Arizona & Florida primaries (8/28/2018)

In fact, the only two counties reporting at this point are Yavapai (Prescott) and Coconino (Flagstaff).

I still will be interested in seeing if she clears 50% at the end of the night. It would be a rebuke of Trump if she does.

Trump stayed right out of that primary. It was probably one of the few times he listened to Cocaine Mitch.

And McSally isnā€™t anti Trump like Jeff Flake is. I listened to her acceptance speech that was posted onlineā€¦ sheā€™s definitely a fighter and will aggressively fight for that seat. Rs have a good chance of holding it.

Good sign for Republicans in November perhaps?

Gillum pulled victory off by cruising in relatively small number of Floridaā€™s counties.

He carried 18 of 67 counties.
Levine carried 4 counties, all in the extreme southwest Peninsula as well as coming in 2nd in Broward and Miami-Dade.

Graham carried the remaining 45 counties.

However most of Gillumā€™s counties were too small and inconsequential to make a difference. He won this election in three counties, Broward, Duval and Miami-Dade. The combined margins he ran up in those three counties put him over the top. He should thank Levine, who drained off a bunch of potential Graham votes here also.

He carried the following counties:

Alachua (Gainsville)
Broward (Fort Lauderdale) - He was helped here by Levine draining off 45,000 votes from Graham, Levine actually finished second here.
Clay (south suburbs of Jacksonville)
Duval (Jacksonville) Not surprisingly he crushed his opponents here.
Escambia (Pensacola) Surprisingly, he crushed his opponents here.
Gadsden (right next to Tallahassee and majority black, I believe he took a 3 to 1 ratio of votes here.)
Hamilton (on Interstate 75 right on the Georgia line)
Hendry (Small inland county in the south peninsula.)
Hillsborough (Tampa) He carried it by a modest margin.
Jefferson (right next to Tallahassee)
Leon (Tallahassee) His margin here was very modest, given he is the Mayor of Tallahassee.
Madison (right next to Jefferson)
Miami-Dade (He carried it by a 2 to 1 margin over Graham and Levine drained off 48,000 votes from Graham here, Levine finished second here.)
Okaloosa (Far west panhandle)
Orange (Orlando)
Palm Beach (West Palm Beach)
Santa Rosa (Far west panhandle)
St. Lucie (Fort Pierce)

Surprisingly, he finished 2nd in Pinellas (St. Petersburg), well behind Graham.

I think Democrats heavy gun grabbing rhetoric is backfiring and is motivating Republicans to come out to preserve the Second Amendment. Levine was the worst, but the others were heavily promoting gun control as well.

The official vote count continues to slowly trickle in.

McSally remains in the 51% range. I will be very happy if she actually finishes in the 51% range or even higher, considering that she appears to be crushing her opponents in Tucson at an even higher percentage.

She currently leads in every county except Yuma, where Arpaio has a small lead and McSally and Ward are about tied.

Yes, that very well could be the case. Itā€™s certainly a good sign. Although this wonā€™t be a good environment for Rs to be running in, Florida may be the exception.

Itā€™s interesting what happened in the 27th CD. This is an open seat and one Ds thought they had an excellent chance of flipping. The R nominee is Maria Salazar, a Cuban American and local TV news personality. On the D side is Donna Shalalaā€¦ former Clinton cabinet member and 77 years old.

Rs may have strengthened their chances in the 27th with a strong candidate combined with a relic of the Clinton era, running for congress for the first time at 77.

I voted for our GOP Secretary of State yesterday, but she ended up losing to her more conservative challenger. She did make a couple of mistakes as Secretary of State, which was probably the main reason why she lost the primary. There is no Lieutenant Governor office in Arizona here so the SofS office is next in line to the Governor office.