Election results & reactions

Good morning, everybody, on this Wednesday, November 4th. Welcome into Fox Tampa Bay Live. I'm your host and executive producer, Regina Gonzalez, controlling the show with you for the next hour, unpacking a lot as the results of the 2026 midterm elections are basically all solidified, and there is a lot to go over. So that is gonna remain a huge focus of this next hour. We've got some great conversations coming up for you, And then we're also going to get you up to speed on other local. headlines you need to know about as well. But I mean, if you were following last night, if you were watching our coverage, thank you so much. It was a big night. A new governor-elect here in Florida, a new mayor-elect in St. Petersburg, and a shift in power in Washington with Democrats winning control of both the House and the Senate. Here at home, as you can see, Ron DeSantis is governor-elect, keeping the governor's mansion in Republican hands after After a narrow win over David Jolly. But overall, with some much closer contests this time around, what do these results tell us about where Florida is headed? We can also show you this victory video from St. Petersburg last night. Charlie Crist preparing to take over as mayor after defeating incumbent Ken Welch. Mayor Ken Welch did give a concession speech, I should say, and he actually He actually wasn't talking to the media last night, so he made it. We made a speech, we have some of that, and we will follow the latest over in St. Pete. And then voters. Florida voters approving a major property tax cut, raising big questions about what comes next for homeowners and the local services they rely on. We're going to talk about Amendment 3 this morning. We're going to be bringing in guests to break down these results, the biggest surprises, and what all of this means for you from your neighborhood to the nation's capital. And plus, we do want to hear from you. I know we got a little busy last night. We didn't get to take a lot of your questions and comments. But what is your biggest takeaway? Good morning to you. Things are looking pretty good. We're drying things out after all that rain that we had. A lot of people, especially over on the East Coast, also down into Hardy, DeSoto, and Highlands County, still drying things out. We still have a number of river flood warnings. So it's gonna take some time for some of this water to go down. But as you look outside right now, it's nice to see some sun. Back over the area. So you look over downtown Tampa and you're seeing partly clouded skies, looks beautiful at the USF Marine Science Camera, but we are seeing some more clouds along the coastline. So it really all depends on exactly where you are, but I think at least everybody is seeing some sun. In some areas, some pretty decent sun, especially as you push down to our south into Sarasota, Hardy, Sarasota and into Highlands County. More sun in those locations, and that will continue to be the case as we go through a good portion of the afternoon. We still are looking for a few showers as we go through the afternoon. You look at Sky Tower Vector Scan right now, things are quiet over central Florida. A couple of showers out into the Gulf. Now, as we look down to our south, Remember, some of these areas, some of the areas that were hit pretty hard down towards Fort Lauderdale, stretching down towards Miami, and they have yet more rain in some of these areas, and that will tend to just aggravate some of these locations as we go through the day. But that overall trend. It is going to be for less rain as we go through the coming days. 84 degrees right now here in Tampa, St. Petersburg, near 79, over to Lakeland. We're looking at those temperatures climbing into the mid-80s. So watch the pattern as we go through the next couple of days. Quiet right now. We'll see a few of those showers developing as we head through mid to late afternoon hours for today. That range is probably about 30% for today. Lower as we head into Thursday, you definitely can tell, just not many of those showers around. So we'll call it about a 20% chance, and we'll continue to drop those rain chances. But then, eventually, we're watching that cold front. That's going to be the big thing that we watch as we head into this weekend, is an approaching cold front. Now, this front doesn't look like it's going to have a whole lot of weather associated with it. That's a good thing, but what it is going to do is it's going to really push down some drier air over us and also some cooler air. So as you look at some of these temperatures here, you notice what happens. We've been stuck in those mid, in some cases pushing towards those upper 80s. As we head into the weekend, we're dropping those daytime highs into the lower 80s and eventually back down into the 70s as we head into next week. So a seven-day forecast Looks really nice. We've got a few of these showers around, but then we get more sun, we get some cooler temperatures, and we get some of that lower humidity heading back our way as well, which is, I think at this point, a lot of us want to see that. Yeah, definitely. And I mean, Jim, as you mentioned, we've been tracking Flooding and we had a record amount of rain over the last couple of days. We've been fairly lucky in most of the Tampa Bay area, but we're actually showing some video right now from Brevard County. We're going to check in with Kim Quezon to our south in just a moment. But I mean, this water is just sticking around. What is making it stick around? And I mean, could more rain make things worse? What are we looking at here? Yeah, definitely, some more rain could make things worse. And it's because we've just had days upon days of rain in some of these areas over on the East