- September 5, 2026
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Let’s say you’re an average observer of elections. Not a hardcore political junkie or party activist, but someone who cares about the outcome of elections.
If you’re in that category — say, a normal, consistent voter — it’s not likely you can reach any conclusive trends or mandates from Florida’s Aug. 18 primary results.
To be sure, there were predictable results along party lines. But there also were a few doozies that defied conventional thinking. Herewith, a selective post-mortem:
The most surprising result from the Aug. 18 primary is this: Who is Angela “Angie” Nixon?
You may know by now she is the Florida Democrat Party’s nominee for U.S. Senate.
All the experts thought this little-known state representative from Jacksonville didn’t have a chance.
Her opponent was Alex Vindman, the former U.S. National Security officer who triggered the first impeachment against Donald Trump. That gave Vindman name recognition. And thanks to national Democrat PAC support, he raised an astonishing $16.2 million in contributions vs. Nixon’s measly $974,844.
Vindman also spent $9 million compared to Nixon’s $709,866.
But she totally whupped him.
Nixon won 56% of the vote statewide. Even more impressive: She won 63% of the vote in Florida’s major metro counties. The only major county she lost was Palm Beach County, Vindman’s home.
One conclusion from Nixon’s victory: Contrary to what you always hear, money does not automatically buy elections. The message matters.
And in Nixon’s case, she delivered her message of free stuff for all (except the rich) among black and other minority voters in Florida’s biggest metro areas: tuition-free public college; cancel student debt; tax the billionaires; free childcare; free paid family and sick leave; nationwide freeze on rent; moratorium on evictions; universal jobs with inflation-adjusted wages; and Medicare for all.
What’s more, she says, healthcare and housing are human rights.
Ah, yes, the entire panoply of today’s nutjob leftist Democrats. The message mattered.
Yes, the message matters. But you can also say in this media age when everyone wants to be famous, the look and style of delivering the message counts more than experience and having the competence to do the job.
That’s the way it worked in the Republican gubernatorial primary.
Winner Byron Donalds is charismatic and eloquent when the red lights of TV cameras are on. Like Ron DeSantis eight years ago, Donalds became a Fox News regular, known for his glib support of Donald Trump.
What is Donalds’ experience other than 10 years in the Florida House and Congress? He was a credit analyst and credit manager at TIB Bank and a Wells Fargo financial adviser.
Or take Lt. Gov. Jay Collins. Green Beret, combat-wounded amputee; 23-year veteran with tours in Afghanistan and Iraq; the look of a broad-shoulder, bearded warrior. His bio says he helped perform surgery on himself in the field. DeSantis dubbed him “the Chuck Norris of Florida politics.” Elected to the Florida Senate in 2022.
James Fishback, 31, gained notoriety in the conservative podcast world, appearing with Tucker Carlson and receiving Carlson’s endorsement. He was adroit at attracting media attention for his flame-throwing comments.
And then there was former House Speaker Paul Renner. Of the four, Renner by far had the most hands-on experience to be a competent governor. A U.S. Navy officer in the Gulf War and former prosecutor, Renner was first elected to the House in 2015. His legislative career culminated with his 2022-2024 speakership, during which he shepherded through a list of conservative legislation that should make him a Republican hero.
He was by far the most qualified, but he also was far from flashy. Sadly, in this era of Trump-AOC media narcissism and the large swaths of voters who consume video-only content, the depth of knowledge about candidates is shallow. Clearly, they go for style over proven substance.
Unlike Manatee County’s past swoons into crazy electoral politics and policy making at the County Commission level, you can sum up Manatee’s primary elections results as almost “ho-hum.” As expected.
The vocal, anti-development forces fizzled, except in one instance. Elizabeth “Liz” Arnold, who was vying to be the successor to the late Commissioner Carol Ann Felts, beat Mark Stanoch by only 408 votes.
That reduces the strident anti-development forces on the commission down to two — Arnold and Commissioner Bob McCann.
The more rational side of the commission will include three commissioners — Amanda Ballard and Mike Rahn, who were reelected, and newly elected Tara Poulton. Chair Tal Siddique and Commissioner George Kruse will be swing votes, but they are more rational than not.
That Republican Sydney Gruters breezed into the Republican nomination for retiring Congressman Vern Buchanan’s District 16 seat surprised no one. She had (and has) the machine totally behind her.
