All –

The 2018 Mid-term elections are “mostly” over.  The election was very close in many races in Florida and throughout the nation.  Voter turnout was unprecedented with over 8.2 million people voting, which is a larger turnout than the 2018 Primary and 2016 Presidential elections. The final demographic breakdown of these voters will be released in the coming days.  ACRE made $163,000 in contributions over the course of the 2018 election cycles and had a 94% success rate for those candidates that we supported.

In Congress, Democrats flipped the U.S. House of Representatives as the GOP expanded their U.S. Senate majority which could set the stage for a divided government and partisan conflict.  Florida’s U.S. Senate race between incumbent Senator Bill Nelson (D) and Governor Rick Scott (R) was a nationally- watched, very close race.  Currently, Rick Scott is ahead by 34,700 votes against Nelson.  This slim margin triggers a mandatory recount which could take several days to finalize.

With the majority shift in the U.S. House, leadership changes will be forthcoming with each committee receiving new chairmen and members.  Congressional District 26 was a territory seat that found Debbie Mucarsel-Powell beating Congressman Carlos Curbelo by 1.74%. Other races of interest were Ross Spano (R-CD 15) and Greg Steube (R-CD17) winning to replace D. Ross and T. Rooney respectively.

Florida’s Governor race was another hotly contested race that garnered national attention.  Congressman Ron Desantis (R) beat Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) by a slim margin of 55,538 votes that is just outside of the mandatory recount threshold. 

Florida will have a new Cabinet with the exception of Jimmy Patronis who was appointed as Florida’s CFO last year and won his election.   Ashley Moody (R) won the election for Attorney General over Representative Sean Shaw (D) by a margin of 6.25%.  Jimmy Patronis (R) remains the Chief Financial Officer with a victory margin of 3.72% over Jeremy Ring (D).  Representative Matt Caldwell (R) will face a manual recount in his slim lead of  12,400 votes for Agriculture Commissioner over Nicole Fried (D).

A mandatory recount was triggered in Florida’s Senate District 18 race between incumbent Senator Dana Young (R) and former Minority House Leader Janet Cruz (D).  Cruz currently leads that race with a slim margin of 289 votes.  As it stands, the Republicans maintain a majority of 23 members while the Democrats have 17 members. 

Every two years, the entire Florida House of Representatives is up for election.  Five incumbents lost their seats and the Democrats had a net 6-member gain. However, the Republicans maintain a majority with 73 members with Democrats increasing to 47 members.

Even though stakes were high in Florida’s elections, the outcome of an electric deregulation constitutional amendment in Nevada was high on our watch list.  Nevada’s Constitutional Amendment process requires an issue to be voted on twice before being adopted.  The amendment calling for deregulation of the electric industry in Nevada was on the ballot for the second time and was defeated by a margin of 63%.  We will delve into how Nevada’s opponents squarely defeated the amendment to prepare for our deregulation fight in Florida.

This election cycle was full of national implications and will be a launching pad for the upcoming 2020 election cycle.  Overall, the Electric Cooperatives had a very successful election.  It will be important to continue relationship building and educating our newest elected officials about the cooperative way.

If you have any questions or would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact Mike or me.

Thank you,

Allison Carter

Director of Government Affairs

Florida Electric Cooperatives Association

2916 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Office: 850-877-6166, ext. 2

Mobile: 850-567-0059

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