Coast. The rainfall totals when you look over a seven day period of time have been just absolutely amazing with some of these numbers climbing up really like two feet of rain. It's always something when you start talking about You're talking about rainfall amounts instead of in inches. You're talking more along the lines of feet of rain. So look, places like Sebastian, you see these are all radar estimates, but they're pretty close to what we saw in actuality, where you're looking close to 30 inches of rain. You move down the coastline, down towards Port St. Lucie, 16 inches, and this is over a week's period of time. So any additional rain, the ground's just too saturated, it has nowhere to go. And so that's why we continue to Not only the flooding, but this rain just in the water, just not able to really recede. And what we're just going to continue to watch is just really that threat as we go through the coming months of just more of this type of weather. We've talked so much about this, El Nino. And what you have, when you look at that jet stream pattern, that's what when we're talking about El Nino, that's what we're really referring to. In a normal winter, we have the jet stream much further to the north. That is that white jet stream. With an El Nino, you notice that pattern, it is pushing much further to the south. So that is bringing more of that energy further to the south. So we had that very active subtropical jet stream closer to us, which means wetter conditions across the southern part of the country. So Texas all the way through Louisiana and into Florida as well. And that means that we just have We have many more of these. Cold fronts, and these fronts are much more energized as well. So if you have more cold fronts, you have... More rain, you have more potential for severe weather, just with more energy because that upper-level support from that subtropical jet stream, and then more clouds, more rain. That means cooler temperatures. That's why we talk about cooler temperatures. We're not talking about dramatically cold temperatures, freezing temperatures. We're just talking about cooler temperatures because we have more rain and more clouds. That's really the pattern that we're looking for as we go through. Really, the rest of fall and through the winter into the early part of spring, just more of that threat of this type of weather. Wow. Well, Jim, we really appreciate that explanation because I know a lot of people see these shocking videos and images and then wonder what is going on. Could they see this again? So we're going to continue this coverage, checking in with Kim Cuizon. But Jim, we'll talk to you soon. Thanks so much. All right, so these are actually some more videos coming in from DeSoto County. Fox 13's Kim Cuizon has been in and around this area. We know people to our south are also keeping an eye on the Peace River levels. And as we bring in Kim live right now, we see some floodwaters behind her. Kim, thank you so much for joining us. Tell us what's going on behind you, where you are, and what people are really thinking right now. Yeah, Regina, so I am here in Arcadia, just got off of 72 coming in from Sarasota County. And where I'm standing right here, this is a parking lot. I'm going to go ahead and flip around the camera if I can do so. But you can see how high the Peace River has come up. Yesterday, it was near that sign there where it shows the manatee crossing, or to beware of manatees. But you can just see the water as it is coming up. Now, the river here is not expected to crest until tomorrow. And that one has people along the Peace River here concerned from the Arcadia Peace River campground to the American Legion Camp Post 11 over there. Talked to those guys yesterday. They are a great group of guys and they're just really keeping an eye on the river right now. And as you can see, this is where cars should be parking right now. And it's already coming up to the handicap parking signs and everywhere else here. They've been through this before. They've been through a number of floods like this. They went through it during Hurricane Ian. During Hurricane Ian, it was almost to the top of that roof over there of where the bathrooms are out here. They don't expect it to get that bad, but they do expect some type of flooding for this area. There's about 60 homes in the area that could see flooding that are right on the Peace River, along with the campgrounds and the American Legion and the Women's Club here in Arcadia. But people have really been coming out the last couple of days. We've seen them since Monday coming out here to take a look at the river, but this is one time where we're not seeing as many people because the river levels really are starting to come up some. Yeah, Kim, do you know, is this warranting evacuation notices at the moment? I guess my question to you is for someone who lives in that area who's watching this, what do you feel is the most important thing they need to know right now? Yeah, well, so that's the thing. Arcadia is made up of a lot of different areas here. And for anybody that's in town, they're fine. In town is dry. Their downtown is great. This is for people who live right on the Peace River. And like I said, they... They kind of know the drill when it comes down to this. I've seen a lot of people posting and talked to a few people on social media where they've already moved their cars. Some of their homes are obviously built up on stilts. They know what to do when this happens. Now the big concern for a lot of people who stay at home and don't evacuate out is if the water hits any of their electrical boxes or if it causes their power to go out. But Arcadia is a very resilient community and they've been they've been through this. And they