Rick Scott (L) and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell will now face off in the general election for U.S. Senate in November.. (Scott photo by Gage Skidmore, from Flickr; Mucarsel-Powell photo from campaign website)
Rick Scott and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell easily defeated their primary opponents in the Aug. 20 elections and now will face each other in the general election for U.S. Senate in November.
Scott, running for re-election to his Senate seat, received 84% of the GOP vote in beating his two opponents, attorney Keith Gross and actor John Columbus.
“Thank you to the great voters of Florida in every corner of our state who turned out to resoundingly deliver us a win and showed the country that Florida is RED!,” Scott said in a statement. “We have received more votes than every Democrat candidate combined and are ready to deliver a big win in November.”
Mucarsel-Powell, a one-term member of Congress representing South Florida (2019-2021), defeated tech entrepreneur Stanley Campbell, 69%-20%.
Democrats have expressed hope that Scott would be vulnerable this year. It’s the first time he’s ever been on the ballot in Florida at the same time that there’s a presidential race at the top of the ballot, traditionally when more individuals cast ballots.
However, this is also the first time that Scott is running in a year where Republicans lead Democrats in voter registration — by nearly 1 million people. In 2018, when Scott narrowly defeated then-Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson by just over 10,000 votes out of more than 8.1 million votes cast, Democrats led Republicans in voter registration by more than 257,000 votes.
Polls released throughout the year have shown Scott with a consistent lead over Mucarsel-Powell. The two most recent polls published last week had Scott up by 4 points in one survey and up 10 points in another.
“Florida Democrats are ready to get to work to elect Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and send Rick Scott packing once and for all,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said in a written statement.
Meanwhile, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Evan Power issued a statement boasting about how Republicans “crushed” Democrats in turning out for their voters on Tuesday, with the GOP up 14% over Democrats in terms of voter participation.
“If Democrats are joyful about their prospects, their voters would have shown up to vote. Florida got Trumped,” he proclaimed. “What is clear is that our voters are fired up and eager to vote in support of our great Republican candidates who promote commonsense policies that work. With that support, Florida will continue to lead and succeed.”
Congress
There were several high profile congressional primary elections throughout the state.
In the Republican party primary in Congressional District 1, incumbent Matt Gaetz crushed Aaron Dimmock by more than 45 points, 73%-27%.
This was no surprise, as the Panhandle district (which encompasses all of Escambia, Okaloosa, Santa Rosa and Walton counties) was always expected to approve Gaetz in his GOP primary against retired Navy pilot Dimmock.
So why are we even mentioning it?
It’s because the race drew national attention as part of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s “revenge tour,” through which he has backed opponents to the eight members of Congress who voted to oust him from the speaker’s position last year. A super PAC connected to McCarthy called Florida Patriots PAC spent more than $3 million in running nasty ads against Gaetz, who is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee regarding allegations that he may have “engaged in sexual misconduct and illicit drug use.”
But allies of McCarthy told ABC News earlier this week that McCarthy doesn’t think the money was spent in vain, believing the ads may have harmed Gaetz’ chances for success if he were to run for governor of Florida in 2026.
Gaetz will take on gun safety activist Gay Valimont in November. Republicans out-register Democrats in the district by 34%, 55%-21%.
13th District
In Florida’s 13th Congressional District, which encompasses the eastern and northern parts of Pinellas County (the district was redrawn in a map favored by Gov. Ron DeSantis that moved the more Democratic-leaning parts of St. Petersburg into Hillsborough County Democrat Kathy Castor’s district), former Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority communications director Whitney Fox declared victory just about 10 minutes after the polls closed.
“I am deeply grateful and humbled by the trust voters have placed in me to be their Democratic nominee for Congress,” she said. “This victory isn’t mine — it belongs to every parent struggling with rising costs, every senior worried about their health care, and every young person fighting for a better future.”
Quickly after she declared her candidacy, Fox became the Democratic Party establishment favorite, winning endorsements from several members of the Democratic congressional delegation like Kathy Castor, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and Lois Frankel, and she raised more than twice as more than twice as much money as any other Democrat in the contest.
Fox will face incumbent Anna Paulina Luna in the general election, just completing her first term in office.
“Anna Paulina Luna’s extreme agenda puts partisan politics over people and threatens to take away our freedoms,” Fox said. “Luna tells struggling families to ‘just move’ if they don’t like her cruel policies. Well, I say it’s time for to move Luna out of office!”
Fox referred to a comment Luna made recorded on video by Forbes in March when asked about Democrats pushing for a federal law to protect abortion access. “Federally, we shouldn’t be voting on that,” Luna said. “That should be up to the states to decide. And, frankly, if you don’t like it, move out of your state. Move somewhere else.”
Fox finished well ahead of Sabrina Bousbar, a 27-year-old Gen Z Democrat who formerly worked in the Biden administration as a senior adviser in the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.
Luna was unopposed in the primary. She released a statement thanking the residents of Pinellas and boasting that “I have successfully fulfilled ALL my campaign promises.”
Luna won the district by 8 points in 2022 over Democrat Eric Lynn, and the district has only become redder over the past two years. There are nearly 55,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats, and they now hold an 11% lead in voter registration (41%-30%, with NPA’s at 27%).
9th District
There is only one congressional seat held by a Florida Democrat that the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has targeted as a possible pick-up this year: It’s in Florida’s 9th Congressional District held by Darren Soto that encompasses Osceola County and parts of Orange and Polk Counties in Central Florida.
Soto’s GOP opponent will be former Osceola County School Board member and retired U.S. Army Col. Thomas Chalifoux, who defeated two other opponents — former Florida House member John Quinones (2002-2007) and Jose Castillo, who has worked in management for the Walt Disney Co. in Orlando for more than a decade, according to his website.
Soto, Chalifoux, and NPA candidate Marcus Carter bump heads on Nov. 5.
The district is Democratic leaning, with 37% of all voters registered as Democratic; NPA’s make up 34% of the district, with Republicans at 26%.
27th District
In Florida’s 27th Congressional District encompassing Miami and its southern suburbs, Republican Maria Elvira Salazar easily defeated Royland Lara and will run in November against Miami-Dade County School Board member Lucia Báez-Geller in November, after Báez-Geller defeated Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey 54%-46%, Tuesday night in the Democratic primary.
Donald Trump won the district by less than one percentage point in 2020. The voter registration is broken down as: 36% Republican, 32% NPA, and 30% Democratic.
This story is courtesy of Florida Phoenix.
Florida Phoenix is a nonprofit news site, free of advertising and free to readers, covering state government and politics with a staff of five journalists located at the Florida Press Center in downtown Tallahassee. Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
