Politics
Gov. DeSantis says it’s too soon to set Special Election for Geraldine Thompson’s seat
One of Sen. Thompson’s accomplishments changed Florida’s elections.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is waiting to set a Special Election date to fill Sen. Geraldine Thompson’s seat, but says it will happen as soon as possible.
“We usually wait until the elected official is put to rest and everything before we really charge into that,” DeSantis told journalists when asked about the situation during a press conference. “But we will set it. We’ll try to do that as convenient as possible for the local officials.”
Thompson, an Orlando Democrat who served in the Legislature for nearly two decades, died Thursday at age 76 from complications from knee replacement surgery.
“We stand ready to conduct a Special Election once it is called by Governor DeSantis and will work in close collaboration with our state partners,” Orange County Supervisor of Elections Karen Castor Dentel said Friday.
Castor Dentel will already be running scheduled elections in March and November for several municipalities in Orange County.
The Elections Supervisor said she was heartbroken to hear the news of Thompson’s death. Castor Dentel also pointed to one of Thompson’s accomplishments that has changed Florida’s elections.
Thompson introduced the 2015 bill that finally eliminated the “absentee” language to refer to vote-by-mail ballots, a move credited for increasing voter engagement in Florida.
Thompson served in the House from 2006-2012 and then again from 2018-2022. She was a Senator from 2012-2016 and then again from 2022 onward.
Her family said in a statement, “Senator Geraldine Thompson was so much more than a dedicated public servant and visionary leader. She was a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother whose love, wisdom, and compassion shaped their lives and the lives of so many in their community and across the state. Her tireless work in education, healthcare, and civil rights, including her leadership to establish the Wells’Built Museum of African American History and Culture in Orlando, reflected her unwavering commitment to creating a better world for future generations.”
Funeral arrangements have not been publicly released.
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Maybe you’re new to the sport, have a casual interest or are just coming around to the edge-of-your-seat wrecks, the thrilling finishes and the stars that make up the Daytona 500 field.
Daytona Beach became the unofficial “birthplace of speed” in 1903 when two men argued over who had the fastest horseless carriage and decided to settle things in a race on the white, hardpacked sand along the Atlantic Ocean.
Since then, the region has become a motorsports mecca, and the first Daytona 500 was held Feb. 22, 1959, in front of a crowd of more than 41,000. They watched 59 cars race for a purse of less than $70,000, and the finish was so close it took three days to determine Lee Petty had edged Johnny Beauchamp.
So much has changed since then, in technology and terminology, and there’s plenty to catch up on ahead of Sunday’s edition — the 67th running of “The Great American Race.”
NBA Hall of Famer Michael Jordan is here (he bought a race team in 2020) and so is four-time Indianapolis 500 champion and “Dancing With The Stars” winner Helio Castroneves.
So let’s wave the green flag (we’ll get to that below) and take a crash course on some of the basic names and terms to know for the Daytona 500.
Former Daytona 500 winners
The field is littered with past winners, starting with 2024 champion William Byron. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2023), Austin Cindric (2022), Michael McDowell (2021), Austin Dillon (2018) and Joey Logano (2015) are all in the field.
Jimmie Johnson is a two-time winner (2006, 2013). Denny Hamlin could become the third driver ever with at least four Daytona 500 victories. He won in 2016 and then went back-to-back in 2019 and 2020.
How fast are the cars going?
They are traveling about 190 mph but could be going in excess of 200 mph. NASCAR, however, mandates cars use tapered spacers to reduce the amount of air flowing into engines — thus limiting horsepower and speed. The power-sapping safety measure was first installed after Bobby Allison’s car, traveling at 210 mph, went airborne and tore through the catchfence at Talladega Superspeedway in 1987. The car came dangerously close to landing in the grandstands.
Some Daytona 500 history
NASCAR’s most prestigious race started as a much shorter version on a nearby beach. Drivers raced partially on sand and partially on an adjacent highway. The first 500-mile event in Daytona happened in 1959. Two year later, the Daytona 500 moniker was adopted and is now considered one of racing’s most well-known events.
Team Worldwide
Pitbull, yes, the rapper, had an ownership stake in Trackhouse Racing but it is coming to an end right as this year the team is fielding cars for four drivers from four countries.
Mr. Worldwide truly lives up to his name.
Ross Chastain, a watermelon farmer out of Florida, is an American. Shane van Gisbergen is a native of New Zealand. Daniel Suarez is Mexican but became an American citizen last year. Castroneves, a four-time Indianapolis 500 champion, is Brazilian and rounds out the team headed into his NASCAR debut.
Which manufacturers race in NASCAR?
NASCAR currently has three manufacturers: Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota. Dodge spent decades in the sport before pulling out at the end of the 2012 season because of economic challenges. Dodge also was out between 1977 and 2001. Chevy and Ford have been in NASCAR since its inception, with Toyota joining in 2007.
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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
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