Former Florida representative enters race to replace Ingoglia's former senate seat
This is not the first time Massullo has had his eye on the senate seat. Back in 2022, he ended his bid following Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsing Ingoglia. Now that the seat is open again, Massullo has thrown his hat in the ring.
Fired federal prosecutor based in Tampa plans to sue Trump administration
'We're emphasizing workforce and career development. We're incorporating AI into a lot of our services that the state is suing, as well as trying to incorporate that into workforce as well as education and also trying to improve health care,' Massullo said.
Massullo also said he wants to focus on improving the environment along with agriculture.
Massullo, who's a dermatologist, has support from Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier through a post on X and the Florida Chamber of Commerce, with an official endorsement.
'I'm extremely happy. I'm a small business owner myself. I've worked with the chamber for many years,' Massullo said.
This week, Gov. DeSantis issued an executive order calling for a Special Primary Election on Sept. 30. So far, no democrats have entered the race. But if that happens, both sides will face off on Dec. 9. Candidate qualifying is Aug. 4 and Aug. 5. After that, voters officially know who will appear on the ballot for the Special Primary Election.
'I ask all of your viewers to investigate the various candidates that are running, particularly the ones that running in my district, and go out and vote,' Massullo said.
Massullo served in the Florida Legislature from 2016 to 2024, when he couldn't run again to remain in the state House because of term limits.
The campaign for Republican Anthony Brice confirmed he will enter the race for the Special Election. He already had plans to run for the seat in 2028. However, with the vacancy, he will ramp up campaign efforts now ahead of September.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
21 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Elon Musk may not be the president, but he still has cards to play against Trump
"Knowing Elon the way I know him, I do think he's going to do everything to damage the president." So declared Elon Musk's former friend and business associate Philip Low, who has known the Tesla and SpaceX tycoon for 14 years, in a recent interview with Politico. Those remarks seemed to be borne out last week when Musk renewed his on-again, off-again feud with Donald Trump by attacking Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" and proposing to form a new political party — which he now claims to be moving forward with. Trump responded in kind, suggesting he would "take a look" at revoking Musk's citizenship and that he "might have to put DOGE on Elon". As The Independent reported last month, there are a great many ways that Trump could try to hurt Musk, from targeting his companies with federal investigations to deportation or even criminal investigations. But Musk is not without cards to play. Through his vast wealth, his business empire, and his ability to martial a zealous online fanbase, he has plenty of ways to make life difficult for his erstwhile "buddy". So if the world's richest person really wants this fight, what punches could he throw? A money hose for Trump's opponents The first and most obvious weapon in Musk's arsenal is his vast wealth: an estimated $405 billion, according to Forbes. In the 2024 election, Musk plowed $295 million into supporting Republican candidates, chiefly Trump himself. That's a huge amount in American politics, but it's chump change for today's mega-rich. For context, across the whole of 2023 and 2024, the total amount of money raised by all presidential candidates was only $2 billion, according to the Federal Election Commission. Congressional candidates raised $3.8 billion, while PACs raised a more respectable $15.7 billion. Matching those amounts wouldn't be trivial for Elon Musk, because like most of the world's richest people his wealth is tied up in stocks that can't easily be unloaded all at once. Still, based on Wednesday's share prices, he could pay for the entire 2024 election cycle by liquidating just one fifth of his reported $130 billion stake in Tesla. We have a sense already of how Musk might use this money. "Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame! And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth," he said on Monday. He's suggested he'd donate to Republican representative Thomas Massie, a persistent critic of Trump's. And there's still another $100 million Musk previously promised Trump that he could decide to withhold. He could even give money to Democrats, who will likely take it (although Trump has threatened 'serious consequences' in that scenario). They are politicians, after all. Then there's Musk's proposed new party, dubbed 'the America Party'. 'When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste and graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,' he said on Saturday. 'Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.' In a follow-up tweet, he suggested the party would be a 'centrist' entity aiming to slash government spending, cut regulations, stimulate technological progress, increase birth rates, and support 'free speech' (though Musk himself has a troubled relationship with that last term). Musk's proposed strategy is to 'laser-focus' enormous effort on just a few Senate and House districts, in the hope of acting as a tiebreaker in tight votes between Republicans and Democrats. In general, the USA's first-past-the-post electoral system means third parties find it almost impossible to get a seat in Congress. The America Party would need a sizeable grassroots contingent in order to get any campaigns off the ground. Meanwhile, Musk's notion that 80 percent of the USA agrees with his opinions seems disconnected from reality. The polling expert Nate Silver puts his net favorability rating at a weighted average of -18 percent, which is considerably worse than Trump himself. Nevertheless, his billions mean the new party won't want for resources. And even if third parties don't win, they can still leech votes from larger parties and force them to change their policies. Of course, money isn't everything — as Musk himself found out when his attempt to sway the Wisconsin Supreme Court election in March and April crashed and burned. Luckily for him, it's not his only asset. Musk's cult of personality rivals Trump's own Musk's overall popularity may have dropped dramatically since the election. But his pull with Republican voters specifically was still very high as of early June. That's testament to his ability to build and maintain a fanatical fanbase. Like Trump, he has a knack for inspiring loyalty and whipping up his supporters against new targets, as well as a keen instinct for controversy. And also like Trump, he doesn't need to be popular with all Americans to cause trouble for his enemies. He only needs enough dedicated partisans on his side. 