Politics
Last Call for 8.11.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida
Last Call – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida politics.
— First Shot —
Republicans have taken a narrow lead in ballots cast ahead of Florida’s Aug. 18 Primary, flipping a sizable Democratic advantage from the last Midterm Primary Election four years ago.
The latest Division of Elections figures show 459,243 Republicans have already voted, either by mail or at an early voting site, compared with 449,911 Democrats.
As of Tuesday morning, Democrats still hold their familiar advantage in vote-by-mail ballots with 362,293 ballots returned compared to 317,220 for Republicans, an edge of 45,073.
Republicans have more than made that up in person. GOP voters have cast 142,023 early ballots, compared with 87,618 Democrats, giving Republicans a 54,405-vote advantage in early voting.
Altogether, 1,063,037 Floridians have already voted, including voters registered with minor parties or no party affiliation. Of those, 814,836 voted by mail and 248,201 voted early.
The partisan split looks markedly different from the final numbers in the 2022 Primary.
Four years ago, Democrats cast 843,687 vote-by-mail ballots, nearly 200,000 more than the 646,148 returned by Republicans. Republicans led early voting, 314,137 to 251,386, but that was nowhere near enough to erase the Democratic mail advantage.
By the end of the 2022 Primary, Democrats had cast 1,095,073 ballots through those two methods compared with 960,285 Republicans — a Democratic advantage of 134,788.
This year, Republicans are ahead by more than 9,000 with a week still to go.
The raw turnout numbers, however, come with a fairly large caveat.
Florida has changed its vote-by-mail rules since the 2022 Primary, most significantly by requiring voters to renew their standing requests much more frequently.
A 2021 election law changed vote-by-mail requests so they expire after each regularly scheduled General Election. Florida Politics reported at the time that Supervisors of Elections effectively had to rebuild their vote-by-mail lists after the 2022 election.
That happened again after the 2024 General Election. As Florida Politics noted ahead of this year’s Primary, any standing request made before that election expired, requiring voters who wanted a mail ballot in 2026 to request one again.
The final 2022 Primary report showed about 4.07 million vote-by-mail ballots had either been returned or provided to voters and not returned. This year the sum is only 1.93 million.
— Evening Reads —
—“Donald Trump told Ukraine it had no cards. Then Kyiv took the war to Russia” via Emma Burrows, John Leicester and Illia Novikov of The Associated Press
—“Contradicting public statements, Trump took secret flight from Turkey amid Iranian threat” via Dan Lamothe, John Hudson, Andrew Ba Tran and Joyce Sohyun Lee of The Washington Post
—“How Iran adapted its attacks as U.S. war munitions dwindled” via Dan Lamothe, John Hudson, Andrew Ba Tran and Joyce Sohyun Lee of The New York Times
—“Hunter Biden is now everywhere. What does he want?” via Damian Paletta of The Wall Street Journal
—“What the Anthony Fauci fixation reveals about our political system” via Matt Bai of Rolling Stone
—“Did Byron Donalds just tip his hand? Smart money reads ‘MAGA Meg’ for LG” via Peter Schorsch of Florida Politics
—“Gambling money goes all in on Florida, Donalds and … St. Petersburg?” via Michael Van Sickler of the Tampa Bay Times
—“A Trump pardon for Joel Greenberg sounds ridiculous … and about right.” via Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel
—“AI is dead. Organoids are alive” via Claire L. Evans of WIRED
—“Would you pee on a Flock camera for $50?” via Taylor Lorenz of User Mag
— Quote of the Day —
“These are the same tactics they used when I ran for the Senate, and it’s obvious those tactics didn’t work.”
— Sen. Shevrin Jones, on a false HIV claim made by a group impersonating Equality Florida.
— Put it on the Tab —
Look to your left, then look to your right. If you see one of these people at your happy hour haunt, flag down the bartender and put one of these on your tab. Recipes included, just in case the Cocktail Codex fell into the well.
Jax Mayor Donna Deegan handed off a Flock of Stiegls to Sheriff T.K. Waters by punting on questions regarding the controversial cameras.
Congressional candidate Jim Schwartzel earned a Mack Attack after receiving nods from the father-and-son pair of Connie Macks who represented Southwest Florida in Congress.
There are plenty of Imposters and Dirty Tricks to go around in CD 24, where a group is blasting out homophobic texts falsely claiming state Sen. Shevrin Jones has HIV.
— Breakthrough Insights —
— Tune In —
Marlins open series against Pirates
The Miami Marlins open a three-game series against the Pittsburgh Pirates with the Marlins looking to close ground in the National League wild-card chase (6:40 p.m. ET, Marlins.TV).
Miami faces three-time All-Star pitcher Paul Skenes tonight. Skenes has struggled to regain the form that made him the National League Rookie of the Year in 2024 and last year’s Cy Young Award winner. Skenes’ earned run average in the first two seasons was 1.96 and 1.97, but this season, he has seen his ERA balloon to 3.96 as his velocity has tailed off.
Miami will counter with Eury Perez (5-9, 3.61 ERA).
The Marlins are a game over .500 with 43 games remaining in the season. Miami sits in third place in the National League East, 11 games behind the Atlanta Braves but just 3.5 games out of the final wild card spot in the National League after snapping a four-game losing streak with back-to-back wins at home against the Angels.
Shortstop Otto Lopez leads the team with a .318 batting average, second best in baseball behind Houston’s Yordan Alvarez. Only 10 qualified hitters have an average of .300 or better this season in the Major Leagues.
The series continues Wednesday evening and concludes on Thursday afternoon before the Marlins embark on a six-game road trip in Cincinnati and Philadelphia.
___
Last Call is published by Peter Schorsch, assembled and edited by Phil Ammann and Drew Wilson, with contributions from the staff of Florida Politics.
The post Last Call for 8.11.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida appeared first on Florida Politics – Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government..