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Democrats find their Florida man

The Jared Moskowitz show is having a moment. And it may just be the start for the Florida Democrat.

“Jared was on an island,” said Jared Rosenstein, a Tallahassee-based lobbyist who worked for years as a legislative aide and then as a top staffer for Moskowitz. “Sure, he was a Democrat and he spent a lot of time building relationships with Republicans. But he wouldn’t hesitate to burn the house down.” Rosenstein added “I think a lot of people will dismiss a politically connected rich kid in politics. But the difference is Jared works really hard and he cares.”

In a state under solid Republican control, Moskowitz is one of several Democrats whose name has been floated as a potential candidate for governor in 2026. But he pushes back against the idea quickly. “After what happened in Parkland, I stopped planning my political future,” Moskowitz said.

He follows that up by pointing out the political trajectory in his home state — where Republicans have a 900,000 edge in voter registration now — is dependent on what happens to Biden and Trump in November. But he doesn’t entirely rule out a run, either. “I’m not interested in just being the nominee, I’m interested in winning,” Moskowitz said. “We’ll see if the math works. We have to see how Biden does against Trump.”

Debut ‘alligator super hunt’ application process begins

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is announcing two “harvest” opportunities for alligator hunters. One of them is traditional for the FWC, while the other one is new

The Statewide Alligator Harvest, which has been in place since 1988, has what the FWC calls “appropriate harvest quotas to provide recreational opportunities for Floridians and non-residents who are at least 18 years old to take up to 2 alligators per permit.”

In addition, the “Alligator Super Hunt” is starting up this year after the FWC made rule changes in February.

“Each permit allows the harvest of two alligators from most alligator management units and private property (with owner permission) from Aug. 15-Dec. 31. Hunters pay a nonrefundable $5 fee for each application and may apply as many times as they want between 10 a.m. ET May 3 through 11:59 p.m. June 3. Applying multiple times will increase the chance of being drawn. This year, 100 permits will be awarded,” the FWC said.

DeSantis opposes plan to move Florida guard unit to Space Force

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday came out against a Department of Defense plan that would have a unit of the Florida Air National Guard join the Space Force.

In a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and various members of Congress, DeSantis wrote that the unusual proposal “would flout more than a century of precedent” and undermine state control of the National Guard.

On Monday, governors of 48 states and 5 territories came out against the proposal, with only DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott not signing on, Military.com reported.

Air Force officials want to consolidate about 1,000 part-time Air National Guardsmen across the country into the active-duty Space Force. The guardsmen are assigned to units with space missions, and Air Force officials have argued it would be easier to consolidate the units than create a Space National Guard, according to Military.com.

Florida kicks more kids off Medicaid than expected

Florida disenrolled children from Medicaid at a much higher rate last year than it did adults, a new analysis from the Urban Institute shows.

Why it matters: Even brief gaps in insurance can disrupt care and worsen health outcomes — especially for children, whose "rapid development" makes them more vulnerable than adults, the study's authors write.

Catch up quick: States regularly review if those enrolled in Medicaid still qualify based on income or other eligibility factors. But Congress put a hold on those checks during the pandemic.

• This pandemic-era protection expired in 2023, and states soon began reviewing their Medicaid rolls and disenrolling people who didn't respond or no longer qualified for coverage.
• Florida resumed this process in April of last year.

The big picture: Florida removed more children from Medicaid than the Urban Institute had anticipated. The state's net child disenrollment exceeded 140% of the think tank's projections