Franklin told POLITICO on Tuesday night that important applications from rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) And the famous Polk County sheriff – Grady Judd – helped with the stretch. Gaetz endorsed Franklin, even though other Republicans, including Sen. Marco Rubio, Spano support.
Democrats had plans to target the GOP lane seat as a possible pickup opportunity, especially if Spano won the primary. Franklin will face former television journalist Alan Cohn in the November election. Cohn defeated State Rep. Adam Hattersley, who was recruited to run in the race.
“I see tonight as just the first step,” Franklin said. “This is not done for November.”
In another Tuesday primary highlights appeared the dreadful and ever-hostile race to defeat outgoing Rep. Francis Rooney in Florida’s 19th Congressional District Too Close to Call. State Rep. Byron Donalds led the full nine-way primary with 23 percent of the vote, while State Representative Dane Eagle had 22 percent of the vote. Meanwhile, Kat Cammack won a 10-way primary in the race for the North Florida seat now held by Rep. Ted Yoho. The Republican primary winners are expected to win the seats in November.
Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez has easily won the Republican primary for Florida’s 26th Congressional District, setting what is likely to be the most-watched congressional contest in the state. Gimenez will rise up against rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who took over the seat two years ago when she defeated resident Carlos Curbelo. Mucarsel-Powell has been a top target for Republicans who were able to recruit one of Miami-Dade County’s best-known politicians to challenge them.
In another notable primary, Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran who won the support of Trump allies like Gaetz, won a three-way primary for Florida’s 13th Congressional District. She advised Amanda Makki, a former Capitol Hill employee and lobbyist who had the support of House GOP leaders such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. Luna sil Rep. Challenge Charlie Crist, who is seeking his third term.
Crist, the former Florida Republican governor who eventually became a Democrat, won the seat two years ago with 58 percent of the vote. He also sits on more than $ 3 million. But Republicans claim the district could be turned around with a strong candidate. They note that in 2016, Trump lost the district by only 3 points.
Several resident members of Congress easily won their primaries on Tuesday, including Gaetz (FL-01) and reps. Al Lawson (FL-05), Bill Posey (FL-08), Brian Mast (FL-18), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23).
In Trump’s home district of Mar-a-Lago, conservative personality Laura Loomer defeated a field of five other Republicans in the race for Florida’s 21st Congressional District. Loomer, who was banned from most social media platforms, will stand up against the official Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel. The seat is Solidarity Democratic and more than 58 percent of voters in the neighborhood supported Hillary Clinton in 2016.
The most controversial primary statewide was the race for Florida’s 19th Congressional District. The match to replace Rooney – who announced his retirement after coming under heavy criticism for suggesting he wanted to keep an open mind about Trump’s impression – had a host of negative campaign attacks that ran out of demand how loyal voters were to Trump, to an eleventh-hour campaign trick in which voters were sent a text claiming frontrunner Donalds fell out of the race. Donalds tweeted Tuesday morning about the text, calling the text “illegal” and “dirty politics.” Later in the day, he tweeted that “We have to fight back against the lie.”
