Who is Alfie Oakes? Love him, hate him, MAGA grocer has Collier County's attention

From candidates to COVID, fluoride to farming, Alfie Oakes has been grabbing headlines in Southwest Florida for years.

Starting as a teen selling produce from the back of a truck, Oakes grew to become what one pundit calls “our mini Trump,” cultivating a new kind of GOP identity, far from the old-guard, country club traditionalists.

But who is this out-front political influencer who regularly battles fellow Republicans (most recently Collier County’s Supervisor of Elections, Melissa Blazier)?

'Our mini Trump' How Republican farmer Alfie Oakes became Collier County's kingmaker

Alfie Oakes worked his way from the ground up

Born in Delaware City, Del., (you can still hear a bit of the accent) Francis Alfred Oakes III is 56, according to his Facebook profile. When he was 5, his father Frank Jr.’s produce business failed, and the family moved to an east Fort Myers duplex. As a kid, Alfie worked at his father’s small store and went to North Fort Myers High School. Weekends, he trekked to Immokalee to buy produce to sell at the foot of the Cape Coral Bridge, then opened Hancock Farm Market on Hancock Bridge Parkway when he was 18. With his wife Deanne, a former cashier at the market, he has three children: Dain, Kyle and Hannah. He also started growing vegetables, partnering with his father, who died in 2013.

Seeding success alongside controversy

Oakes opened the spectacular-by-any-measure Seed to Table in 2019, just as COVID was surging, then became a lightning rod after telling Naples Daily News columnist Phil Fernandez the disease was bogus, taking Collier County to court for its mask mandate.

Picketers showed up to protest that as well as his 2020 Facebook screed against the Black Lives Matter movement, which he called a hoax, and George Floyd, a Black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis, who he called a "disgraceful career criminal."

Lee County schools cut ties with Oakes, and he took them to court, saying their termination of his three-year, $6 million deal was breach of contract, plus an infringement of his First Amendment right to free speech. He's spoken against 5G cell towers and municipal fluoridation, which he considers a globalist strategy to subdue the population. “If you don’t think this is intentional to dumb us down, to keep control of the people in this country, then I don’t think you’re paying attention … We don't trust the white coats anymore,” he said earlier this year.

Oakes' farms supply his stores

Oakes Farms, among the biggest agribusinesses in south Florida, employs some 3,500 people. His empire includes fields, stores, packing houses and even a boutique. The flagship is Seed to Table, a $30 million destination grocery experience that goes well beyond produce and includes a bakery, a butcher shop and performance space.

Politics is also on the table

In this Republican stronghold, Seed to Table has become the clubhouse for the party’s local Make America Great Again wing. And Oakes puts his money where his mouth is. In 2021, he footed the bill for two busloads of Trump supporters bound for Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6 to attend to what Oakes later called "the most peaceful beautiful demonstration from well over one million people that I've ever witnessed."

The following year, all seven of “Alfie’s Freedom Picks” handily won their seats in Collier County's elections. He's supporting a number of candidates this year as well, including Dave Schaffel, who’s opposing election supervisor Blazier.

Alfie vs. Melissa Blazier

Their quarrel hinges on whether Oakes properly filed the paperwork to qualify to be on the ballot for Republican state committeemen, a post he’s held the past four years. Oakes says an office employee told him he was "good to go," but when it turned out he'd handed in the wrong form, he rushed back to correct the error eight minutes late.

That's enough to disqualify him, Blazier says, and that as a constitutional officer, she must enforce the rules. "There is no fraud. There is no racketeering," she said in a statement. "Mr. Oakes is ultimately responsible for his failure to properly qualify for placement of his name on the ballot."

Letters to the editor: Alfie Oakes at fault for missing filing deadline, now he's grandstanding

He has famous friends

In 2021, part time resident, rocker, gun-lover and COVID skeptic Ted Nugent appeared at Seed to Table before testing positive for COVID a week later. Naples Congressman Byron Donalds is a frequent Seed to Table guest. Earlier this year, entrepreneur and former GOP presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy showed up for lunch.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Oakes Farms owner has Collier County, MAGA crowd's attention