'Elon has wooed enough of Trump's supporters to be an actual threat politically,' Musk's old friend Philip Low told Politico. "[Trump] doesn't realize the battle that he has on his hands." Musk's ownership of X, formerly Twitter, will help him there. Having already turned the social network into a hub of the MAGA media universe — and reportedly tweaked its algorithms in favor of his own posts — he now has enormous control over the conservative information stream. Given how many Americans now essentially live in a parallel media universe, maintained by fake news entrepreneurs and skewed social media algorithms, that gives him influence over what Trump's base even believes to be reality. Granted, Trump remains the unquestioned ruler of the GOP. And when polls pit Musk against Trump directly, Republican voters largely side with the king. Yet Musk's combination of financial and social capital makes him a powerful ally to anyone within the party hoping to chart their own course. From fiscal hawks opposed to Trump's spending spree to centrists with one eye on their purple state majority, there are plenty of people in Congress who won't always back Trump 100 percent. Musk can boost and sustain them, helping them resist the eye of Sauron effect that Trump has traditionally used to beat his coalition into line. Musk's influence crosses countries and industries Other threats are more esoteric. NASA would be pretty stuck without SpaceX, which currently offers the only reliable way of ferrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Musk's satellite business Starlink is relied on by governments and militaries across the world, including some U.S. agencies. Having helped kickstart China's world-leading electric vehicle industry, he also has a serious fanbase in China — and good relationships with the Chinese Communist Party. "Brother Musk, you've got over a billion people on our side backing you," said one user on the Chinese social network Weibo on Wednesday. Most juicily of all, he has information. Musk spent months at the heart of the Trump administration, attending cabinet meetings and undertaking highly controversial projects. What might he have learned or witnessed during that time that could damage Trump politically? We got a taste of that when Musk accused Trump of being "in the Epstein files". That's nothing new: we've known since 2015 that Trump was in Jeffrey Epstein's address book (which is not evidence of wrongdoing), and his ties to the child-abusing financier are long documented. Yet as Trump knows all too well, in today's politics truth has only a passing relevance to how much chaos a lurid allegation can cause. None of these factors are a slam dunk for Musk. His born-again MAGA conversion has trashed his former reputation as an apolitical business genius, and toxified his image among Democratic voters. Getting more involved in politics would only prolong investors' disquiet about his ability to focus on running Tesla and SpaceX. Trying to dish dirt on Trump could also tempt revenge in kind, which could be dangerous given the sheer range of allegations about Musk's personal life. Most of all, to misquote a line from the early 19th century writer Hilaire Belloc that Musk seems to be fond of: whatever happens, Trump has got the nukes, and Musk does not. Then again, when has the near certainty of adverse consequences ever stopped Elon Musk?


CBS News
33 minutes ago
- CBS News
State attorneys oppose Miccosukee Tribe's efforts to join Alligator Alcatraz environmental lawsuit
Attorneys for the state Friday opposed an effort by the Miccosukee Tribe to join a lawsuit challenging an immigrant detention center in the Everglades dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz." The tribe on July 14 filed a motion seeking to intervene in the lawsuit filed by Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity, which allege that state and federal officials did not comply with a law requiring that an environmental impact study be performed before developing the detention center. Opponents of the facility contend, in part, that it could cause environmental damage in the surrounding Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve. The tribe's intervention request said the "Miccosukee people have lived in and cared for the land now known as the Big Cypress National Preserve since time immemorial" and raised environmental concerns. The detention center's "proximity to the tribe's villages, sacred and ceremonial sites, traditional hunting grounds, and other lands protected by the tribe raises significant concerns about environmental degradation and potential impacts to same caused by the construction and operation of a detention facility" at the site, the document said. But in an 11-page response Friday, attorneys for state Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie, a defendant in the lawsuit, raised a series of objections to the tribe's intervention. In part, they argued that the tribe's participation would be "duplicative" of arguments by the environmental groups. "If the tribe seeks simply to mimic plaintiffs in every particular, then plaintiffs — who are already vigorously litigating this case — adequately represent the tribe's interests," the state's attorneys wrote. The response added that "the tribe would inject into the case additional briefing and discovery that would seriously burden the existing parties and the court." Federal officials, meanwhile, made a filing Friday that said they did not take a position on the tribe's intervention. It is not clear when U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams will rule on the intervention request.


CBS News
34 minutes ago
- CBS News
Texas company sues Florida agency for $7.544 million after helping evacuate Americans from Haiti
A Texas-based company filed a federal lawsuit this week against the Florida Division of Emergency Management, alleging it is owed more than $7.5 million after the firm helped evacuate people from war-torn Haiti in 2024. TAD Recovery Services, LLC, filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the federal Northern District of Florida. The lawsuit described the company's services as moving "materials, supplies and personnel in and out of various locations around the USA and elsewhere in the world, often on an emergency basis due to catastrophic weather situations and/or rapidly developing geopolitical conflicts." The lawsuit said the Division of Emergency Management contacted the company in March 2024 "to get involved with helping to evacuate children from the Tim Tebow Foundation in Haiti." It said that "morphed" into the Division of Emergency Management, asking the company to provide broader services related to evacuating Floridians and other people from Haiti. The lawsuit alleges the company is owed $7,544,031. Gov. Ron DeSantis said in an April 24, 2024, news release that the state had rescued 722 Americans from Haiti.