PARRISH, FL — A candidate for Florida's 16th Congressional District was arrested Tuesday during a welfare check on his children at their Parrish home, reports said.
Mark Davis, 42, was arrested by the Manatee County Sheriff's Office on a charge of obstruction without violence and booked into Manatee County Jail, jail records show. He was released the same day on a $500 bond.
The candidate said in a social media post that throughout his campaign he's faced repeated false reports to law enforcement and death threats.
Davis is running with no party affiliation in a crowded race to replace U.S. Senator Vern Buchanan, who is retiring after 20 years in Congress. District 16 represents parts of Pinellas, Manatee, DeSoto, Hardee, Polk, Sarasota and Hillsborough counties.
Republicans Sydney Gruters, Jason Speir and Dr. Edward Pope are vying for the GOP nomination in the Aug. 17 primary, according to the Florida Election Commission. Meanwhile, Kelly Kirschner, Tamika Lyles, Jonathan Harris, Jan Schneider Glenn Pearson are contending for the Democratic nod.
Davis, the only candidate running with no party affiliation, has built a social media following of more than 105,000 followers on Instagram and more than 80,000 on Facebook. He's known for profanity-laden posts to share his message and to criticize political opponents, including President Donald Trump, his administration, and his supporters.
Shortly after being released from jail, Davis posted, "Stop arresting me and start arresting [expletive] pedophiles!!!!"
Deputies arrived at his Parrish home around 4 p.m. on Tuesday to assist the Florida Department of Children and Families, which received a July 23 hotline complaint expressing concern for his children's well-being, WFLA reported.
After DCF reportedly tried reaching his children multiple times without success, local law enforcement served an order for an Emergency Motion to Produce Children, WFLA said.
Deputies told the news outlet that he pushed past detectives to enter the home while investigators were speaking to his children inside. He was taken into custody and charged with obstruction.
"I'd never been in a jail cell before," Davis wrote in a social media post after his arrest. "The deputies came to my house with a court order. They separated me from my family, entered my home, and when I tried to go back into my own house after asking where the order said I couldn't, they arrested me. So I sat in a jail cell."
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Though additional information about his arrest wasn't available Thursday, a video he recorded and posted to social media showed his interaction with law enforcement when they came to his home Tuesday, just before his arrest. (Watch the full video here.)
In the video, Davis can be heard saying, "I do not consent to this. This is against the law … I want you guys off my property immediately please."
The candidate added, "I'm happy. I'm healthy. My kids are happy. My kids are healthy … Just because I don't like Donald Trump, you guys are out here harassing me? This is ridiculous. This whole police force has turned into something that is unrecognizable in the United States today."
In the video, Davis also threatened to sue the departments involved and file complaints against those responding to his home.
"This is [expletive.] Whoever wrote this is getting in freakin' trouble," he said.
When he tried to go inside his home while investigators were looking around, one of the deputies told him, "You're not going inside, buddy."
As Davis questioned why he can't, one of the deputies alluded to it being in the court order.
While looking through the court order to see if it states he can't be in the home, Davis reads part of the document aloud, stating that it allows the state's Child Protective Investigations to conduct "safety assessment regarding allegations of abuse, abandonment or neglect."
When he couldn't find language asserting that they could refuse him entry to his own home in the court order, the deputy said, "I don't think it's safe for me to let you in there right now."
Davis also told the deputies, "I've never met these people that are doing these complaints. Do you understand that?"
The video ends just after he moves toward the deputy, repeatedly saying, "Touch me, touch me, touch me."
In a social media post after his release, Davis said that investigators "left with nothing."
He added, "One of them looked around and said This house is a lot cleaner than the houses we normally go to."
Davis also said that he's taken money from campaign funds to pay for bail and that he's written to the ACLU of Florida requesting legal assistance.
"For months, my family has been subjected to repeated false reports, harassment, unwanted contact, doxxing and death threats while I'm running for Congress," he wrote in the email to the ACLU, which he shared on social media.
He also said he's received an "outpouring of support, messages and donations" since his arrest.
Davis stressed that he plans to continue his campaign.
"Yes, I was arrested. Now it's time to move on….onward and upward. We're not slowing down…we're going to keep fighting for accountability, true universal healthcare and actual lower prices," he wrote in a post.
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