Florida's Latest News

Republican Ileana Garcia flips Florida state Senate seat after Democrat concedes in 34-vote loss

While continuing to question Republican campaign tactics, state Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, a Miami Democrat, conceded his re-election bid to Ileana Garcia on Thursday after a hand recount didn’t alter the outcome of the District 37 contest.

Garcia’s 34-vote victory means Republicans will head into the 2021 legislative session with their Senate majority growing by one, to 24-16.

Rodriguez, an attorney who made climate-change impacts on South Florida one of his pressing issues after being elected to the Senate in 2016, wished Garcia well and offered assistance in a video statement.

Florida Legislature returns Tuesday for a ceremonial session as COVID-19 crisis grows

When the Legislature last left the Capitol in mid-March, there were 432 COVID-19 cases and nine deaths in Florida.

Now, as lawmakers prepare to gather for an organizational session on Tuesday with swearing-in ceremonies and formal leadership votes, the state has seen about 900,000 cases, more than 17,000 deaths, a lockdown, and a reopening. The coronavirus crisis also has wrought widespread job losses, exposed a broken unemployment compensation system and led to an eviction moratorium that has kept many from being homeless but which expires at the end of the year.

Throughout it all, Republican legislative leaders have given way to Gov. Ron DeSantis, opting to let him handle the state’s response to the pandemic on his own. That’s outraged Democrats, who have pushed to hold special sessions this summer to fix the unemployment system and pass police reforms in the wake of the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, which sparked mass protests throughout the country.

Florida Dems trounced again in 2020. Here's what went wrong and why they may need to switch strategies

As Florida Democrats waxed introspective one week after President Donald Trump battered Joe Biden by 375,000 votes in Florida, Republican Sen. Marco Rubio was waxing his surfboard to ride a red wave to another term in 2022. 

“There’s a reason my only two enemies are Communist China and the Radical Left,” Rubio wrote Monday in a Facebook post announcing his candidacy and soliciting donations. “It’s because I’m not afraid to speak out against them and their radical schemes to ruin our country.”

Rubio’s message was clear. But his fight was with neither a Republican challenger nor a Democratic opponent. It was against socialism and anarchy — the same message Trump used to help oust two Florida Democrats from congressional seats and propel Republicans from a 25-seat advantage to a 36-seat advantage in the Florida House of Representatives.

As states crack down on COVID, in surging Florida, it's silence from DeSantis

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is an outlier among his fellow state leaders who in recent days have cracked down on bars, restaurants and other businesses in hopes of curbing the rapid spread of the deadly coronavirus.

Even as the number of new cases in Florida on Thursday swelled by another 5,607, DeSantis gave no indication he plans to follow the lead of his counterparts, including governors in other Republican strongholds.

While many governors used Veterans Day as an opportunity to remind their constituents that many have been asked to do more than wear a mask to help their nation, DeSantis put a video on his website thanking soldiers for their service.