DEADLINE IS MONDAY, JULY 20, MY FRIENDS: The deadline to register to vote for the August 18, 2026 primary election in Florida, including St. Johns County, is July 20, 2026.

DEADLINE IS MONDAY, MY FRIENDS: The deadline to register to vote for our August 18, 2026 primary election in Florida, including St. Johns County UNIVERSAL PRIMARY, is July 20, 2026. 

STOP CORRUPTION.  VOTE for Krista and Martin.

Democratic Senate candidate Alex Vindman touts his fundraising lead over Ashley Moody. (Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix, July 16, 20260

From Florida Phoenix:

• ELECTION 2026
• POLITICS & LAW

Democratic Senate candidate Alex Vindman touts his fundraising lead over Ashley Moody

Meanwhile, his campaign doesn’t appear eager to debate fellow Democrat Angie Nixon before the primary.

BY MITCH PERRY-JULY 16, 2026  5:10 PM

 Democrat Alex Vindman in Tallahassee April 22 announcing his bid for the U.S. Senate. (Photo: Christine Sexton/Florida Phoenix)

Alex Vindman has a Democratic primary election he needs to get through against Jacksonville state Rep. Angie Nixon next month, but his campaign is already fixated about running against Republican incumbent Ashley Moody in the general election in November.

Vindman held a rare statewide conversation with Florida political reporters Thursday morning to boast about how his second quarter fundraising totals far surpass Moody’s.

Vindman is a retired Army lieutenant colonel, combat veteran, and former director on the National Security Council making his first bid for public office. His campaign announced Wednesday that it had raised $8.5 million in the second quarter, nearly $5 million more than Moody, who announced she had raised $3.6 million in the second quarter and  has now raised more than $14 million across all of her political committees.

Vindman has raised a total of $16.7 million since he entered the Senate race at the beginning of this year.

The Vindman campaign also announced that 20% of his in-state contributions had come from registered Republicans and independents — 13% from non-party-affiliated voters and 7% from registered Republicans.

But fundraising totals alone won’t be enough. In 2022, Democratic Senate candidate Val Demings held a massive fundraising edge over then-GOP incumbent Marco Rubio and still lost by 16 percentage points.

“Ashley Moody is no Marco Rubio or Rick Scott,” said Vindman campaign aide Blakely Wall. “She is not known in this state, has never really run a real campaign, and Alex is building a campaign to win.”

Although the Vindman campaign may believe Moody isn’t so well known as a senator, since she’s only been in that office for a year-and-a-half, she was elected twice statewide as attorney general in 2018 and 2022.

Jacksonville-based Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon in the Capitol on Nov. 22, 2022. (photo by Mitch Perry)

Before he faces Moody, however, Vindman will face Nixon in the Democratic primary on Aug. 18. There is little public polling to indicate what that race looks like, but Vindman doesn’t appear worried about it. His campaign has consistently rejected Nixon’s call for at least one televised debate, with Wall repeating Thursday that the campaign still “haven’t made a decision” about engaging with her.

Meanwhile, Moody doesn’t appear to see much difference between the more left-leaning Nixon and Vindman, who is running a more centrist campaign.

“This November, voters have a clear choice: a fifth generation Floridian who has devoted her career to backing law enforcement and fighting for policies that bring real prosperity to Florida families, or whichever tax-hiking, open-border, defund-the-police socialist the Democrats choose,” Moody said in a press release Wednesday.

“They turned California and New York into cautionary tales of failed liberal ideals, and now they have Florida in their crosshairs. But we will never let that happen, not on my watch,” Moody added. “Together, we are going to keep Florida the envy of the nation.”

Israel

Among the fissures that seem to be developing between Nixon and Vindman is the issue of Israel, which has become a flashpoint in the Democratic Party. Vindman has previously described himself as a strong supporter of the U.S.-Israel alliance, although he told Fox-13 that no ally should receive a “free pass.”

Nixon, on the other hand, has been a vocal critic of Israel’s military action in Gaza, and received intense criticism from both Republicans and Democrats in the Florida Legislature when she sponsored a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas conflict just a month after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack.

Nearly half of House Democrats in Congress voted Wednesday to cut off $3.3 billion in funding to Israel, showing the growing divide within the party.

The Phoenix asked Vindman how he would have voted on the issue.

“I would have to take a look at that,” Wall responded.

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our website. AP and Getty images may not be republished. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of any other photos and graphics.