just know what to do when it comes to this. Well, that's good to know. I mean, you have to feel for them at the fact that they have done this so much. Have you seen crews making rescues, helping people get supplies? I know you said, obviously, it's mostly people that live along this river. But any help from the area and county and city officials right now? No, so the sheriff's office was out on Monday and Tuesday as well, the DeSoto County Sheriff's Office, going door to door. At that point, the water hadn't gone into anybody's house, but they were there offering support if anybody needed any help. Yesterday, I ran into an FWC officer who did rescue two people from the Peace River For her campground, they were camping via 10. Actually, I spoke to. I spoke to them, they didn't want to go on camera, but I spoke to them off camera. And they said, their car was okay, their truck was okay, but they weren't okay and they just needed some help. They were a little bit older, but. As of now, I know that the DeSoto County Sheriff's Office, the FWC is really just checking in on people. A lot of people are close knit here, they know one another, but the thing that's gonna hit hard is like for the American Legion, K post 11, they had a lot of stuff coming up. Tomorrow they had a food drive for vets that they had planned. This weekend's also the bike fest that's coming through here. Again, if you're in downtown Arcadia or anywhere like that, you're gonna be fine. The American Legion here, this is kind of their kickoff to collecting toys for kids during the holidays. So they're really hoping that they don't flood over there, that they're able to continue just kind of some of the good work that they do for the community here. Yeah, I hate to hear that. And I hope, I mean, do we know for, I mean, I know that when Jim was kind of explaining the meteorological explanation for this, but I mean, why always the Peace River? I think Jim would know better than I do, but when I've talked to a lot of the locals down here, the Peace River, all the rain that comes in through Lakeland, through Bartow, through north of here, it eventually empties into the Peace River. So it does take a day or two to come down the river and impact the areas down here. Now I will say back in, I believe it was It was July or August. I was out here and you could actually walk across the river in part because they were dealing with the drought. So to go from August where you're able to walk across the river where boats were even getting stuck to now, it's a very big contrast here. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Well, be safe out there, Kim. Please send our love to everyone out there dealing with this flooding right now. We appreciate you. I know you're gonna have some more updates coming up later on FOX 13 News. So we'll talk to you then. Okay, thanks, Regina. Have a good day. You too. And just to give you some perspective again, this was actually footage that we rolled on from our sister station, Fox 35 Orlando out in Brevard County, where they are still seeing really significant flooding days after we saw the rainfall itself. This still has schools closed. We know at least two people have died over the last couple of days. And on election day yesterday, it even affected people from voting. People were, you know, sending in comments. Comments to Fox 35 Orlando saying we cannot vote because we can't get there. So we're going to stay in touch with them as well to see how this is playing out in Brevard County, but just really shocking video all over. All right, guys, speaking of Election Day, we are going to continue our coverage with the results both nationally and here locally. The decisions that were made by voters yesterday, we're going to break it all down when we come back after this break. All right, everyone, we are coming back here right now on the Dow. It is up 1,300 points right now, obviously reacting to the results we saw from the midterm elections last night. Some ones in certain states still needing to be officially declared, but for the most part, we saw a pretty relative, we did see a shift in power in Washington. Let's actually head out to We'll get to that live right now. Fox News still keeping this up, and we also saw a change to property taxes here in Florida. Democrats winning control of the House and Senate, while Florida voters approving Amendment 3. So this morning, we're looking at what those results mean in practice, and of course, the legal questions that could follow. So if you were tuning into our extended election coverage on Florida Live, which also airs in Orlando yesterday, you may recognize this face. We've got Professor Jeffrey Schwartz. Back with us, emeritus professor at Cooley Law School, talking about everything we saw last night and what we could see play out in the future. Good morning. Good morning. We need to get you a desk here. I'm sorry. I said we need to get you a desk here. Yeah, that's fine. I'll get a little nameplate. It'll be wonderful. I'll bring my coffee cup too. I love it. I love it. I know you and I were in touch this morning about the results. We saw Democrats flip seats in states President Trump won just two years ago. What did you make of all this professor? Well, one of the seats that I told you to pay attention to was the Kentucky 6th. And I said, the Democrats didn't actually have to win that race. All they had to do was break down from a 20-point win by President Trump. That Democrat won by seven points, as far as I know. I know he's won, okay? And that was a real bellwether to let you know what was going to happen as it swept across the remainder of the country. It was a huge win for the Democrats. As President Obama put it in 2014, it was a shellacking. It was that