DAVIE — Florida Republicans huddled Saturday in Broward County to talk and argue about the future of their party and who the next governor should be.
Hundreds of GOP faithful decked in red, white and blue crowded a glitzy ballroom over a span of seven hours at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. They were yards away from the many more people on the hotel property who spent the day playing the slots and watching World Cup soccer, oblivious to the unfolding political drama.
Here are six highlights from Saturday’s Sunshine State Showdown, the annual summit for the Florida Republican Party.
Republicans fret about unity
There were plenty of warning signs of party dysfunction.
“We have to unite as a party,” said Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson to the crowd of grassroots supporters. “Or we will have the same fate as the Democrats did 30 years ago in this state.”
Simpson’s reference to the last grip on power that Democrats lost in 1998 is often cited by Republicans, a specter they invoke to ward off complacency.
The lack of a debate between GOP candidates for governor remained an irksome issue for some. The front-runner, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, declined to debate his main GOP rivals, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, former House Speaker Paul Renner and investor James Fishback. The Republican Party of Florida agreed that, with Donalds so far ahead in polls and money, the other candidates didn’t qualify.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, the Republican standard-bearer still beloved by much of the base, didn’t attend Saturday’s event. His refusal to endorse his would-be successor was the subject of rampant speculation.
“He’s got to be thinking about his future,” said James Campo, a state GOP official who is seeking to become its next chairman. “He’s artful. He’s got good political instincts. He doesn’t want to alienate the MAGA base. If he picks anyone, he risks doing that.”
Sen. Ashley Moody ignores Alex Vindman
It was hard to tell U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody is running for election based on her address to Republican Party faithful.
She didn’t say the name of the Democratic primary front-runner for the Senate seat, retired Lt. Col. Alex Vindman, who outraised her by around $5 million last quarter.
Her campaign has so far been low-key as Vindman seeks a long-sought statewide win for Democrats.
Moody did have words for the Democratic Socialists of America members who won races in New York this week, calling them “anarchist psychos that want to destroy this country.”
Democrats depicted as a menace to society
While Republicans like Moody portrayed themselves as serious leaders who were the adults in the room, they characterized Democrats as an existential threat.
Donalds called two U.S. senators — Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — “stupid.”
He likened the upcoming midterm election on Nov. 3 as a “fight between freedom and tyranny.”
Referencing recent elections of progressive candidates in New York backed byNew York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, U.S. Rep. Randy Fine said Democrats were destroying the country.
“There is a virus that infected the Democratic Party over the last 20 or 30 years, a mind virus that seeks to degrade America and Western civilization as we know it,” Fine said. “I thought Democrats were dumb, but I didn’t think that they hated America, and now we see that mind virus revealing itself in our party with people who stand up and fundamentally oppose exactly what it means to be American.”
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott said the Democratic Party is “completely infiltrated by severe anti-Semitism and socialists.”
“They hate capitalism, they hate businessmen, they hate business women,” said Florida’s senior senator.
Fishback takes aim at Florida GOP
The Republican Party of Florida refused to give gubernatorial candidate Fishback the stage at the Sunshine State Showdown, rescinding an earlier invite and citing,in part, his “antisemitic and racist attacks on members of our party.”
That decision only emboldened Fishback, who hosted a rally in Fort Lauderdale to counter the Sunshine State Showdown.
“Mark my words, I will burn down the Republican establishment,” he told a crowd of around 200.
Many of the attendees at Fishback’s event Saturday were not defectors from the Sunshine State Showdown, but the types of voters he’s popular with: young men and others who are typically disengaged from political events.
For the most part, speakers at the showdown avoided shots at Fishback.
But Scott, who also blasted rapper Ye’s past antisemitic remarks this week, alluded to Fishback.
“We do not want to be a party that allows antisemitism, ignorance and racism to thrive,” Scott told the GOP crowd Saturday. “We don’t stand for that. There’s no place for bigotry in this room.”
Renner more mellow than Collins
Donalds remains the clear front-runner in the race to win the GOP nomination for governor on Aug. 18. Still, his opponents persist.
While Fishback held his own rally, Renner gave a speech that positioned him as the safe choice for Republicans seeking to preserve the legacy of DeSantis, who is term-limite.
“You want a governor who will get in there and deliver results,” Renner told the crowd. “You want a governor who can take on special interests.”
But Renner refrained from attacking Donalds personally.
Collins took another tack, attacking party leaders for crowning Donalds too soon.
“They’re telling you that Bryon Donalds is the safe choice, the acceptable choice, the electable choice,” Collins said. “My friends, you have heard that before. They spoke the exact same way about Charlie Crist. And we learned the hard way that when the establishment tells you a candidate is electable, what they really mean is that candidate is easy to control and easy for Democrats to define.”
Nominating Donalds, Collins warned, was setting Republicans up for a disaster.
“If we don’t ask the hard questions now, David Jolly is going to ask them with millions of dollars behind them,” Collins said. “If you cannot test our nominee now, the left-wing machine will test him when it’s too late to choose somebody else. And I’m telling you, Byron Donalds is not ready for the fight ahead.”
Scott makes a play for Senate majority leader
Last week, Scott raised some eyebrows when he invited President Donald Trump to a Senate lunch. To many, it seemed like a direct challenge to Republican Majority Leader John Thune of South Dakota.
Thune and Trump have clashed of late about putting the SAVE America Act up for a Senate vote. The legislation would require Americans to provide documentation of their U.S. citizenship when registering to vote.
The U.S. House passed the bill in February, but since then, Thune has resisted blowing up the legislative filibuster to get it passed.
Scott, who has vied for majority leader twice before, lambasted Senate leadership Saturday to a packed ballroom.
“The Republicans in Washington are too scared to hold an up and down vote and go defend their vote to the people back home,” Scott said. “What are they doing in Washington? They should get the hell out.”
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