- Florida is holding House of Representatives primaries on August 18.
- There are two crowded Republican primaries to replace Gainesville-area retiring Rep. Ted Yoho and to replace retiring Rep. Francis Rooney in Florida's 19th district.
- Polls in Florida closed at 7 p.m. ET.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Polls in Florida closed at 7 p.m. Eastern Time.
The races:
Florida is holding primaries in all 27 of its House of Representatives districts on Tuesday.
In the third district, a deeply Republican seat which includes Gainesville and the surrounding area, there's a crowded Republican primary to replace retiring Rep. Ted Yoho.
Yoho recently verbally accosted Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the steps of the Capitol. He reportedly calling her a "f---- b----," leading Ocasio-Cortez to give a rousing speech on the House floor denouncing sexism and verbal abuse.
The frontrunners in the race include Kat Cammack, a local businesswoman, farmer, and Yoho's former deputy chief of staff, physician Dr. James St. George, railroad contracting executive Judson Sapp, and Gainvesille City Commissioner and former Naval pilot Todd Chase.
The Center for Responsive Politics reported that Sapp and St. George are largely self-funding their campaigns and lead the field in fundraising and spending.
Sapp has been endorsed by several influential figures, including Florida Reps. Matt Gaetz, John Rutherford, and Vern Buchanan, and former third-district Rep. Cliff Stearns.
Despite having less cash, Cammack is also considered a frontrunner in the race, Florida Politics reported, thanks to her strong ties to the district. She's been endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul and is backed by the Tea Party Patriots Citizens Fund.
And in the 19th district, a safe red seat in the Southwestern part of the state which includes Fort Myers, Naples, and Marco Island, a hotly-contested GOP primary to replace retiring Rep. Francis Rooney is taking place on Tuesday.
Businessman US Marine Corps veteran Casey Asker, who runs several large food service franchises in the area, leads the field in fundraising partly due to self-funding followed by William Figlesthaler, who owns a network of medical clinics, State Representative Byron Donalds, and State Rep. Dane Eagle.
Donalds has received outside spending supporting his candidacy from the conservative Club for Growth PAC, the Center noted, and has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
The race has even involved some dirty tricks. The day of the election, text messages from an unknown number posing as Donalds went out to primary voters falsely stating that Donalds had dropped out of the race and linking to a deceptively-edited YouTube video uploaded today with years-0ld footage of Donalds announcing the suspension of a political campaign he ran in 2012.
In Florida's fifteenth district, which includes a large part of the area between Tampa and Orlando in Hillsborough and Polk Counties, there's also a competitive Democratic primary between State Representative Adam Hattersley and former news anchor Alan Cohn to determine who will face first-term GOP Rep. Ross Spano.
Spano is also facing a competitive primary challenge from 26-year US Navy veteran, insurance businessman, and Lakeland City Commissioner Scott Franklin. Franklin, elected to the City Commission in 2018, entered the race relatively recently in April and has raised over $587,000, including from a $350,000 personal loan, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Shortly after being elected to Congress in 2018, Spano came under scrutiny for possible campaign finance law violations for fraudulently disclosing $180,000 in campaign loans from two of his friends as a personal loan to his campaign from himself.
Under federal campaign finance law, individuals can loan a candidate for federal office no more than $2,700 in a single election cycle.
He is currently the subject of probes from the Federal Election Commission and the Florida Bar Association in addition to a federal criminal investigation from the US Department of Justice.
Franklin told Bay News 9 that Spano's ethics troubles and no clear ideological disagreements pushed him to get into the race. Franklin has been endorsed by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who has blasted Spano as "weak."
Join the conversation about this story »
NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid
https://ift.tt/2FrwnpF