simple. I wanna know when you look at this image, it's actually moving. Yeah. How does control of both chambers change the balance of power between Congress and the president? That will depend upon how the president chooses to address the change. If he addresses the change as he has a couple of times already saying he's going to be the vetoer in chief and everything that Democrats try to pass, he's going to veto, then that's going to be very confrontational. And that is going to create even more problems. That the Democrats don't want to get involved in and that is whether there is going to be actions to try to remove people from office. That's not what I think the Democrats have in mind. I think that Hakeem Jeffries and Schumer are two people that the president claims he can work with. And if it is somebody that these are people that he can work with, they may be able to, as the president likes to put it, cut some deals that will get him some things that he wants and then get things that the Democrats want to try to change the economy and end the war in Iran. Actually, Professor Schwartz, if you don't mind sticking around for just a moment, we actually have Senator Schumer speaking live right now. Why don't we listen in for just a moment to see his reaction to all of this. Their electricity bills, it raised their fuel, their gasoline and diesel costs. Republican eyes were so glued to Trump's Truth Social feed that they missed the truth, staring them dead in the face. Americans hate the direction our country is going in right now. So now, Republicans, we're going to have to choose whether to keep listening to the nonsense that's coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or start acting in the interests of the American people. If they continue to embrace Trump, they're going to be following him right over the cliff, as this election has shown, and it'll get even worse for them. What is our assignment? First, Americans want Washington to bring down the cost of living. The anguish that American families feel as they ask themselves, do I pay for gas to drive to work or groceries to feed the kids? Do I pay for healthcare to keep my family healthy or electricity to keep my family warm this winter? Second, Americans want us to clean up corruption in government. They know that Trump is the most corrupt president in American history. No American should have to make trade offs at the supermarket while Trump is making insider trades on the stock market. Americans are calling for accountability, not accommodation. And third, they want us to check on Trump's chaos at home and abroad. We've seen too many Americans die on our streets and in uniform overseas because of Trump's erratic judgment. The American people don't know what the heck we're fighting for in Iran. He's never made it clear, he changes his mind. Day to day and minute to minute, this war must end, it must end. And make no mistake, whenever Trump defies the will of the American people or the law, we will launch investigations, take him to court and entangle him in legislative razor wire. The days of Trump's supplicant Senate are over. I'll have more to say in the coming days about how Democrats pulled off this victory, how our majority plans to deliver for the American people. But if there's one hopeful, I'd like to conclude on this note. If there's one hopeful, optimistic takeaway, we should remember that from this election, our democracy runs deep, very deep. Our founders created this amazing document, the Constitution. They envisioned co-equal branches of government. What they said was ambition was made to counteract ambition. But when ambition turns to blind loyalty, there's only one last firewall. They thought the legislature would check a king-like president, this legislature. All right there, so you have Chuck Schumer there, Senator Schumer saying Americans are calling on accountability and corruption. Talking about how the Democrats are really gonna be in control from this point on. Are you surprised Professor Schwartz by any of these remarks right now? No, I actually am not surprised by the remarks. I think that they are ones that need to be said. The way that we have always dealt with things in the past is that after elections, whether you win or you lose, you're supposed to call for unity. You're supposed to call for calm. You're supposed to call for cooperation and trying to do things for the American people. And I think he's trying to avoid confrontation at this point, as Hakeem Jeffries did this morning when he was on television. And the hope is that we will see the same thing out of the president, who will now understand in the last two years, he's going to have to deal with Democrats and he's going to have to make decisions that maybe two years ago he would not have made. I actually did see yesterday that he posted on Truth Social. Actually, better reach out to More reaction than I thought he would have to what happened last night, saying that he does look forward to working together on some of these issues. Because I feel like at this point, I mean, for lack of better term, does he really have a choice? He does. He can be the veto giver in chief and he can create the confrontation that I don't think he really wants. It is a natural instinct for him to be confrontational. That's the kind of person that he has been throughout his career. And to cooperate with the other side is not something that Roy Cohen taught him to do. Roy Cohen taught him always be confrontational, never give up. But if he wants to have a legacy that people will think about in a positive sense, he's going to have to cooperate. I think that Congress has to cooperate. This is a time when we have. Split government, which American people have always loved and always