Melissa Howard's alleged fake college degree has roiled the Florida Republican’s campaign for the state legislature two weeks before the primary, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported, as the candidate's campaign consultant called the revelation "fake news" over the weekend.
Howard is running against Tommy Gregory, a Sarasota attorney, in the Republican primary for the State House District 73 seat that covers eastern Manatee County and a portion of eastern Sarasota County, the newspaper said.
Gregory pounced on the story over the weekend and Howard's husband reportedly was hospitalized after suffering a "cardiac event."
Meanwhile, the local Republican party said it will back Howard if she wins the primary on Aug. 28.
Conservative news outlet Florida News Online reported last week that Howard did not have a bachelor's degree from Miami University of Ohio as the candidate claimed, saying she attended the school in the 1990s but never graduated.
To refute the charge, Howard reportedly posted a partial college transcript on her Facebook page and a picture of her sitting with her mother holding a copy of the diploma in a frame, the website said.
Howard told the Herald-Tribune that she found diploma during a trip back to Ohio, saying her mom had stashed the document in a storage unit.
"I couldn't sleep, I couldn't deal with this," Howard told the Herald-Tribune Friday, saying she felt the need to prove she actually graduated.
But Miami University's general counsel, Robin Parker, said over the weekend in an email that Howard had not graduated from the university, the newspaper said.
In the email, reported on by the Herald-Tribune and Florida News Online, Parker said there was no record of Howard graduating from institution in 1994 nor 1996, which the candidate had claimed on separate occasions.
The diploma, which has since been removed from Howard's Facebook page, had said she received a Bachelor of Science in Marketing, which does not exist at the university. The diploma also contained the signature of Robert C. Johnson as a dean. While Johnson was a dean, the university said he would not have signed a diploma received by Howard.
Howard's campaign consultant Anthony Pedicini told the Herald-Tribune that Howard's husband was recovering at a hospital after he suffered a "cardiac event" on Friday and would not be commenting.
"Melissa is focused on her family — not fake news this morning," Pedicini said, according to the Herald-Tribune.
While some Republican Party members have urged Howard to drop out of the race, the Republican Party of Sarasota issued a statement saying that it would support her if she wins the primary, the Herald-Tribune said.
According to the Herald-Tribune's candidate profile, Howard is the co-owner of IMMEXLS, an International Medical Trade Show that employs five people and has 20 years of management and operations experience.
Gregory has taken seized the opportunity to bash his fellow Republican as the race winds down, the newspaper stated.
"From reading yesterday's news stories and what the general counsel from Miami University stated, the Melissa Howard diploma is not authentic, and the actions surrounding that diploma raise a lot of questions about integrity and character," Gregory told the Herald-Tribune. "But I'll leave that to the Howard campaign."
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