As expected, Matt Gaetz won his primary in the MAGA Alabama part of Florida— and it was a 72.6% to 27.4% landslide. Kevin McCarthy invented a PAC, Florida Patriots, to funnel at least $3,090,423 (not all expenditures are reported yet) into defeating his arch-enemy, $2,151,210 attacking Gaetz and $939,213 into bolstering Aaron Dimmock, the candidate he recruited.
There were no surprises in the Florida congressional primaries for either party. Every crap incumbent was renominated; in fact very few races were contested, a sign of a sick democracy with low turnout and corrupted political parties, not a sense of satisfaction with the incumbents, almost all of whom reek. Of Florida’s 28 incumbents seeking reelection, only 15 had opponents and of the 15 only 3 (Dimmock, Mara Macie, Eddie Speir) generated more than a quarter of the vote.
There was some excitement, though in a couple of state legislative primaries. It’s not exciting but it is worth mentioning that Matt Gaetz’s crooked father, Don Gaetz, unopposed, “won” a blood red state Senate district primary and will be returning to the legislature where he served for a decade ending in 2016. There was an actual exciting race across the state for the 7th Senate district south of Jacksonville that includes all of St. Johns, Flagler and Putnam counties and a small bit of Volusia County. It’s a safe Republican district but what made it exciting was Trump’s last minute— failed— interference, which included one of his one size fits all endorsements on video. Apparently, Trump hates state Rep Tom Leek, the current House Budget Committee chair, because he endorsed DeSantis in the presidential primary.
DeSantis, Rick Scott and the state GOP establishment had endorsed Leek. His opponent, David Shoar, was supported not just by Trump, but by the state’s trial attorneys (including super-rich, alcoholic weirdo-Democrap John Morgan). More money was spent on this local race than on most congressional contests— millions of dollars on each side! Shoar— whose whole campaign was about Trump endorsing him— only managed to pull in 28% of the vote.
Trump was luckier in the Brevard County open state Senate seat, where his candidate, prominent genocidal maniac, Randy Fine beat Chuck Sheridan 39,158 (73.59%) to 14,054 (26.41%). DeSantis hates Fine because he flipped his endorsement to Trump while DeSantis was still expecting to win the presidential primary… but he didn’t actively oppose Fine. Sheridan is challenging the results. Sheridan: “He literally stole the election. He ran a corrupt campaign, by people who have been prosecuted for campaign fraud in 2020.” He was talking about well-known scumbag and GOP political consultant and hatchet man Anthony Pedicini.
And speaking of lawsuits, there’s another one cooking in the 13th Senate Orlando area district (Lake County and parts of Orange County), where weirdo fanatic homophobe, Confederate Dennis Baxley is retiring. The establishment candidate, who won handily, is state Rep Keith Truenow and the Florida Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee is being sued by his far right opponent, Bowen Kou, a wealthy Chinese-American grocery chain owner, over racist mailers on Truenow’s behalf that assert Kou is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The lawsuit was filed by extreme neo-fascist Anthony Sabatini, Kou’s attorney, chair of the Lake County GOP and perennial candidate.
Meanwhile, further down the ballot, DeSantis found some serious trouble Tuesday. Andrew Atterbury reported late Tuesday night that DeSantis’ attempt to elect fascist extremists to “school board members across Florida hit a snag Tuesday, as candidates backed by the Republican governor fell in several key races. DeSantis, who has made reshaping Florida’s education system a top priority, endorsed 23 candidates ahead of Tuesday’s election. And as of late Tuesday night, at least 11 appear to have lost... Candidates endorsed by DeSantis won six races, according to unofficial county election results, with another six heading to runoffs in November.”
The races are non-partisan but DeSantis and Moms for Liberty sex predators supported the right-wingers and state Dems and the Florida Education Association supported the normal candidates. Atterbury pointed out that “Out of the four matchups where DeSantis and the Florida Democratic Party went head-to-head, Democrats notched two wins compared to one for the governor, with another set for a runoff. These races were some of the more heated in Florida, as candidates squared off over issues like book banning and the role parents have in shaping their children’s education... In Hillsborough County, incumbents Nadia Combs and Jessica Vaughn, both endorsed by Democrats and the FEA, retained their seats against Layla Collins, the wife of GOP state Sen. Jay Collins, and Myosha Powell— both endorsed by DeSantis. Those two seats could have flipped the makeup of the local school board in the Tampa area… In Pinellas County, DeSantis endorsed three candidates who were also backed by Moms for Liberty— including two against incumbents— in another bid to shake up a local school board. But the incumbents Eileen Long and Laura Hine defeated DeSantis endorsees Erika Picard and Danielle Marolf. The third DeSantis endorsee, Stacy Geier, is set for a runoff race.”
Blue America’s Florida Act Blue page now has 5 candidates still standing, Thomas Witkop running for the seat currently held by GOP-MAGA congressman Brian Mast, state Senate candidate Ben Braver (suburbs and exurbs east of Tampa) and state House candidates Angie Nixon (Jacksonville), Jackie Kellogg (Miami) and Haley Morrissette (Pensacola). Angie had a tough opponent in GOP-lite former City Councilwoman Brenda Priestly Jackson but the constituents weren’t in the mood to replace the best member of the state House with a Republican ass-kisser and Angie trounced her 81% to 19%.
Yesterday, Tim Murphy noted that The Vibe Has Shifted Downballot Too, writing from the convention that “the new enthusiasm isn’t just happening at the top of the ticket. It’s also percolating downballot, where state legislative candidates and party strategists say they’ve seen a surge in energy and fundraising since the ticket switch. ‘The environment had sort of felt like a perpetual rematch,’ Heather Williams, president of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, told me recently. The reaction to Harris’ ascension had shown that there was a ‘craving’ in the electorate for something different that a lot of people in politics hadn’t fully reckoned with. Now there is ‘a new sort of level of engagement around what is possible and what could be.’”
Haley Morrissette, a strong progressive, and her team are certainly building on the vibe. Yesterday she told me that she's "fired up and ready to bring Hope, Healing, and Healthcare for All to Northwest Florida. Being in a place where the majority lean Republican should discourage me, but that only fuels my determination to hit the ground harder and push even stronger for the change we need. This campaign isn't just about winning— it's about proving that with passion and persistence, we can overcome any odds and build a future that works for everyone.”
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