Byron Donalds wins Florida governor race

Welcome back into Fox Orlando Election Night Live. Garrett Weimer here, and thanks so much for joining us live on Fox Local and on our digital platforms here. Right before we went to break, we were able to tell you that the Associated Press has now called the governor's race for Republican candidate Byron Donalds. We want to go ahead and check right in with Fox 35's Marie Ettinger, who joins us live from the Byron Donalds election night party. And, Marie, it sounds like after that call was made, things really did turn into a party. They started throwing out to the crowd who grabbed them. And it looks like we are going to have some people come to the podium and give speeches pretty soon. But right now, they're still just feeling the electricity in the room as people who came out for this very moment and felt pretty confident about it for the majority of the night are actually getting to see that their vote and their choice is what has moved forward today. I will say, though, this is the first time I've done any sort of election coverage where there wasn't polling happening in real time behind us. Thank you. At the primary election night watch party, the campaign had the results coming in on TV behind us the entire time. And so that was actually delayed today, up until the results were a little bit closer to coming in. And you can see a little bit behind me, I know it's close quarters in here, so it's difficult for the video journalist I'm working with, Keith Brown, to be able to zoom into anything. But we can try. It looks like he's making some adjustments to the camera, but we can try to give you a little bit of a view of what's happening out here. There's a party going on and you can see people gathering up, starting to pay more attention to the front. There's also more people on the risers who are potential speakers today, and that's filled up a little bit. We've already had Cynthia Chestnut come in and speak for a little bit, we had a pastor We had to do a prayer and we had somebody come in to sing the national anthem already here. But now it seems like they're just trying to focus a little bit more on getting the energy up ahead of more speakers coming out. Garrett? All right, we will anticipate you really shortly. It seems you like that from my end up. So thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thanks for coming out. Hey! And we'll keep a close eye on that, too, because we could hear from from Byron Donald shortly. I want to bring you back in, Mike Miller, Rishi Baga. We appreciate you all spending time with us and talking politics here. It's been a lot of fun with you guys and we really appreciate it. All right. The governor's race has now been called. And so, Mike, I first want to get your take on the on Byron Donald's the campaign he ran that we now know a successful one. I got to say, you know, I watched Byron run for, I think he ran for 18 months and everybody thought, you know, maybe he's gone out too early and, you know, he had to get through a primary, he had to get through all the, you know, all the ups and downs of the campaign. But the guy was a steady Eddie. I watched him even in the last, you know, 48, 72 hours when he was running all over the state and his energy level was pretty amazing. I mean, if he can do that as a governor, that'll be a great opportunity for the state of Florida. And I think he brings a lot to the table. I mean, you know, he served in the state house with me. So I saw him firsthand. I saw how he handled the legislative activities on the house. He was, you know, in U.S. Congress. So he's familiar with the interplay between state and federal. And I think as a governor, I think he'll do a really nice job of setting the tone early that he's enthusiastic, you know, just a huge fan of Florida. He likes to ask when he does his campaign things, you know, how many people are from Florida? And a lot of people raise their hands. How many people are not from Florida? And a lot of people raise their hands. He says, isn't that amazing that we all chose Florida one way or another, and we're all in this room together? I think hopefully he's a uniter, and hopefully we have one of those conversations where he's looking at the best interests of Florida. But I mean, in terms of enthusiasm and a gentleman who's run for a long race for a long time, I'm very proud of him. That's a good point, because he was one of the early kind of announcers. President Trump endorsed him very early on in this. And so in some ways that gives him an advantage, fundraising, plenty of time to raise money and get things like that. He did a great job there too, yeah. Yeah, I mean, he did in a lot of ways. And now on the Democratic side, Rishi, I think there are some people who are seeing this, given all of the circumstances, given what we're seeing tonight across the country, You know, the difficulty. Kind of environment for Republicans right now. There are some who are looking at this result and saying, if Democrats couldn't win the Florida governor's mansion tonight, can they ever again? Look, it's always going to be an uphill battle for Democrats in Florida. And I think it's just been built that way. A lot of the various structures of Florida at this point, it's been under Republican rule for so long that the way the seats and everything have been designed at this point, it's tough. For a Democrat to compete statewide with a significant fundraising disadvantage, I think the Republicans walk in with a large fundraising advantage. And that's certainly very helpful for them in running. Let me say it's I will say this. David Jolly ran an incredibly close race. The fact that it is this close, given all of the advantages that Byron Donald's got running in this case, speaks highly to the campaign he ran. And I think it does show that. Democrats can be competitive in this state. The other interesting part of this, though, is that it looks like the Florida legislature is going to shift. Even though there will still be a Republican majority, it looks like they may lose their supermajority. And so I do hope that Governor Donald is willing to work with Democrats. It sounds like he may have to work with Democrats more than Governor DeSantis did, and hopefully that... You know, that will be an interesting time in Florida to see what happens. When I served in the Florida legislature, we didn't have a supermajority. So I do think that there's an important piece to that puzzle. And we have been watching the returns on some of the local races. And I think as... You know, as the population of Florida continues to shift and especially Orlando becomes more urban, there's a changing dynamic there. But I don't think that's a negative. I think she's right. I mean, you guys pick up a few seats, you know, maybe that's the check and balance that our founding fathers wanted. And I think that's that's not a terrible thing, because I think going into this next term with the governor of Florida, who's going to be very focused on education, very focused on on some of the things that that he has been carrying with him since his days in the House, Those are bipartisan issues, so hopefully we'll have some. Some good dialogue and good things will get done. I'll say this. He inherits some challenges, too. It looks like, and we're still counting the votes on this, that Amendment 3 may pass. And that's going to be a real change in the way Florida does business, right? We've had local governments that have relied a lot on property taxes to raise funds. It looks like that money may be severely curtailed. And so it's going to be really interesting to see what happens in the state legislature in Tallahassee and how they're going to, you know. As a student of the House, I'll tell you, they added a committee week just for that potential. So I think there will be some new members of the State House and Senate will come in, and they'll have to make some decisions on that enabling legislation. So that will actually be a very interesting part of the dynamic. If you really want to get wonky and watch the Florida House and Senate in a session where they're going to have to do enabling legislation to make that happen, that's going to be an interesting thing to watch.