It’s a triumphant return for Ralph Massullo.

The Lecanto Republican is heading back to Tallahassee with strong voter support following Tuesday’s Special Election in Senate District 11.

Massullo won with 59% of the vote, buoyed particularly in Citrus and Sumter counties, over Democrat Ash Marwah, a civil engineer from The Villages.

The low-key election brought an 18% voter turnout.

Massullo topped 60% in Citrus and Sumter counties. Marwah and Massullo were neck-and-neck in Hernando County’s early votes, but Massullo pulled ahead with Election Day voting.

Massullo, a dermatologist, served eight years in House District 23 before term limits forced him from office in 2024. Gov. Ron DeSantis thwarted Massullo’s planned Senate campaign in 2022 by backing eventual winner Blaise Ingoglia; DeSantis supported Massullo’s Special Election bid this year.

When the SD 11 seat opened up with Ingoglia’s appointment as Chief Financial Officer, Massullo jumped in, and a host of big-name endorsements followed, including from Ingoglia, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson, U.S. Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott, four GOP Congressmen, county Sheriffs in the district, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

The Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus endorsed Marwah.

Marwah ran for HD 52 in 2024, garnering just 24% of the vote against Republican John Temple. 

Massullo raised $249,950, compared with Marwah’s $12,125. Massullo’s $108,000 in spending includes consulting, events and mail pieces. One of those mail pieces reminded voters of the odd-year election.

The two opponents had few opportunities for a head-to-head debate. The League of Women Voters of Citrus County conducted an SD 11 forum on Zoom in late October, when the two candidates clashed over the state’s direction.

Marwah said DeSantis and Republicans are “playing games” in their attempts to redraw congressional district boundaries.

“No need to go through this expense,” he said. “It will really ruin decades of progress in civil rights. We should honor the rule of law that we agreed on that it’ll be done every 10 years. I’m not sure why the game is being played at this point.”

Massullo said congressional districts should reflect population shifts.

“The people of our state deserve to be adequately represented based on population,” he said. “I personally do not believe we should use race as a means to justify particular areas. I believe we should be blind to race, blind to creed, blind to sex, in everything that we do, particularly looking at population.”

Senate District 11 covers all of Citrus, Hernando and Sumter counties, plus a portion of northern Pasco County. It is safely Republican — Ingoglia won 69% of the vote there in November, and Donald Trump carried the district by the same margin in 2024.

Eileen Higgins just made history, becoming the first woman ever elected Miami Mayor.

With 108 of 139 precincts reporting and full tallies of mail-in and early votes, Higgins — a former Miami-Dade County Commissioner — had 59% of the vote to defeat ex-City Manager Emilio González.

Higgins is a Democrat, while González is a Republican, though their party affiliations did not appear on Tuesday’s runoff ballot; still, most voters no doubt knew which side of the aisle the candidates stood on, considering the activity and interest that surrounded the race ahead of Election Day.

Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona, and Orange County Mayor-turned-gubernatorial candidate Jerry Demings and his wife, former U.S. Rep. Val Demings.

Meanwhile, high-profile Republicans like President Donald Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sens. Rick Scott and Ted Cruz, and U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, who is running to succeed DeSantis, lined up behind González.

For many, Tuesday’s outcome in a city where growth, climate challenges and governance failures remain top concerns for nearly 500,000 residents will be viewed as a bellwether heading toward what is expected to be a volatile 2026 cycle.

The two candidates rose from a 13-person field Nov. 4, with Higgins winning about 36% of the vote and González taking 19.5%. Because neither surpassed 50%, they advanced to a runoff, each pitching their visions for a city grappling with affordability, rising seas, political dysfunction and rapid growth.

Both promised to bring more stability and accountability to City Hall. Both said Miami’s permitting process needs fixing.

Higgins, 61-year-old mechanical engineer by training and eight-year County Commissioner with a broad, international background in government service, emphasized affordable housing — urging the city to build on public land and create a dedicated housing trust fund — and backed a plan to expand the City Commission from five to nine members, which she said would improve neighborhood representation.

She also backed more eco-friendly and flood-preventative infrastructure, faster park construction and better transportation connectivity and efficiency.

She opposed Miami’s 287(g) agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), calling recent enforcement “inhumane and cruel,” and pledged to serve as a full-time Mayor with no outside employment while replacing City Manager Art Noriega.

González, a 68-year-old retired Air Force colonel, former Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and ex-CEO of Miami International Airport, argued Miami needs an experienced administrator to fix what he calls deep structural problems.

He made permitting reform a top priority, labeling the current system as barely functioning, and said affordability must be addressed through broader tax relief rather than relying on housing development alone.

He supported limited police cooperation with ICE and said Miami must prepare for the potential repeal of property taxes. He vowed to replace Noriega, but opposed Higgins’ effort to expand the City Commission.

