Politics
Cook Political Report shifts ratings, says Cory Mills looks more vulnerable
A top political prognosticator just offered a fresh assessment on Democrats’ chances of unseating U.S. Rep. Cory Mills.
Cook Political Report has moved Florida’s 7th Congressional District from its “Solid Republican” to “Likely Republican” column.
The shift came as the high-profile election predictions site moved 18 House races nationwide in a direction favorable to Democrats. That suggests a hostile climate for Republicans overall, two years after President Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
But Mills’ particular situation has also been impacted by a series of scandals, something the Democratic Congressional Committee (DCCC) was quick to point out.
“Voters in Florida’s 7th Congressional District deserve a representative that is focused on them and their priorities, not someone distracted by the need to litigate personal scandals on multiple fronts,” said DCCC Spokesperson Madison Andrus. “This November, Floridians are going to elect a fighter that’s actually in their corner.”
Three Democrats remain in the running to challenge Mills: Jennifer Adams, Bale Dalton and Marialana Kinter. Noah Widmann, the top fundraiser through the third quarter of 2025, recently dropped out and endorsed Dalton.
Mills, meanwhile, has faced criticism even from Republican colleagues, especially women, who have encouraged him not to seek another term.
The New Smyrna beach Republican remains under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for a number of issues, including allegations about him profiting from Defense Department contracts while serving in Congress, assaulting a girlfriend in their shared Washington apartment, threatening to publicly distribute intimate photos of an ex-girlfriend who lived with him in New Smyrna Beach, and exaggerating his military service.
Mills in 2024 won re-election to a second term, receiving 56.5% of the vote over Adams. In the same election, 55.6% of voters supported Trump for President compared to 43.1% support for Democrat Kamala Harris, according to MCI Maps. More than 54.7% of voters in the district supported U.S. Sen. Rick Scott’s re-election.
Notably, the lines for CD 7 could soon shift, with GOP leaders in Florida promising redistricting ahead of the Midterms.
Politics
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Mayor Ken Welch’s reelection campaign has recently taken two significant hits: His warchest was allegedly robbed of over $200,000, and a formidable opponent in the St. Petersburg race reported a fundraising windfall.
Welch, who has remained mum on the recent setbacks, insists he is not down for the count. He expressed confidence in his ability to overcome challenges and pride in his community-based support.
“We’ve been here,” Welch told the Catalyst. “We’ve been in the battle, and our opponent has not.”
The incumbent was referring to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who is mulling a mayoral campaign in his hometown. A political committee created to gauge support for his potential run, St. Pete Shines, raised $338,687 between Nov. 12 and Dec. 31, according to state records.
St. Pete Shines also transferred $336,458 from Friends of Charlie Crist, a disbanded political action committee (PAC) established in 2022 to support his last gubernatorial bid. The challenger now has $712,283 on hand, nearly 15 times the amount remaining in Welch’s account.
Welch’s political committee, The Pelican, raised $282,800 last year. However, former treasurer Yolanda Brown stands accused of stealing $207,500.
Chairperson Adrienne Bogen said in a prepared statement that the committee “assumed the funds would be returned.” The money is still missing, and The Pelican is “in the process of notifying the appropriate state and federal authorities.”
When asked if he was concerned about the situation’s campaign impacts, Welch said, “Not at all.”
“I’ve been in family businesses that have been the victims of theft, and it’s a horrible feeling,” he added. “Anyone who has been through that understands it. But you can’t let that deter you from doing the job.”
Welch said his team “did exactly what they should have done the minute they saw the disparity – they reported it.” They also uncovered “what looks like a lot of bad activity” by Brown.
In 2024, Brown, working under the name Yolanda Cheers, paid $330,000 to settle a plea deal for felony grand theft and embezzlement charges in Alameda County, California. Her alleged misappropriations occurred in 2016; she was charged three years later.
Treasurers typically oversee campaign bank accounts, with candidates and other staff often relying on subsequent reports for financial information. A spokesperson for The Pelican said Brown was “brought on by someone no longer involved in the race,” and her onboarding process is “unknown at this time.”
Welch said Brown’s reports “always lined up.” He also noted that she had an extensive client list of elected officials. “I think that’s how she came to us – as a well-known entity who has done this type of work across the state.”
“People understand the real world,” Welch said. “They understand – if they understand political committees – that I don’t have oversight over that. So, no, I’m not concerned about that. The folks who contributed believed in the purpose of that PAC and moving our city forward.”
