Florida goes to the polls in a dramatic primary election. The battle to replace DeSantis, Moskowitz versus DSA radical Larkin, and Wasserman Schultz versus ‘Uncle Luke’ and an indicted congresswoman facing 53 years in prison.
Tuesday is election day in Florida, and both Democrats and Republicans will choose their candidates in statewide primaries. Whoever wins will advance to the midterm election in November.
The most important contest on the ballot is the gubernatorial election and the question of who will replace Ron DeSantis. Florida governors are limited to two consecutive terms and must then wait one term before they can stand for election again.
Governor DeSantis can therefore quite easily run again in four years. After all, he is only 47 years old. Unless he has bigger plans.
The DeSantis family on election night, 8 November 2022. Photo: Wikimedia.
Landslide victory for Donalds?
Eleven Republican candidates are competing for the gubernatorial nomination. Among them are Congressman Byron Donalds, Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins, former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives Paul Renner, and businessman James Fishback.
Polls predict a landslide victory for Byron Donalds in the contest to succeed DeSantis, the New York Post wrote two days ago. He has been a member of Congress since 2021.
Rep. Byron Donalds’ official photo, 117th Congress. Photo: Wikimedia.
Donalds leads by 34 percentage points, according to an average of polls from RealClearPolitics. He has Trump’s endorsement and has raised more than $100 million during the campaign.
If he is elected in November, he will become Florida’s first black governor.
Lieutenant Governor Jay Collins is far behind Donalds in the polls, but remains hopeful. He says that 15–25 per cent of Republican voters remain undecided, and that many do not feel Donalds understands what they are going through.
Jay Collins is a combat-wounded soldier who served for 23 years as a Green Beret and is the very embodiment of Florida’s resilience, DeSantis said when appointing him in August 2025. Collins presents himself as a candidate who will continue DeSantis’ policies.
Photo: Office of the Governor of Florida/Wikipedia.
– Byron Donalds is the ‘America First’ conservative whom President Trump and the voters of the Sunshine State trust to protect Florida’s future. That is why Byron Donalds will be Florida’s next governor, said Ryan Smith, chief strategist for the Donalds campaign.
President Trump endorsed Donalds in February last year, CBS 12 News in West Palm Beach writes. According to the news channel, it was like handing Donalds a golden ticket. Receiving Trump’s endorsement, and so early, made Byron Donalds a star in the Republican Party and virtually unstoppable.
Byron Donalds speaks during a ceremony for three fallen Palm Beach County police officers, 19 May 2025. Photo: The White House/Wikipedia.
From Republican to Democrat
For the Democrats, David Jolly is so far ahead of his five rivals in the polls that his campaign is already in general-election mode, the New York Post writes.
Jolly is a former Republican congressman (2014–2017) who later became a television commentator.
Screenshot, SunSentinel/Facebook.
He left the Republican Party in 2018 because of his strong opposition to Donald Trump and registered as a Democrat in 2025 to run for governor.
Florida’s previous Democratic candidate for governor, Charlie Crist, who lost decisively to DeSantis, was also a former Republican. DeSantis has not endorsed any of the candidates.
Jolly told CBS 12 News that after two terms under DeSantis, the state is facing an affordable-housing crisis and that the focus on ‘culture wars’ has harmed public education:
– I think we are in a 1974-like moment after Watergate, where enough people are saying: Let’s burn the bridges and go in a new direction, Jolly told CBS 12 News.
Jolly still seems to be living in 1974. Ron DeSantis has been an exceptionally effective governor, and the mere influx of people and businesses large and small from other states is evidence of that.
He is polling above 50 per cent. In an April poll from Stetson University, he finished on 59 per cent.
And as far as education is concerned, Florida was ranked No. 1 in the country for higher education in 2025. It was the ninth consecutive year.
That same year, Florida’s high-school graduation rate reached a record 92.2 per cent. That puts Florida well above the national average, which is between 86 and 88 per cent.
DSA has arrived in Florida
The 18 August election will also be the first since Florida introduced new congressional district boundaries that experts believe will give Republicans an advantage in four House districts in the November midterms.
One interesting contest to watch is the Democratic primary in the newly redrawn 25th congressional district. Incumbent centrist Democrat Jared Moskowitz, who currently represents Florida’s 23rd congressional district, is running against socialist candidate Oliver Larkin (33).
A congressional delegation visits Israel, 12 November 2023. Moskowitz on the far right. Photo: Wikimedia.
On his campaign website, Larkin proudly supports far-left extremists such as Hasan Piker, Linda Sarsour, and the controversial YouTuber Ms. Rachel, in addition to his active membership of the Broward County Democratic Socialists of America.
Screenshot from Oliver Larkin’s website, Oliver Larkin for Congress.
Larkin, who was previously an organiser for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign, has supported abolishing the Senate and having ICE arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza, in addition to many other far-left political positions.
Screenshot from Oliver Larkin’s website, Oliver Larkin for Congress.
Larkin does not appear to have heard DeSantis’ clear message from 2022 that ‘Florida is where woke goes to die’. It is, of course, meant metaphorically, in case the woke censors are watching.
Moskowitz, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2023, is a staunch supporter of Israel and is backed by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
Moskowitz is ahead of Larkin in the polls and has the advantage in campaign fundraising, the New York Post writes.
