Florida voters narrowed the fall governor's race and delivered a genuine surprise in a marquee Senate contest on Tuesday, closing out a primary night that tested how far President Donald Trump's political pull still reaches down the ballot. Statewide participation trailed the state's last comparable open-seat primary, even though several headline races were settled within an hour of poll closing, according to results tallied by News4Jax.
Donalds Cruises Through a Crowded GOP Field
U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds secured President Trump's endorsement well before he formally entered the governor's race, and that early backing paid off Tuesday: with the bulk of ballots tallied, Donalds took roughly 49 percent of the Republican vote against Lt. Gov. Jay Collins' nearly 25 percent, according to figures reported by Breitbart. Investment executive James Fishback and former House Speaker Paul Renner split most of the remaining votes. Fishback's own campaign had already drawn national attention for an endorsement from far-right activist Nick Fuentes and for remarks about Donalds that CBS News described as racist and sexist. Collins ran as the heir to outgoing Gov. Ron DeSantis' agenda, but DeSantis never weighed in on the primary, leaving his own lieutenant governor to face Trump's chosen candidate without the governor's public support.
A Republican-Turned-Democrat Wins in a Landslide
On the Democratic side, David Jolly won a six-way contest with close to 62 percent of the vote, comfortably ahead of runner-up Dayna Marie Foster, according to WFTV. Jolly represented the Tampa Bay area as a Republican in Congress from 2014 to 2017, left the GOP the following year over his opposition to Trump, and registered as a Democrat in 2025 to launch this campaign. His nomination sets up a November contest between an outspoken Trump critic and a Trump-endorsed nominee in a state Republicans have controlled at the gubernatorial level since 1994 — a streak NBC News frames as the backdrop heading into the fall campaign.
A Democratic Socialist Outlasts a Well-Funded Rival
The night's sharpest surprise came in the special primary for the Senate seat Marco Rubio vacated when he became secretary of state. State Rep. Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville union organizer who joined the Democratic Socialists of America during her campaign, defeated retired Lt. Col. Alex Vindman even though his campaign had pulled in more than $16 million to her under $1 million — a gap confirmed by both Florida Phoenix and Axios, which called her win the party's biggest statewide breakthrough of the year. Vindman ultimately outspent Nixon by roughly 13 to 1. The Associated Press first called the race with 83 percent counted, with a Florida Phoenix tally putting her close to 56 percent.
Appointed incumbent Ashley Moody faced no such drama, winning her Republican primary with close to 80 percent of the vote over Chris Gleason and two lesser-known challengers, per WFTV. She now has to defend a seat she's held for under two years in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since Bill Nelson's 2012 reelection.
Statewide participation reached just under 24 percent by 6 p.m., short of the 27 percent turnout Florida recorded in its 2018 primary — the last time the state picked a governor's nominee with no incumbent on the ballot, per News4Jax. County-level numbers varied widely: Miami-Dade's turnout climbed to 18.8 percent by evening, according to Local 10 News, while Broward County finished at 16.24 percent — a showing its supervisor of elections, Joe Scott, characterized as "disappointing," per Local 10's reporting.
Trump's Coattails Prove Uneven in the U.S. House
Florida's congressional primaries gave a mixed verdict on the president's sway. In the open 19th District, Trump's eleventh-hour pick, former Commerce Department official Catalina Lauf, lost to Southwest Florida broadcasting executive Jim Schwartzel — part of a broader run of primary setbacks for the president's endorsement that also surfaced this month in Minnesota and Iowa races.
A separate defeat hit closer to scandal than to Trump's brand: Rep. Cory Mills lost decisively to former television anchor Ryan Elijah in the 7th District after a House Ethics Committee investigation the panel itself called "serious and complex," according to Axios — a probe spanning alleged campaign-finance violations, misuse of congressional resources, improperly accepted gifts, dating-violence claims and a disputed Bronze Star. Trump had endorsed Mills in an earlier cycle but left him off a more recent endorsement rollout, and Gov. DeSantis withheld his support as well, according to Florida Phoenix.
Democratic Incumbents Hold Their Ground
On the Democratic side, longtime Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz turned back a crowded field in a redrawn 20th District that's no longer majority-Black, defeating former Broward Mayor Dale Holness 45 percent to 23 percent, with the remainder split among three other Democrats, according to Florida Phoenix. Fellow Democrat Jared Moskowitz turned back a Democratic Socialists of America-backed primary challenger to win renomination in the battleground 25th District by a wide margin.
What Comes Next
Tuesday's results lock in the fall's marquee matchups — Donalds against Jolly for governor, Moody against Nixon for Senate — alongside contests for all 28 of Florida's U.S. House seats and dozens of state legislative races, all heading toward the Nov. 3 general election.
