I’m going to start a new thread for the Florida Senate race, and throw in the gubernatorial contest too.
These are excruciatingly tight races. On the gubernatorial side, Rep. Ron DeSantis might just make it. with 98.5 percent of the precincts reporting he leads by a full percentage point, 49.9 to 48.9. That translates to about 85,000 votes. I believe the Dems could have won this race with a better candidate than Andrew Gillum. But the left propelled Gillum to victory in the primary.
On the Senate side, Rick Scott’s lead is just a tad less than DeSantis’. Scott is up 50.4 to 49.6 and by about 70,000 votes. Toppling a tried and tested warhorse like Bill Nelson would be a pretty big deal.
The big question is where the non-counted votes come from. I don’t know the answer.
UPDATE: Henry Olsen writes: “I know why the networks are cautious, but I called Rick Scott an hour ago. He’s 66,000 votes up with 99% in. IT’S OVER!!! CALL IT!!”
DeSantis holds a bigger lead than Scott. Maybe the networks should call this one, as well.
GILLUM CONCEDES: The Dems blew this race when they nominated a scandal-plagued candidate this radical.
SCOTT STILL LEADS: By about 55,000 votes with 99.5 percent of the precincts in.
NELSON FINALLY CONCEDES: I’m mildly surprised by this result. The polls missed here.
My initial impression is that pollsters performed worse this year than in 2016. When the dust settles, we’ll see if this is true.
It makes sense, though. I think it’s getting harder and harder to poll representative samples, a point John made during our session for VIP’s last week.
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