Democrat Jennifer Jenkins challenges ‘vulnerable’ Randy Fine, says she can flip CD 6

A former Senate candidate is still running for federal office, but closer to home.

Jennifer Jenkins, a onetime member of the Brevard County School Board, is launching a campaign against U.S. Rep. Randy Fine in Florida’s 6th Congressional District in east-central Florida.

In taking on Fine, one of the most outspoken members of Congress who has been a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, Jenkins is betting the formula she used to win big in a Trump +17 electorate in a previous cycle can translate to the wave election Democrats anticipate in 2026, and allow her to do something meaningful along the way.

“My process of getting into the Senate race in the first place was not about me personally. It was about where I felt like I could make a big difference. I felt like it was important for us to have a candidate in and have them in early and show that Florida was still viable,” she said, before explaining her decision to run against the first-term firebrand who was elected in a Special Election last April.

“As I assessed the race and as other competition had come into it, I really focused on what’s important for this party and for the state, which is unifying and moving forward in the right direction. And so I looked at where I can make the biggest difference right now,” she said.

Jenkins believes she can make the biggest difference against Fine, someone with whom she’s had conflicts in the past back in Brevard and someone whom she also believes wouldn’t have gotten elected last year without a lot of external help.

“I believe that Democrats need to flip the House, that this seat can absolutely be in play with me as a candidate, and I think I’m the right person to win,” Jenkins told Florida Politics on Wednesday, before she entered the race officially.

Jenkins said Fine “has always been divisive (and) provocative” and is a “danger.”

“He’s exactly what we don’t want in politics. He’s exactly the reason why people hate paying attention to politics. It’s all about self-interest and self-preservation, and he doesn’t focus on the issues that actually matter to people.”

Primary among those issues is what Jenkins calls an “affordability crisis,” something Fine doesn’t address.

“I don’t know if there has been a single instance in which Randy Fine has talked about that issue and has addressed that issue. He’s stuck in culture war fights. He’s constantly just worried about getting press and getting on camera. And having a history with him, knowing his quirks, knowing what actually drives him, I think is really important for a candidate who is running in this race,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins raised a little more than $350,000 for her Senate campaign, retaining slightly more than $100,000 cash on hand. That number is far below the nearly $1 million Fine had to spend at the end of 2025, yet far above the totals amassed by other Democrats in the field.

The candidate is “proud” of her fundraising as a Senate candidate and believes that money will work well in getting her message out in what currently is a sprawling district that runs from St. Johns County to Daytona Beach and the Orlando suburbs and the Ocala area out west.

That’s especially true given Fine’s flaws, she believes.

“It’s a good amount of money for a congressional. The one thing that we need to stay focused on is the fact that Randy Fine is a very vulnerable opponent. He barely won that Special Election. The Republican Party nationally and statewide had to dump millions of dollars in order for him to hold on to that seat, and he’s not going to have that availability right now in the Midterm,” Jenkins predicted.

“There’s a lot of seats that are up. There are a lot of seats that are vulnerable. They can’t pour those millions of dollars into his district just for him to hold it. I think it’s important to recognize too that donors want to invest in the races that we can win. This is one of them, and donors are definitely going to be attracted to a race that takes out the most divisive Congressman we have in the United States.”

Redistricting, which is expected later this year, doesn’t faze Jenkins, who believes the lines could be more Democratic, given that Republicans could move lines to favor embattled U.S. Rep. Cory Mills.

His CD 7 abuts CD 6.

If Mills’ district, a more competitive map than CD 6, gets more Republican voters, they will have to come from somewhere.

She also believes the issues she runs on will translate with independents and even Republicans.

“It’s about cost of living, affordability, health care, insurance costs, so the dynamic of those lines won’t change what the issues specifically are in terms of registration numbers and, and the viability of the race right now as it stands,” Jenkins said. “I believe that this is a winnable seat, it’s a winnable race against an opponent who is super divisive. But you know, should they redraw the lines, I see it drawing more in our favor.”

Jenkins also believes that Fine’s divisiveness in his own party could help her in the General, saying that Gov. Ron DeSantis has called the Congressman “repulsive.”

“It’s not just DeSantis,” Jenkins said. “Randy Fine is divisive within his own party, and I think that’s important to highlight. It’s difficult enough to get things done in Washington when you are not willing to cross over the aisle and talk to the other side.”

Jenkins said it’s quite possible that DeSantis’ fulminations about Fine may be used in ads against the Congressman down the stretch.