BYRON DONALDS

Ron DeSantis has yet to enter the 2024 presidential race, but former President Donald Trump is aiming to drum up support in the Florida governor’s backyard.

The extended drama over picking the next House speaker has put the normally understated position of House clerk in the spotlight.

As Republicans struggled for a second day to elect a House speaker, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida emerged as the choice of conservative holdouts who are refusing to support Kevin McCarthy’s bid.

The Republicans opposing Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s bid to become the next House speaker generally have made their mark as part of the GOP’s ultra conservative wing.

House Republicans plowed through the second day of the new Congress, with no clear off-ramp from their political chaos over electing leader Kevin McCarthy as the new speaker.

The Republican Party’s capture of the House majority is upending the agenda in Washington, empowering GOP lawmakers to pursue conservative goals and vigorously challenge the policies of President Joe Biden and his administration.

House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has cleared the first major step toward becoming House speaker.

Air Force veteran Jennifer-Ruth Green is eyeing an upset in an Indiana U.S. House district that has been Democratically controlled for nearly a century.

Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news briefing in Fort Myers Beach Tuesday afternoon, state officials announced.

Former President Donald Trump recently told a mostly white crowd at a rally in Texas that his legal troubles are the fault of Black prosecutors he called racists.

On Jan. 6, 13 Florida Congress members unsuccessfully voted to object to electors from Arizona and Pennsylvania.

The Latest: Gimenez wins House seat over Mucarsel-PowellRepublican Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez has won a Florida seat in the U.S. House, defeating a single-term Democrat. The 41-year-old Democrat easily defeated Republican H. Wayne Clark in the heavily Democratic county. _____8:17 p.m.Republican Kat Cammack has won Florida’s U.S. House seat held by her former boss, retiring Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho. _____7:22 p.m.Republican state Rep. Byron Donalds has been elected to the U.S. House seat now held by Florida Republican Francis Rooney. “I feel he’s just more level-headed.”______7 a.m.Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden have campaigned heavily in Florida, each hoping to win the prized battleground state’s 29 electoral votes.

— District 3: Republican Kat Cammack has won Florida’s U.S. House seat held by her former boss, retiring Florida Republican Rep. Ted Yoho. He defeated Democrat Donna Deegan, a former television news anchor who has worked to raise money for breast cancer research and to help patients. — District 15: Republican Scott Franklin has won Florida Rep. Ross Spano’s seat in the U.S. House. Deutch was first elected in 2010 and represents a firmly Democratic district that includes parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties. A supermajority of Florida voters approved the amendment to the Florida Constitution that will raise Florida’s minimum wage from the current $8.56 an hour to $15 an hour by 2026.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. State Rep. Dane Eagle was appointed as executive director of the state's employment agency on Wednesday, a little more than two weeks after barely losing a Republican primary for Congress in a heavily GOP district. The agency was widely criticized for long delays in paying out unemployment benefits after the economy tanked during the coronavirus pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of people waited weeks and sometimes months for benefits from the glitch-ridden unemployment system after suddenly losing work amid the outbreak. But Crist dropped out of the Republican primary, ran as an independent and lost to Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. Lawson remained as director of the Department of Economic Opportunity, but management of the unemployment system was given to Department of Management Services Secretary Jonathan Satter.

Polls opened at 7 a.m. Tuesday for Floridas Primary Election and they wont close until 7 p.m. local time. Florida is a closed primary state, meaning voters can only cast ballots for candidates running for the party in which they are registered. Its Primary Day and election workers are preparing to open the polls for in-person voting during a pandemic. She said she registered to vote the first chance she could and has voted in every election since, usually being in line when polls open on Election Day. As of June 30, Florida had nearly 4.9 million active Republican voters and more than 5.1 million active Democratic voters.

Florida has no statewide races on the 2020 ballot and voters are voting by mail in larger numbers, likely because of the coronavirus pandemic. Incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Ross Spano is facing a primary challenge from Lakeland City Commissioner Scott Franklin. Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Posey is also facing a primary opponent in District 8, located on Florida's Space Coast. The vote by mail totals far exceed the 2016 primary, when fewer than 1.3 million people voted by mail, and ballots will continue to arrive at election offices through Tuesday. The state has nearly 3.8 million voters who either are not registered with a party or are registered with a minor party.