What to look for in Florida and Wisconsin’s elections tonight

Wisco inferno

Billionaires and carpetbaggers dominate first elections of Trump’s second term

Voters in Wisconsin and Florida head to the polls today, including one local election that’s set to break spending records for a race of its kind.

In Wisconsin, the open race for the state’s Supreme Court takes top billing, as it will determine whether Democrat-backed judges keep their majority. The stakes are high and the spending reflects that; billionaires from both parties have poured tens of millions of dollars into the race. White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk hosted a GOTV rally during which he also doled out million-dollar checks to Wisconsin voters.

The Supreme Court election between Republican-endorsed Brad Schimel and Democrat-backed Susan Crawford is “vital for the continuation of President Trump and DoGE’s initiatives,” one voter said, adding, “We cannot allow Governor Evers’s failed policies to further bring down our great state.” In the race’s closing days, Schimel is rallying voters to his cause with signs urging them to support both him and voter ID – and Kid Rock rolled in with a last-second endorsement of the state’s former attorney general. Despite his backing, and endorsements from President Trump and Musk, Schimel is predicted to lose this evening.

In the race for Wisconsin State Superintendent, incumbent Democrat Jill Underly is running for a second term against the self-described “Blue Dog Democrat” Brittany Kinser, who is hoping for an upset. If Underly loses support from enough Democrats due to her “woke” tendencies in office, it could allow Kinser to squeak through, if she can muster up some Republican support as well.

In Florida, all eyes are turning to the seat vacated by current (but for how long?) National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. The Republican nominee, State Senator Randy Fine, has been buried in fundraising by his opponent, Josh Weil, who has brought in $14 million despite living nowhere near this district. Weil is well known for his feud with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who distanced herself from him after he used footage of her speaking in one of his campaign ads without her permission. While Fine is expected to win, the race has already cost Congresswoman Elise Stefanik her gig as UN Ambassador, because Republicans don’t want to risk another special election nail-biter.

The other election in Florida is the one to succeed former congressman Matt Gaetz – but for once, a Gaetz-related news cycle should remain relatively drama-free. The Democrats’ nominee, Gay Valimont, has raised more than $6 million, but is likely to lose comfortably to the state’s carpetbagging Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, who has no ties to the Panhandle-based district.

On our radar

OFFICE SPACE Federal workers have been complaining about the state of their offices as they return to in-person work, citing a lack of desk space and toilet paper.

CORY IN THE HOUSE Senator Cory Booker has been raging on the Senate floor against President Trump for 18 hours and counting.

FLIGHT CLUB The Trump administration has deported more than 100,000 people since his inauguration, according to DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Like father, like daughter

Hope Walz ditches grad school because she’s a ‘privileged white woman’

Governor Tim Walz gave Republicans yet more ammo when he told voters at a recent rally that Democrats should have prioritized issues such as DEI more in the 2024 election. His daughter, who infamously tried to alert protesters to police presence during the 2020 riots in Minnesota, seems to have taken his words to heart.

Rather than attending graduate school this year, Hope Walz announced that, because she is a “privileged white woman,” she does not want to support institutions that are, in her mind, failing to support far-left student protesters.

“I applied for one school,” Hope said in a TikTok. “I kind of had my heart set on it. I am not going to name the institution, but given recent events I am not going to give my money, go into debt for, or support institutions that do not support students and the right to protest and speak out for their communities… I am a privileged white woman, but I am not going to put myself in the position where I am giving money or supporting institutions that don’t support their students.”

Governor Walz, fresh from discussing his urge to emit a “primal scream” of frustration, attacked his fellow Democrats for being too “timid” in the face of Trump. Republicans will doubtless be hoping that the Walzes have a big part to play in the Democrats’ future come 2026 and 2028…

Luna eclipse

APL quits HFC over proxy votes for new moms

The House Freedom Caucus has lost the first Sports Illustrated model to serve in it. Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna is tearing Republicans apart over her push to allow new moms in Congress to vote by proxy.

Luna’s intra-GOP feud has gotten so intense that she publicly quit the House Freedom Caucus, claiming that the respect within the group “shattered last week.”

“With a heavy heart, I am resigning from the Freedom Caucus,” she wrote. “I cannot remain part of a caucus where a select few operate outside its guidelines, misuse its name, broker backroom deals that undermine its core values and where the lines of compromise and transaction are blurred, disparage me to the press, and encourage misrepresentation of me to the American people.” Luna accused the hardline conservative group of threatening to grind the House to a halt if Speaker Mike Johnson doesn’t side with them in quashing her bipartisan push.

Luna teamed up with Congresswoman Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat who also recently gave birth, to try and force a vote on their provision, which would allow new moms to hand their vote to someone else for 12 weeks after giving birth. The provision that would allow similar flexibility for new dads in Congress to vote by proxy fell by the wayside earlier. However, Republicans had fiercely fought against what they viewed as widespread abuse of the proxy voting system by House Democrats during the Covid pandemic and its aftermath, in addition to arguing that the provision is unconstitutional.

The Freedom Caucus is in the middle of an identity crisis with the return of Donald Trump to the White House; it has also lost four members in recent years.

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