Author Info

MITCH PERRY

Mitch Perry has covered politics and government in Florida for more than two decades. Most recently he is the former politics reporter for Bay News 9. He has also worked at Florida Politics, Creative Loafing and WMNF Radio in Tampa. He was also part of the original staff when the Florida Phoenix was created in 2018.

Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

MORE FROM AUTHOR

ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: Trump Fires U.S. Attorney After 54 Minutes, Replaces Him With Fake Prosecutor (Joe Patrice, Above the Law blog, July 16, 2026)

Trump Fires U.S. Attorney After 54 Minutes, Replaces Him With Fake Prosecutor

(Joe Patrice, Above the Law blog, July 16, 2026

From Above the Law:

Trump Fires U.S. Attorney After 54 Minutes, Replaces Him With Fake Prosecutor

The Trump administration's USAO shell game continues. It's going to lose again.

By Joe Patrice on July 16, 2026 5:09 pm

(Photo by DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)

Roger Rogoff was the United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington for 54 minutes.

Rogoff was sworn in a little before 8 a.m. Wednesday at the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle. He walked over to the U.S. Attorney’s office to meet the man he legally just replaced — interim selection Charles Neil Floyd, who was not only never confirmed by the Senate, but never even nominated for the job. Floyd’s tenure as an interim appointment is statutorily capped at 120 days, and with no legal replacement forthcoming from the Trump administration, the district’s judges exercised their legal right to pick a successor to keep the federal criminal justice system running.

While Rogoff was waiting, an email arrived from the Trump administration informing him that he had been removed.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche went on X — because all serious and professional business is conducted on a website dedicated to racial slurs and computer generated child porn — to explain the situation:

District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them. WDWA judges abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected U.S. Attorney is qualified to serve in the administration. Roger Rogoff has been fired by the President.

You don’t need me to tell you that this is bullshit, but since I’m here: this is bullshit.

There’s no “time-honored” consultation process, because the courts only have the power to appoint a U.S. Attorney when the administration has totally abdicated its responsibility to fill the role. Indeed, if the administration could influence this decision, it defeats the purpose of the law. The statutory scheme presumes the president is dutifully sending nominations to the Senate, and if those fail — and exceed the interim appointment window — the courts step in until the president CAN find a confirmable nominee. The purpose of this regime is to make sure federal prosecutions can continue without upsetting the constitutional apple cart: The separation of powers dividing roles between the president and Senate is respected and, if that breaks down, neither branch hijacks the power to appoint someone while that battle rages.

STOP CORRUPTION in St. Johns County: Everyone can vote on or before August 18. 2026

Corruption is the issue. Ask all candidates about their position on some two dozen proposals on government reforms. Ask questions. Expect democracy. 

This County is corrupt. 

Where do candidates stand on civil, criminal and administrative investigations, forensic audit and structural-functional reforms? Where do they stand on deforestation, wetland devastation, bloated budgers, no-bid contracts, election fraud,  hiring a conflicted corporate lawyer County Attorney, and a cynical culture of fear, intimidation and retaliation? 

Fat Leonard pleads poverty, blaming lawyers, lobbyists — and Maduro. (Craig Whitlock, WaPo, July 13, 2026)

From The Washington Post:

Fat Leonard pleads poverty, blaming lawyers, lobbyists — and Maduro

The defense contractor who bilked the U.S. Navy says he lacks funds to pay $30 million in restitution.

July 13, 2026 at 8:15 a.m. EDTToday at 8:15 a.m. EDT

e

Then-Vice Adm. Samuel J. Locklear III poses with Asian maritime tycoon Leonard Glenn Francis, also known as Fat Leonard, in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, in 2007. (Glenn Defense Marine Asia)

By Craig Whitlock

Fat Leonard says he’s running out of money — and can’t afford to pay back $30 million he still owes the U.S. government.

Leonard Glenn Francis, the 350-pound con man who masterminded the biggest corruption scandal in U.S. military history, is seeking a presidential pardon, The Washington Post reported Sunday in an exclusive interview that also revealed how he bamboozled U.S. authorities. He’s serving a 15-year sentence for bribery and fraud.

Francis signed a plea deal promising to pay $35 million in restitution for bilking the Navy as a defense contractor. He paid $5 million up front, but now says he can’t scrape together the rest because he has massive legal bills — and needs to hire lobbyists to plead for clemency from President Donald Trump.

Nothing’s cheap. Everybody wants money,” Francis said in a follow-up phone interview with The Post from federal prison in California. 

Until 2022, Francis lived like a tycoon while under house arrest in San Diego, renting a $7,000-per month mansion. Then he fled the country in a private jet, only to be caught in Venezuela.

