Florida Primary Night Liveblog August 28 2018 (w/ Updates)

Just to note I VOTED TODAY AND YOU SHOULD TOO if you're in Florida, and for tonight I will be posting updates to this blog entry about how the votes are going for some of the key offices.

There is a serious race for Governor in the party primaries, with the Republicans choosing between two great evils (Putnam the NRA sell-out and DeSantis the trump Stooge) and the Democrats choosing between SAINTS THANK GOD (okay, so I am a bit partisan in this regard). I'm also hoping that Rick "Medicare Fraud" gets upset in the Senate Primary race, especially because that hypocritical SOB is running ads on YouTube about threats to Medicare and that bastard should never utter the goddamn word that fraud /RAGE

Anyway, tune in later, about 9 PM or so, to see how things are lining up on the results.

Go Gators.

P.S. do not bring gators to the precincts. They are not covered by the Constitution when it comes to voting rights, sorry.

UPDATE 8:38 PM EDT: Well crap. I just got home from work and already the Tampa Bay Times is declaring DeSantis the winner in the Republican primary for Governor. This is the guy trump backs. With 78 percent of the results in, DeSantis has 56 percent of the vote over Putnam's 36 percent. FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU---

UPDATE 8:42 PM EDT: The Democratic race for Governor is still close, between Gillum leading at 33 percent to Graham's 31 percent. I had a personal preference for Graham, but I will back Gillum whole-heartedly for the General election.

UPDATE 8:52 PM EDT: For Polk County, all of the precincts are in and the results are pretty much it, so we get an idea of how the parties are going to look for November.

Of the local elections I placed a vote towards, I got one of the two judges - I'm a bit vexed that Gravitt, facing local scandal, eked out a win - and one of the three School Board candidates. Mutter grumble grumble I'm in Polk mutter mutter.

UPDATE 9:02 PM EDT: One of the races I'm not even seeing results for is the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat. What I've seen for the Polk results - Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott making it a laugher over Rocky - I'm guessing is the same across the state. I had to find the one-line sentence on Scott's primary win as part of DeSantis' victory report.

That Scott - having presided over two turbulent terms of inaction as Governor regarding our schools and our environment - is one step away from a Senate seat - and taking that seat from a good Senator like Bill Nelson - remains a horrifying prospect. Goddamn but I live in a crazed, trump-driven state.

Just have to work harder to get the goddamn vote out, Florida. Gotta stop Scott. Gotta stop the Republicans from their decades-long misrule of the Sunshine State.

UPDATE 9:48 PM EDT: The papers are calling it for Andrew Gillum, mayor of Tallahassee, as the Democratic nominee for the Governor's seat. It's a slight upset over Gwen Graham, who had family ties to Florida politics through her father Bob (a former Governor), and Miami mayor Philip Levine. The deal with Gillum is that he's the most openly progressive candidate for the Dems at the state level in years, so this will be seen as a rebuke of the more Centrist Democratic party leadership that has tried to appeal to both liberals and moderates.

If there's any sense of necessity here, I hope the Democratic voters AND the Independent voters remember the Republican candidate is trump-approved. PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD UNITE AGAINST DeSANTIS/trump and turn this state Blue.