Wasserman Schultz, the Covid fraudster and the rapper
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress since 2005, is running in the newly redrawn 20th congressional district, which has a large black population, and faces several challengers.
Wasserman Schultz is best remembered as the chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) who resigned in 2016 after WikiLeaks published internal emails showing that the committee favoured Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in the primary.
Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz/Hillary Clinton campaign in Coral Springs, Florida, 30 September 2016. Photo: Shutterstock.
They used many dirty tricks to stop Sanders. Thousands of leaked emails showed that senior DNC officials mocked Sanders’ campaign, questioned his religious identity and openly favoured Hillary Clinton. Wasserman Schultz herself spoke disparagingly of both Sanders and his campaign team in the correspondence.
Candidate faces 53 years in prison
Among her opponents is former Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick. She resigned from the House of Representatives in April this year after being indicted on 15 federal counts relating to the misuse of $5 million in FEMA funds from a vaccination programme during the pandemic.
Prosecutors accuse her of laundering the money and using part of it for her election campaign and personal enrichment. She is scheduled to stand trial in February 2027 and faces up to 53 years in prison if convicted on all counts.
Official portrait of Florida Congresswoman Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, 2024. Photo: Wikimedia.
In December 2025, the photograph above caused controversy. She posted a Christmas greeting on X in which the ring had been edited out. Prosecutors allege that the ring, valued at $109,000, was purchased with misappropriated FEMA funds.
The fact that she has been indicted does not, however, prevent her from standing for election. Cherfilus-McCormick has qualified for the Democratic primary and appears on the official candidate list.
Should she win, she could end up running her congressional office from a federal prison. Or obtain a more flexible arrangement, with prison at night and congressional work during the day. A kind of ‘Jeffrey Epstein sweetheart deal’.
That was irony, but in America anything can happen.
As Nasty as They Wanna Be
Wasserman Schultz also faces a challenge from Luther ‘Uncle Luke’ Campbell, the frontman of the hip-hop group 2 Live Crew.
Campbell is not new to politics. He ran for mayor of Miami-Dade County in 2011 and has been active as a community activist in Miami for several years.
Screenshot from the Luther Campbell for Congress website.
In the 1990s, 2 Live Crew became embroiled in a major legal battle over freedom of expression after the album ‘As Nasty As They Wanna Be’ was declared obscene.
The group also ended up before the US Supreme Court because of the song ‘Pretty Woman’, a sexually explicit parody of Roy Orbison’s classic ‘Oh, Pretty Woman’. In 1994, the Supreme Court ruled that the parody was protected as ‘fair use’ under copyright law.
Campbell has been highly critical of Wasserman Schultz’s decision to run in the newly redrawn 20th congressional district. He believes her candidacy could split the black electorate and called the strategy divide and conquer, ‘divide and rule’.
The polls are all over the place in the 20th district race, the New York Post writes. Some polls show Campbell with a 24-point lead, while others give Wasserman Schultz an 18-point lead.
Representative Cory Mills
Republican Representative Cory Mills is fighting to retain his seat in the 7th congressional district amid allegations of domestic violence and ‘stolen valor’. He is under investigation by the Department of Justice, The Post writes.
Representative Cory Mills was sworn into Congress by Speaker Mike Johnson. Photo: Wikimedia.
Mills, who is currently being investigated by the House Ethics Committee over ‘serious and complex’ allegations, is being challenged by several Republicans, including former Orlando news anchor Ryan Elijah.
In recent weeks, Elijah has secured endorsements from dozens of Republican politicians, including Representatives Anna Paulina Luna and Mike Haridopolos. The latter is our representative in Melbourne.
Screenshot from Ryan Elijah’s Facebook page.
He is a Republican with deep roots in Brevard County politics, with a strong focus on tax cuts, transparency in government and conservative reforms. He is also a staunch advocate of a sharia-free America.
Mills, who vehemently denies any wrongdoing, has received Trump’s endorsement three times and was warmly received during a recent GOP debate in the district.
Florida’s first black governor?
It will be an extremely exciting election, and we will go to the polls early tomorrow.
If Byron Donalds becomes Florida’s first black governor in November, it will be interesting to see how the Norwegian media handle it.
They have already branded Florida a radical state with a mini-Trump at the helm. What will they do when this mini-Trump is black?
I said earlier that if he wins, the Norwegian media will face a dilemma. But now I am not so sure. We have already seen how they treat black conservatives.
Christina Pletten’s hate piece about Herschel Walker is just one example. She, or others in the Norwegian media, would never have written such a hostile attack on a Democratic politician, regardless of background or how untalented that person might be.
Screenshot, Aftenposten. US midterm elections, November 2022.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has also been subjected to extensive negative coverage in the Norwegian media over the years.
When a black person does not fit the political narrative, skin colour suddenly becomes far less interesting.
HuffPost perhaps gave us a small foretaste yesterday of what we will see in the Norwegian media in the future. The headline read: – Florida’s first black governor could be a Trump apologist.
They also found a Republican who fitted the narrative:
– Accepting Trump’s racism is the price a black Republican has to pay for admission to the MAGA world, said Mac Stipanovich, a long-time Republican consultant and former chief of staff to Republican Governor Bob Martinez.
Exactly the same formula used by the Norwegian media. Stipanovich later left the party following Trump’s rise.
It will be an interesting time ahead. We will be watching and updating with the election results.