wanted, and force them to do things in a moderate way to get things done. So I anticipate that at least from the beginning that may happen. And I kind of hope that this kind of attitude continues. But that's going to require a lot of people around the president to leave and allow him to do those things. I feel like. Close races, Professor Swartz, often bring talks of legal challenges. Have you seen anything that raises a specific legal concern just yet? And I guess to add on to that, what evidence would a campaign need to challenge a result? Well, at this point, we anticipated a lot of litigation. I know that we all did. And we all thought this was all going to be fought out in the courts. Right now, the numbers are so big. And the margins so high that the kind of challenges that they could set out would really not change the results. However, Alaska is still there. It still may end up counting their votes in what's called ranked voting. And if that occurs. Then that's going to be a different story. There will be legal challenges there. There may be a legal challenge in Kansas or in Oklahoma. Those things may actually take place, but it's not going to be to the kind of thing that we saw in 2024 and 2020, where things were fought out over and over and over again, 60 challenges, that type of thing. I don't think it's going to change anything. And I think that that's something that Todd Blanche has got to be telling the president right now. I want to bring things on home to Florida, Professor Swartz, and talk about Amendment 3. It passed over that 60% margin last night. For someone watching and wondering, will my property tax bill go down? Who qualifies for relief and when would they actually see that? Well, the size of how much money they will save will depend upon, at this point, the value of their home. It will have an immediate effect, possibly on sales of existing homes. That may happen. And yes, people who own extremely expensive homes are going to see a really large increase between next year and the year after. The real problem is that when you start reducing income to the state government, the money that you send them will not come back. Because you never sent it to them in the first place. And when that happens, so a lot of the expenses that get covered by the taxes you have been sending to the state government with your property taxes, will now have to be made up by your locality to fund your police, to fund the fire department, to fund the administrative agencies. All these things have to be paid for. And especially education has to be paid for. So you're gonna end up paying this either by property taxes that are imposed by your local government or possibly sales taxes imposed by the state and or your local government. And those are regressive taxes. That's gonna hurt poor people more than it is people of substance. So that's how that's gonna get paid for. That's gonna be the net effect over the next couple of years. Yeah, and I mean, just as you mentioned, local governments have raised concerns about police, fire, local services. So I guess to build onto that thought, what protections do these services have? And I mean, who decides how to address lost revenue? Well, it has to be decided by your county commissions. It has to be decided by your city commissions. It has to be decided by your boards of education who propose millage to pay for education. It has to be addressed by the legislature. The legislature has always found a way around any amendment that deals with income, that deals with expenditures. They're going to have to try to find a way around Amendment 3 to be able to pay for the things they wanted. Like the lottery when it passed and they said it was going to be supplementing the education budget and it has now become the education budget. So as a result of which these kinds of things are going to have to take place and it really is up to them and in some way it'll be up to the voters because some of these millages, some of these property taxes will have to be passed by the people. Any final thoughts? I could keep talking to you forever. I've got so many questions. I know we have to start wrapping this up, Professor Schwartz. Anything you yourself will be watching for over the next couple of days and weeks from a legal perspective or just in general after what we saw last night? I think in general, what I'm really looking for is I'm looking for what's going to happen in Washington, the reaction to Republicans as lame ducks, whether they're going to try to push things through. That's the first thing. We already know that Speaker Johnson has announced this morning This morning that he does not want to be the minority leader. He's told his staff that this morning. So it's gonna be right now, it's either gonna be Jim Jordan or it's going to be Steve Scalise. But I think somebody else is gonna stick their nose in there somewhere. The attitude of the Republican Caucus to the Democratic Caucus. After January is going to be essential to how this government is going to work. So the question is, do you want a fighter like Jim Jordan who's going to make life difficult for Democrats or someone like Steve Scalise who knows how to work the system and has done it for years? Let's hope and I hope that young people who are really responsible for what happened last night more than any other demographic will continue to stay engaged. And I hope that they will make their feelings known and I hope that they will do what's necessary to make this government be what it has been in the past and what it can be in the future. A great way to end things and I know you mold a lot of those young minds. So I guess on that thought before we go, I mean, kind of teaching the younger generation, are you proud of them? What