He also promised, if elected, to establish a “Deregulation Task Force” to unburden small businesses, prioritize capital investments that protect Miamians, increase the city’s police force, modernize city services with technology and a customer-friendly approach, and rein in government spending and growth.

Notably, Miami’s Nov. 4 election this year might not have taken place if not for González, who successfully sued in July to stop officials from delaying its election until 2026.

Last year, Higgins was re-elected unopposed to the County Commission seat she first won in a 2018 upset before choosing to vacate her seat three years early to run for Mayor — a move that drew criticism from González.

Before winning elected office, she worked for years in the private sector, overseeing global manufacturing in Europe and Latin America. She also held lead marketing posts at Pfizer and Jose Cuervo.

In 2006, Higgins took a Director job with the Peace Corps in Belize, after which she served as a foreign service officer for the U.S. State Department under President Barack Obama, working in Mexico and in economic development areas in South Africa.

Since filing for the Mayor’s race in April, Higgins raised $386,500 through her campaign account. She also amassed close to $658,000 by the end of September through her county-level political committee, Ethical Leadership for Miami. Close to a third of that sum — $175,000 — came through a transfer from her state-level PC.

She also spent about $881,000.

González, an immigrant from Cuba, brought the most robust government background to the race. After leaving the military, he served as Miami’s City Manager from 2017 to 2020, CEO of Miami International Airport from 2013 to 2017 and as Director of Citizenship and Immigration Services at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush from 2005 to 2008.

He also served as Director of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the National Security Council under Bush.

In private life, he works as a partner at investment management firm RSMD Investco LLC. He also serves as a member of the Treasury Investment Council under the Florida Department of Financial Services.

Since filing to run for Mayor in April, he raised nearly $1.2 million and spent about $1 million.

A bill directing the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) to justify rate increases for investor-owned utilities and consider affordability advanced in its first committee stop Tuesday ahead of the 2026 Legislative Session.

The bill (SB 126) was introduced just weeks after the PSC approved a nearly $7 billion rate increase for Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) 12 million customers, the largest rate hike in history.

Sen. Don Gaetz, a Crestview Republican, introduced a “strike-all” amendment Tuesday before the Senate Regulated Industries Committee revising Florida law regarding the PSC, including:

— Expanding the number of PSC Commissioners from five to seven and requiring one Commissioner to be a certified public accountant and another a chartered financial analyst.

— Requiring the PSC, when issuing orders, to provide adequate support for its conclusions.

— Requiring the PSC to provide reasoned explanations when accepting or denying a settlement agreement.

— Requiring the PSC to submit an annual report on public utility rates that includes benchmarking and analysis on economics, costs, return on equity and executive compensation.

One provision that the amendment drops from Gaetz’s original bill would have capped a utility’s return on equity (ROE). That represents the utility’s allowed profit. FPL’s recently approved rate increase includes an ROE of 10.95%.

The removal of that provision upset two members of the public who spoke about the legislation during the hearing.

“The bill as amended has altered a critical tool — a cap that would limit shareholder profits, which is necessary to keep utilities from passing executive costs on to taxpayers,” said Brian Lee of Reclaiming Florida’s Future.

“The strike-all amendment weakens its ability to deliver real relief for Florida families,” added Taylor Brown. “Housing costs, insurance, and utility bills are pushing people to a breaking point.”

Florida law requires the rates of regulated utility companies to be “fair, just and reasonable.”

Gaetz’s bill says that the PSC should consider affordability in any proceeding before the agency that has the potential to affect rates.

“The reason affordability got into this bill is because when the latest case came before the PSC, associated with FPL, Commissioners were asked to consider affordability and they said, ‘We can’t because it wasn’t in the statute.’ We’re going to help them with that, I hope,” he told the committee.

Committee Chair Jennifer Bradley, A Fleming Island Republican, asked Mark Futrell, Deputy Executive Director with the PSC, whether the agency could define affordability.

“I think more certainty, more clarity as far as definitions from the intent of the Legislature is always helpful, but I think that we can work through that,” Futrell said. “Affordability is something that — we get the sentiment of it. I think we understand that part of it.”

Sen. Debbie Mayfield, a Melbourne Republican, said she had a number of concerns about the legislation, including the provisions about adding two new members to the PSC.

“If we have a problem with the PSC board, I don’t think increasing it would solve their problem,” she said. “We are the ones who do confirm them, so if we have a problem with the commission, it’s just as much our fault for confirming people that we don’t think are going to do a good job.”

Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Sunny Isles Beach independent, said he appreciated that Gaetz had removed the provision that would have capped a utility’s ROE.

“I am not for caps,” he said. “I think that’s socialism.”

Gaetz told the committee his intent was “not to tie the hands of the utility companies.”

“The intent of the bill is to direct the Commission to justify their decisions,” he said. “And to explain how they made their decisions and the effect that those decisions have on ratepayers.”

The bill was ultimately unanimously approved by the committee, 9-0, and moves to the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government.

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Reporting by Mitch Perry. Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: [email protected].