Florida Primary: No Races Called, Zero Reporting

Florida Primary: No Races Called, Zero Reporting

Empty voting booth with curtain half-drawn and no voters present, symbolizing a Florida primary with zero results reported

The News

The state of play

No race has been called in Florida's primary. As of this writing, live results pages carrying the statewide count — including WKMG ClickOrlando's and news4jax's — showed 0 percent of precincts reporting: zero of roughly 5,650 statewide.

Here is where each marquee race stood when the counting began — and nothing below is a call.

Governor: the race to succeed DeSantis

Gov. Ron DeSantis is term-limited. On the Republican side, Rep. Byron Donalds entered election day the heavy favorite, CNN reported, having been endorsed by President Donald Trump 544 days ago. Donalds has raised $90 million, according to USA Today, and led James Fishback by 31 points — 43 percent to 12 — in a mid-July Cygnal poll of 500 likely Republican voters cited by USA Today. A late-July Quantus Insights survey put him just under 50 percent.

His leading challengers are Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, who has branded himself "DeSantis-appointed," and Fishback, a 31-year-old activist who has called Donalds, who is Black, a "slave to his donors" and a "DEI Republican," per USA Today. Former Florida House Speaker Paul Renner is also on the ballot in a crowded field. DeSantis did not endorse.

For Democrats, former Rep. David Jolly — a Republican before he became a Trump critic — is the front-runner in a six-candidate field. His closest competitor, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, withdrew in June after a cancer diagnosis, 270toWin reported. A late-July Targoz Market Research poll cited by USA Today had Jolly at 47 percent with 42 percent undecided. No Democrat has won the Florida governorship since Lawton Chiles in 1994.

Senate: the rest of Rubio's term

This is a special primary for the final two years of Marco Rubio's Senate term; Rubio resigned to become secretary of state, and DeSantis appointed then-Attorney General Ashley Moody to serve on an interim basis. Moody faces three Republican challengers — Chris Gleason, Neelam Taneja Perry and Ernest Rivera — and was expected to win renomination easily, per 270toWin.

The Democratic primary pits state Rep. Angie Nixon against Alex Vindman, the retired Army officer who became a central witness in Trump's first impeachment. Polling is thin: the only public poll of that primary was retracted last month, The New York Times reported, as cited by Political Wire.

The House races to watch

Tuesday is the first time Floridians have voted under the new congressional map drawn by DeSantis' administration, which CNN reported was designed to help Republicans net four additional seats. Under the new lines, 21 of the state's 28 districts were significantly changed and Democratic-leaning seats were cut from eight to four, according to USA Today.

In the 7th District, two-term Rep. Cory Mills is pressing ahead under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over potential campaign finance violations, an accusation of a revenge-porn threat and an assault allegation. He denies wrongdoing. His main challenger is former news anchor Ryan Elijah, backed by Florida Reps. Anna Paulina Luna and Mike Haridopolos, CNN reported.

In the 19th District, the seat Donalds is leaving, 10 candidates are running and Trump made a late endorsement of former Commerce Department adviser Catalina Lauf; her main competitor appears to be Sun Broadcasting President Jim Schwartzel, per 270toWin.

In the deep-blue 20th District, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz — pushed out of her old seat by redistricting — is running against a field that includes former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who resigned in April as the Ethics Committee prepared to weigh her expulsion over fraud allegations she denies, former Broward County Mayor Dale Holness, 2 Live Crew's Luther Campbell and 27-year-old Elijah Manley. And in the open 24th District, late independent polling favored state Sen. Shevrin Jones, 270toWin reported.

Alaska and Wyoming

Nothing has been reported there either, and both close later. Wyoming's polls close at 9 p.m. ET and Alaska's at midnight and 1 a.m. ET, per 270toWin.

In Alaska's top-four primary, Democratic former Rep. Mary Peltola is widely expected to advance in the Senate race, CNN reported, though her campaign disclosed Monday that campaign manager Anton McParland was moving to a "new role," with deputy Cheryl Bruce taking over. She is seeking to unseat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan.

Wyoming has open seats for governor, Senate and its lone House seat. Rep. Harriet Hageman, endorsed by Trump, Sen. Cynthia Lummis and Sen. John Barrasso, is favored in the five-way Senate primary to replace the retiring Lummis. In the governor's race, Superintendent of Public Instruction Megan Degenfelder is running with Trump's endorsement against state Sen. Eric Barlow and retired Marine colonel Brent Bien; a July internal poll from Barlow's campaign claimed a wide lead, 270toWin reported. Nine candidates are running for the House seat, where Trump has not endorsed.

Timeline

Florida polls close at 7 p.m. ET, with Panhandle counties on Central time closing at 8 p.m. ET, according to 270toWin. In the 2024 state primary, The Associated Press first reported results at 8 p.m. ET and posted its last update of the night at 11:47 p.m. ET with about 99.9 percent of votes counted, per AP decision notes published by NBC 6 South Florida.

What's Next

The Frank will update this story with results and called races as counts come in.

More

Trump's recent record in governor's races is mixed, CNN noted, with his picks faltering in Minnesota, Iowa and Georgia. At one Orlando polling place, a half-dozen Republicans told CNN the president's endorsement was not a factor in their vote.

More

One thread runs through all of it: this cycle's primary ads featured one star regardless of party — Donald Trump, the Cook Political Report wrote Tuesday.

The Justice Department said Tuesday it sent four Civil Rights Division attorneys to Miami-Dade County and two to Laramie County, Wyoming, to monitor the primaries, per USA Today. Trump himself voted by mail in Florida's Republican primary, returning his ballot Aug. 13, the White House said — even as he has called mail voting "inherently corrupt."

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