Gaetzorama: Live Primary Results from FL, WY, AK

Will Matt Gaetz get his vindication -- or revenge -- tonight in Florida? Voters in the Sunshine State as well as Wyoming and Alaska hold primaries tonight, and that promises to deliver more drama than the inside of the Democrat national convention tonight!

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On the streets of Chicago, though ... that remains to be seen. 

As always, we'll have live results as they come in. And once again, we are partnering with our friends at Decision Desk HQ to provide real-time vote results after polls close, which will happen at various times tonight. The widgets below will list those times, and will automatically update. Please note: The House primaries are all available in a single widget for each party; you will need to use the drop-down box to choose the race you want.

We're able to do this, of course, in large part because of the support of our VIP and VIP Gold members. Become a HotAir VIP member today and use promo code FIGHT to receive a 60% discount on your membership.

Let's go in poll closing time order tonight ...


Florida

The biggest story here was pretty much over before it began. Kevin McCarthy recruited former naval officer Aaron Dimmock to derail Matt Gaetz' re-election bid with a primary challenge in FL-01. McCarthy spent $3 million to push Gaetz out of office, and ... it's not going well. The only suspense here seems to be how big a win Gaetz can ring up. FL-01 is an R+19 district, so whoever wins this two-man race will get an easy ride to Congress. 

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The other big race here is in the US Senate primaries. Rick Scott should easily fend off primary challenger Keithj Gross, who did a decent level of fundraising ($2.4M) ... but Scott did ten times that amount and more ($29M). Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell raised less than half that amount ($12M), but her nearest primary rival Stanley Campbell only raised $1M. Money isn't everything -- but it's close to everything. 

Most polls close at 7 ET, but the panhandle closes at 8 ET. The state won't release counts on the Senate races or House districts in the panhandle until after the later time, but we can expect a fairly quick count from Florida after that in all races. 


Wyoming

Incumbent Senate Republican Dr. John Barrasso should win easily, but he did draw two challengers despite his Trump endorsement. Barrasso raised a ton more cash than either or both combined, so it's safe to say he's not going to break into cold sweats tonight, or at least he shouldn't. Democrat challenger Scott Morrow is running unopposed tonight and will be poised to lose big in November, so let's hope he enjoys tonight, anyway.

Wyoming has its at-large House seat primaries tonight. Incumbent Harriet Hageman pushed Liz Cheney out of office two years ago and is expected to win easily tonight and again in November. Challenger Steven Helling ran as a Democrat two years ago and came in last in that primary, and has an excellent chance of repeating that finish this time in the GOP primary. Democrats again have one candidate in their primary, so Hageman will face Kyle Cameron in November.

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Polls close here at 9 ET, and results should be complete sometime in the early morning. The outcomes will probably be apparent within the first hour that the count comes in, though. 



Alaska

Last and least, we have the 49th state, where the only action comes in the all-in House primary. The drama is minimal, as the top four will advance to the general election. The incumbent is Democrat Mary Peltola, She gets all of the progressive endorsements and big-time money support, and she has raised $6 million in this cycle to hold a seat in a fairly red state. Two Republicans are also expected to advance. Nicholas Begich is back and this time has the Freedom Caucus endorsement. Nancy Dahlstrom, currently the lieutenant governor, got recruited by the NRCC and has Trump's endorsement. It will be interesting to see who pulls the most votes between the three. 

The fourth spot? Well, that's anyone's guess. One of the candidates is running from federal prison; Eric Hafner got convicted of making bomb threats, among various other charges. Another routinely runs goofy campaigns and is claiming No Labels membership while the group rejects the association. John Howe has run for other offices in Alaska without success, while independent David Ambrose is running on a platform opposing COVID regulations. The only other Republican besides Begich and Dahlstrom is Matthew Salibsury.  Add in a few more stray names, and you have your field. 

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Polls close at midnight ET, but much of the vote comes by mail. Don't expect more than 50% of the vote to be counted by the morning. 

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 20, 2024
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