Beacon after its first report that Lucas had never been "at my house in Florida." The careful change in language indicates Lucas has in fact been to Baker's Maryland home—he can be seen there in a video Blackwelder posted at a 2023 Memorial Day Celebration.
Baker still follows Lucas on X, on both his personal and campaign accounts, as does Buete. Baker's top campaign donor and volunteer coordinator, Annette Walling, also follows Lucas on X.
Baker and Lucas's relationship dates back to at least 2020. In December of that year, Baker posted a message to Lucas on X saying, "Hieeeeeeee!"
Lucas also appears to have a professional relationship with Baker's father, Blackwelder. In 2023, Lucas formed a Florida company called Blue Sky Consulting & Design LLC, with Blackwelder as its registered corporate agent. In December 2025, Blackwelder commented on a professional headshot of Lucas, saying the post was "Definitely a great look!!"
When presented with the various photos and videos, Baker acknowledged that Lucas was not just a coworker but, in fact, a "close personal friend." Baker pledged to propose a bill to "protect employees when an employer hires a sexual predator."
The Free Beacon revealed last week that Baker, who says he's the "only Republican candidate living & working in our district," actually established his ties to the district two years ago when he registered to vote at a property purchased by his father, Blackwelder. Baker dismissed the report as an attack from "sweaty RINOs."
"WHAT DO YOU HAVE ON ME? NOT A DAMN THING," he wrote on X.
Blackwelder has a criminal history going back decades. He was sentenced in 1980 to 75 years in prison for second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a man in a Polk County, Fla., citrus grove. That sentence was suspended after 20 years in a controversial decision that was criticized by the victim's family. Before his murder conviction, he was convicted of multiple felonies, including forgery and grand theft.
Blackwelder was again arrested in 2019 after trafficking more than 30,000 Chinese opioid pills in an operation that generated between $300,000 to $450,000 in revenue. He pleaded guilty to one felony and was sentenced to probation that ended in 2023.
Baker's connections to unsavory figures like Blackwelder and Lucas could hinder his campaign to unseat Fine. Fine, who was hailed by President Donald Trump as "an incredible voice for MAGA, and the Great People of Florida," already beat Baker by 70 points in the Republican primary for the special election in 2025. Fine went on to defeat Democrat Josh Weil for the seat by 14 points.
Fishback, 31, a Republican running against Trump-endorsed Byron Donalds, says that Baker is "a grassroots America First conservative who lives in the district, works for a living, and refuses to take a dime from foreign lobbies or dark-money insiders."
Fishback is also no stranger to controversy. He campaigned unsuccessfully with Trump for a Federal Reserve Board seat, and claimed that he was an adviser for Elon Musk's DOGE, even though a DOGE spokeswoman said he was not.
He's also been accused of inappropriate behavior with a minor. In 2022, a parent who was involved with a debate program Fishback set up for middle and high school students alleged that Fishback had an inappropriate relationship with a 17-year-old student in the program. The student, Keinah Fort, earlier this year sought an order of protection against Fishback, accusing him of initiating a romantic relationship when he was 27 and she was 17. The two split when Fishback threw things at Fort "on multiple occasions."
The accusations prompted multiple school districts to stop working with Fishback's debate program and caused a board member of one of the districts to resign. "Leading an organization that serves minor children requires a level of caution, care, and maturity that is woefully absent from how this organization currently operates," the board member wrote. "There is no excuse for blurring the lines of appropriate conduct."