He said the Venezuelan government — led by President Nicolás Maduro — also drained his finances by extorting bribes until it handed him over to the United States 15 months after his escape.

“I had to pay Maduro for his hospitality,” Francis lamented. He declined to say how much, but added: “It was a lot.”

ANNALS OF DeSANTI$TAN: Florida lawmaker liable for sexual harassment; jury awards $450K in damages. (Kate Payne, Florida Trib, July 15, 2026)

From Florida Trib:

Florida lawmaker liable for sexual harassment; jury awards $450K in damages

by Kate Payne39 minutes ago

•  X
•  Facebook
•  Email
•  Print
• More

A Leon County jury has found Republican state Rep. Fabian Basabe of Miami Beach liable for sexual harassment, battery and defamation in a rare civil case that aired serious allegations against a sitting lawmaker, as well as chaotic courtroom drama reminiscent of a reality TV show.

Now, the question is whether Basabe’s colleagues in the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature could take their own action to reprimand the two-term lawmaker, who is up for re-election this fall.

Basabe during the 2025 legislative session (House photo by Sarah Gray)

The case, brought by Basabe’s former legislative aide, the aide’s mother and a former legislative intern, played out in a downtown Tallahassee courthouse located across the street from the Capitol complex, which has long been plagued by reports of misconduct by powerbrokers. 

Basabe had been accused of creating an environment of pervasive sexual harassment. The allegations were made by the two young men, who used to work in his office. They claimed the lawmaker grilled them about their sex lives, used graphic language to encourage them to have sex with men, and showed them an image of a naked man on his phone. Basabe was also accused of putting his hands on the former staffers without their consent, slapping legislative aide Nicolas Frevola on the buttocks while they attended an elementary school career day in 2022, and trying to kiss then-Florida State University student Jacob Cutbirth before bringing him on as a legislative intern just a month later. Frevola’s mother, Janette Frevola, had also accused the lawmaker of defaming her and her son in a social media post, in which he called them a “conning, scheming mother and son duo.”

The jury returned the decision in favor of Basabe’s accusers late Wednesday, after about two hours of deliberation, awarding $450,000 in damages to the plaintiffs. Basabe watched calmly as the verdict was read and did not respond to reporters’ questions as he left the courtroom.

Basabe had insisted there wasn’t evidence to support the claims. He has not been criminally charged in relation to the allegations. An external ethics review conducted on behalf of the Florida House of Representatives ended in an “inconclusive” finding. Calls to Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez and his spokesperson were not returned Wednesday evening.

Even rarer than a sitting elected official facing such allegations in a court of law, Basabe represented himself in the case, despite not being an attorney. During the extraordinary trial, the one-time reality TV figure-turned-politician repeatedly asked Judge J. Lee Marsh and opposing attorneys for legal advice, pursued bizarre lines of questioning with witnesses, and regularly disrupted the proceedings with what the judge described as “staggering” violations of legal procedures and court rulings.

“This isn’t a reality show for my clients,” the plaintiffs’ attorney, Katherine Viker, told the jury. “This is their lives.”

Basabe, who was known for partying with celebrities before trying his hand at politics, rested his case Wednesday without calling any witnesses, but later asked the judge if he could enter more evidence for the jury’s consideration – apparently not understanding what it meant to rest his case.

“Rightly or wrongly, I chose to defend myself. Why? Because I wanted to show the plaintiffs and everyone in this courtroom that I have nothing to hide,” Basabe told the jury. 

Basabe crossed himself as in prayer in the midst of his closing statements, which were disrupted when the lawmaker violated for the seventh time a court order listing topics prohibited from being discussed in front of the jury. 

“If an attorney had done what you had done, I would probably be referring them to the Florida Bar for disciplinary action,” Marsh told Basabe.

“If an attorney had done half of what you have done, they would’ve been sanctioned, sir,” the judge added.

Frevola, the former aide, was overcome with emotion after the verdict was rendered, telling his mother, “We got him, mom.”

Viker, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said the case should send a message to politicians and the powerful.

“You are accountable,” she said. “Whether it’s against a woman or a man, this is not acceptable behavior.”

And she hopes voters take note.

“Be careful who you elect. Pay attention,” Viker added. “These are the people that are going to be making your laws. And if they think they’re above the law, what good is that doing you?”

Kate Payne is The Florida Trib’s state government reporter. She can be reached at kate.payne@floridatrib.org.

Related

Tallahassee on trial: Lawmaker faces sexual harassment claims in civil case