ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A candidate in the 2022 election for Florida’s 13th Congressional District will spend three years in federal prison after threatening to have his primary opponent killed.

William Robert Braddock, 41, of St. Petersburg, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to interstate transmission of a threat to injure another person, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

Investigators said Braddock viewed his opponent — an unnamed Republican party frontrunner — as his only obstacle to winning the 2022 race.

He spent months disparaging and threatening the woman, at one point in June 2021 calling her peers and saying he would have her murdered if she continued to poll well.

Court records revealed part of the phone call, in which Braddock threatened to “call up my Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and make his primary opponent “disappear.”

“I will be the next congressman for this District. Period. End of discussion,” Braddock further stated. “And anybody going up against me is f—ing [expletive] ignorant for doing so. [The victim]’s ignorant so I don’t have a problem taking her out, but I’m not going to do that dirty work myself, obviously.”

According to reports, the race’s eventual winner, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, filed court documents in 2021 claiming that Braddock was stalking her and wanted her dead.

A Florida court ultimately granted Luna a temporary restraining order against Braddock.

After terminating his campaign that same year, Braddock fled the country, taking a one-way flight to Thailand. He later settled in the Philippines and remained there until self-surrendering to authorities in Manila in June 2023.

He was taken back to the United States in 2024 to face his charges, according to the DOJ.

The investigation was led by FBI Tampa Division and the St. Petersburg Police Department, with substantial assistance from the United States Marshals Service and foreign law enforcement agencies.