The surprise was on the Democrat Party side. Former Sarasota Mayor and City Commissioner Kelly Kirschner handily won his primary.
This is a surprise in that Kirschner is hardly a household name in a district that encompasses large swaths of Republican dominated eastern Hillsborough County and virtually all of Manatee County.
Fueling Kirschner’s victory was the nearly $300,000 he raised through ActBlue, the Democratic Party’s online fund-raising platform. None of the other Democratic candidates came close to that.
Gruters, meanwhile, raised nearly $1 million.
Watch for the ActBlue PAC to pump more cash Kirschner’s way. But he will have big mountains to climb — building more name recognition and selling his liberal platform in deep red territory.
Even if all of Manatee County’s nonparty-affiliated voters swung to Kirschner (64,726), which won’t happen, and all registered Democrats in Manatee voted, on paper Republicans still would carry Gruters to victory.
The results of the Sarasota City Commission election was no surprise. As expected, incumbent Jen Ahearn-Koch topped the field and will do so in the runoff. The unknown is who will win the second slot — Flo Entler or John Harshman.
If you do simple math and assume Harshman will gain all of Rob Rominiecki’s 2,740 votes and expect Entler’s total to remain static, Harshman would win. That’s an unlikely assumption, albeit probably close.
Count on this: The Council of Neighborhood Association and its affiliates’ leadership, along with the downtown condo groups opposed to development and noise, will be rallying turnout for Entler.
That’s the way our elections work. Special interest tribes stick together to get their way.
We all get that. But consider the fact Entler announced during the campaign she would be Ahearn-Koch’s “shadow,” a nice way of saying Ahearn-Koch’s stooge.
So say city voters get Entler on the commission. Look at the makeup: Ahearn-Koch, a three-term commissioner and marketing-public relations consultant; Kathy Kelley Ulrich, a high-degreed speech pathologist, neighborhood association activist and former planning board chair; Liz Alpert, three-term commissioner and family lawyer; Kyle Battie, ABC 7 TV personality; and Entler, a personal trainer and Ahearn-Koch’s shadow.
That would be the board of directors steering and overseeing a $300 million tax-funded enterprise with 800 employees serving 55,000 customers. Suffice it to say that lineup doesn’t constitute much in the way of business experience and expertise.
With Harshman, Sarasota taxpayers would gain an independent voice, not a “shadow,” and nearly 40 years of Harshman’s business ownership experience and expertise as a Sarasota commercial real estate broker — expertise that is sorely needed.
Eventually, the pendulum always swings. That’s certainly the result of the Sarasota County School Board elections.
Liberal Democrats are now in control, with four of the five seats for sure held by Democrats, including the liberal incumbents Tom Edwards and Liz Barker.
Candidates Heidi Brandt (Republican) and Jimmy Glover (Democrat) are in a runoff.
What will the liberal board do?
Here’s a quote from Occupy Democrats, a privately run social media bullhorn for liberal Democrats: “Well, looks like woke is back on the menu.”
That’s the fear in Republican-dominated Sarasota County. After 12 years of board member Bridget Ziegler leading an anti-woke resistance, the LGBTQ voices now have their moment.
But take some solace, Republicans. In three interviews with newly elected Megan Tennimon, a registered NPA endorsed by the leftist Equality Florida group, Tennimon repeatedly said she will follow state laws and that one of her board goals “is to keep everyone in their adult.”
Two great philosophies to follow.
It is totally de rigueur these days for political candidates to pronounce with complete certainty that healthcare is a right.
And more and more of today’s candidates are expanding the list of so-called rights to include housing, college education, guaranteed incomes and on and on. (See Angie Nixon’s list above.)
None of these is a “right.” These are wishes, and we are not entitled to any of them. Here’s why:
As the late, brilliant economist Walter Williams succinctly defined a right: A right imposes no obligation, no burden on anyone else. With one exception: The obligation not to interfere, the obligation to leave you alone.
Read the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
None of these rights requires any of us to give anything to another person who is exercising those rights. They impose no burden on another.
But when you say government should provide cradle-to-grave medical care (or any of the other wishes on the list), then you are enlisting government to coerce the confiscation of others’ property and earnings to pay for unearned benefits.
A true right does not force one person to provide goods, services or financial support to another. — MW