are you constantly Talking to them about and trying to explain as you go into an election last night. I know the midterms always doesn't get a whole lot of attention, but I feel like it did. I will tell you that I told you this story before we started this morning. And that was that I went home yesterday and I watched a video. It's not about the candidates and it's not about the election. But it was a video of a rally that took place on Saturday night. And as Obama and Ossoff and Keisha Lance Bottoms walked out, you didn't hear them speak. You didn't hear the crowd cheering. But at the top, it said, I'm going to tell my children, these are the real Avengers. I think that what we have to do is we have to honor whether they be Republicans or Democrats. I think that the young people of this country stood up in a way that I never thought they would. I thought that they just didn't care and they wanted life to wash over them. That's not what I see. And I'm really proud of the people, the young people of this country who made the decision to go out and vote and got involved. And I hope they stay involved no matter which side of the aisle they're on. I think that this is the most important thing that can happen that can help maintain. The Constitution, I'm 77 years old, I won't see what's going to happen 10 years from now most probably, but I am content that I think the Constitution will endure. Well, we hope you are around for a very long time to see as much as you possibly can when it comes to this government. Professor Swartz, we really appreciate all of your insight and coming in. I know we all had a late night watching the election. So we are so grateful for you and we hope you have a good day. Thank you. We'll talk to you soon. Enjoy your coffee. Thank you. It's already gone. I've got a little water break in, but I think I'm going to switch to Diet Coke. Keep the caffeine going. We'll be right back, guys. All right, the confetti was popping, the music was going, and now governor-elect Byron Donald ended his victory speech saying, tonight we celebrate, tomorrow we work. And now comes the transition, building his team and turning campaign promises into an agenda. For the state. So if you were tuning into a lot of our coverage, you know that Fox 13's Evan Axelbank was at Donald's victory celebration in Hollywood, Florida. And he has been so kind. We're just really putting him to work this week. He's joining us on his road trip back. Good morning, Evan. How are we doing? You have some coffee? Good morning. Yeah, good morning. No, no, I don't do coffee. I had some Gatorade and some water and I had a little toasted bagel with butter, so I'm in good shape. Oh, good. We're here in Naples right now, driving through. We just made the turn from Alligator Alley. Oh, nice, nice. Well, we are always grateful for you to join the coverage, especially after we saw what we saw last night. I mean, obviously, Byron Donald's taking this victory, but by very narrow margins. Can you kind of attest, Evan, to what the vibe was in the room, for lack of better word, as they were watching these results in real time? Well, they were nervous all the way through and these results, the returns were not what they wanted to see. They expected a bigger victory than this. All you need is 50% plus one vote and they got that. So Republicans did survive, generally speaking, statewide. But they definitely got their bell rung last night. This is a state that Republicans are not used to even sweating over over the last decade or so and they certainly sweat last Last night, the governor-elect said without question. That it was the panhandle that put him over the top and he was made it clear that he was nervous. But I will say I've been talking with Democrats and Republicans this morning and they believe that they had a turnout problem. They believe that Republicans were not enthusiastic to go to the polls yesterday. And if you look at it, the final margin in turnout was about two points. So in other words, there are 11% more. Republicans than Democrats in Florida overall, but last night, the margin was only 9%. Nine percent. So that is telling Republicans that there was a turnout problem, there was an enthusiasm problem. And they believe that NPA voters, no party-affiliated voters, broke against them by as much as 20 points. That is it. Significant gap that is essentially a wipe out and they felt it down the ballot. I mean, I mean, the... the House candidates, the State House candidates lost, the State Senate candidates, one of them lost. The Democrats broke the supermajority in both the House and the Senate. Mm-hm. The- County commissions and school boards frequently not all but frequently swung against the Republicans and broke in the Democrats favor. So their ball was wrong was wrong last night. There's no question about that. So they were nervous. The panhandle put governor elect over the But this was a close one, and it's something that they're not used to seeing here in Florida. Yeah, actually, we were just listening in to Governor Ron DeSantis at this point in our show. I don't think we're going to have time to play it, but he spoke about it an hour ago, Evan, and he, quote, said he called this an extinction-level event for Republicans. So obviously, yeah, that's a great way to put it. We're put on high alert last night. I noticed yesterday when Byron Donalds gave his victory speech that he said, tonight we celebrate, tomorrow we work. At this point in the next few weeks until we bid farewell to Governor Ron DeSantis' administration, how much can he do and get started as governor-elect? What are we going to see from him in these next few weeks? So what's going to have to happen now is they have to build, first of all, an internal staff, the