Donors who have discussed the issue with Welch are also “not concerned,” he said. The mayor believes he and his administration have “done well” in managing a $1.2 billion budget, 3,700 employees, exponential growth, an affordable housing crisis and the impacts from multiple hurricanes.
“We know what we’re doing,” Welch continued. “And I think our folks have faith in us moving forward.”
Crist is also a former attorney general and congressional representative. Welch plans to lean on 25 years of experience in local government, which is “closest to the people.”
Welch noted that he overcame a seemingly insurmountable fundraising deficit during his mayoral campaign. “But more important than that, we’ve been here doing the work for five years,” he said.
“You can’t buy that.”
Crist will not put a limit on fundraising efforts in Florida’s most expensive television advertising market. Welch said he will not try to match “dollars for dollars from Washington PACs and politicians from other states and Tallahassee.”
He plans to raise just enough money to “get our message out.” Welch said residents have already “seen us do the job here,” and pledged not to drop out of the race. “We want to finish the job.”
His supporters “work, live and generate jobs and progress right here in our city,” Welch said. State records show that 43 of 65 donor addresses, 66%, are from St. Petersburg or Pinellas County.
“It’s not outsiders and outside influence,” Welch said. “We’re proud of that. I’m proud of our principles, and we’ll continue to reflect that.”
As Florida’s 2026 Legislative Session approaches, artificial intelligence is expected to be a major focus among Tallahassee’s policymakers. Driven by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ calls for greater regulation, the legislature has already filed at least 32 bills ranging from embracing the new technology to banning it. But before legislators weigh these proposals, they should review the protections Florida has already put in place.
The House got a head start on the subject during their inaugural AI Week, convening various agencies, industries, and practitioners to discuss how they are approaching the emerging technology. As legislators consider new AI proposals, they would do well to heed the advice of Leo Schoonover, Chief Information Officer at the Department of Health, who urged the state in an early IT Budget & Policy Subcommittee meeting to “set the floor, not the ceiling.”
Schoonover has reason to be confident.
Over the past few years, Florida has set a strong “floor” of accountability for AI, in some cases without even trying. Those who testified before House committees repeatedly noted that Florida’s existing legal framework already addresses many of the concerns people have about AI. This is largely because preexisting laws tend to be process-neutral, providing penalties for harmful outcomes regardless of the tool or technology used.
Whether the technology is a chatbot, image generator, or diagnostic tool, the same accountability principles apply.
Consider the state’s protections against unauthorized commercial use of someone’s likeness. In 1967, long before generative AI was conceivable, lawmakers established penalties for profiting from a person’s identity without consent. While some fear that AI-generated media might evade these restrictions, the original statute focuses on the transgression rather than the method. Unauthorized profiteering remains illegal, whether the image is captured by a camera or generated by an algorithm.
The same accountability principles apply across licensed professional practices. The Florida Bar testified that lawyers who cite AI-hallucinated cases already face disciplinary action under longstanding ethics rules that predate the technology. Similarly, health care providers confirmed that physicians remain fully liable for any incorrect AI-assisted diagnosis or documentation under existing malpractice standards. Physicians, therefore, have strong reason to actively verify AI outputs rather than defer to them without scrutiny. In both professions, existing accountability structures discourage over-reliance without requiring AI-specific regulation.
Where regulatory gaps have arisen, the Legislature has moved to close them. Since 2022, the Legislature has reaffirmed that willfully promoting an altered sexual depiction of someone without their consent is illegal, most recently with the passage of “Brooke’s Law” last Session. In 2024, the Legislature passed requirements for political advertisements to include a transparency disclosure when content is created using AI. These efforts extend the same process-neutral logic to new contexts, keeping the focus on the harm itself rather than the technology used to commit it. If new gray areas arise in the future, Florida can and should apply the same framework when drafting new protections.
AI Week offered Florida a model for approaching novel technologies. Legislators heard directly from the agencies, industries, and practitioners who work with these tools every day. That kind of informed deliberation is exactly what good policymaking looks like. Florida has taken Schoonover’s approach without even realizing it. Through decades of process-neutral law, Florida has built a strong floor of consumer protection, while recent legislation has filled gaps where needed.
In the upcoming Session, legislators have a chance to build upon that foundation rather than abandon it. The floor is already there. All that’s left is deciding whether to trust it.
___
Turner Loesel is a policy analyst in the Center for Technology and Innovation at The James Madison Institute.
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