Dec. 20, 2019 by David Silverberg
Yet another Republican candidate has filed to fill Florida’s 19th Congressional District seat being vacated by Rep. Francis Rooney.
Darren Dionne Aquino, a resident of Naples, formerly of New York, filed his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday, Dec. 17.
Aquino’s filing brings to 10 the number of candidates running for the seat: seven Republicans, two Democrats and one Independent.
In a single, unpunctuated, 228-word run-on sentence on his Facebook page, Aquino states that he’s running “to make a difference for the American people we all sit by and watch our elected officials do more self-serving than they do constituent serving…” [sic].
Aquino declared his candidacy for mayor of New York City in 2017 but did not file for the Republican primary election. He has been an advocate for veterans and the disabled. He played a disabled police officer on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” a mobster on “The Sopranos” and mayor of New York in the 2017 movie, The Streetz.