people who are going to advise The governor-elect and then the governor, they need to build out an entire office of people from a chief of staff to a director of communications to a legislative liaison and on down the list. I mean, there's an enormous staff that a governor needs to operate a state as large and extensive as Florida. Then they have to start picking the cabinet secretaries, or I should say the department secretaries. You have the Department of Corrections. The Department of Children and Families, you have health leaders and medical advisors and a surgeon general and you have some people in the office who are going to help him internally and then people who are going to run all of the departments externally. Some of them may stay on. It's not a change of party, although it is a change in style and a change in administration. And Governor DeSantis will have the right to pick and choose his staff as he sees fit. Some may be asked to stay, some may be asked to leave. Sometimes they don't want too much turnover when they change administrations because it is such a big job. And one of the things you see is that these really are two different operations entirely. I'm going to turn it over to Even though they're of the same party and in some ways of the same mindset, governors and presidents and mayors all wanna do things the way they wanna do them. And he's gonna be able to pick and choose a staff, so picking a staff is gonna be one. And then he's gonna have to, him and his team are gonna have to talk with Governor DeSantis and his team about the problems that the state is facing, both on the ground, costs are of course the biggest deal, administratively too. Does it take to run a state like Florida? And I don't care who you are or how capable you are. It is impossible to walk into that office in a state like Florida and know what you're doing fully on day one, unless you have enormous preparation going into it. So that's what Governor-Elect Donaldson is gonna be focused on. All right, and then when do we officially see him become governor? That's January, right? Yeah, correct. He would take office. I should know the date. It's either the 1st of January or the 2nd of January. But my guess is that he officially takes office on midnight of January 1st. Okay. He would then... Do a swearing in either the day or the day after that, just whenever it's logistically possible to get everybody there and to build out an event. I mean, look, that's gonna be another thing, inauguration planning. And we saw Governor DeSantis hold an inaugural speech. I was there in 2018 and he set his agenda out. He gave his policy sort of prescriptions that day. And sometimes that can change from when someone campaigns or at least be augmented when they're finally sitting in the seat as governor. So that will be a celebratory day, and you're gonna see all the former governors will likely be there in attendance to hail their new member of their exclusive club. Wow, yeah, we actually did just get it, January 5th, Evan. He will officially be sworn in and take office. I wonder if he takes office on the first at midnight, but I shouldn't be wondering that. I should know that, but either way, it'll be very close to the new year. Yes, yes, yes. Well, thank you, Evan, so much. I know you had a long night. You did a great job yesterday. I know it was loud in there, packed house, and I know you're making your way back. So we appreciate you taking us on your road trip with you. Listen to some good music, get some snacks, and we will see you soon. We're about to stop at a nice pizza place that I love in Fort Myers, so- And Evan Pizza Review, you'll have to let me know how that goes. It's very good. If you've ever been to BJ's Brewhouse, they've got a great little spot in Naples, or maybe it's Fort Myers, so we're going to stop there. Very good pizza. Okay, yes, I will need a- It's a chain, but it's good. Nothing like an Evan or Haley Pizza Review, that's for sure. That's when you know it's real. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you. Thanks, Evan, we'll talk soon. All right, see you later, pal. All right, everyone, we are going to take it even closer to home when we come back and we will have Fox 13's Heather Healy break down some of the local results for local educational races that we were following. So stay with us. All right, everyone, we are slowly approaching the top of the noon hour here on this Wednesday, November 4th in Hillsborough County. Last night, voters made some big decisions that will impact schools. Among them, the superintendent position now going to be an elected one going forward, no longer an Well, it was quite the election night for Hillsborough County voters as they have spoken. They decided to renew a crucial half-cent sales tax for local schools for another decade. And that surtax first passed in 2018 and was said to expire. But district leaders say its extension was essential to keep aging campuses running. Since 2019, officials say the tax has funded more than 1,000 completed projects across the district, with roughly 200 more currently underway. By law, the revenue is strictly restricted to capital improvements, including replacing around 180 air conditioning units, more than 60 roofs, and upgrading dozens of playgrounds and athletic fields. Oversight leaders say without it, school infrastructure would be in serious trouble. We would have been in deep trouble because there was desperate cry for air conditioning, for roofing, for technology. The loudest cry was for air conditioning. So we have been able to, we have completed over a thousand projects since it started in 2019, and we have about 200 more to go. And it's just nonstop, and that's why we can't go backwards. Beyond classroom comforts, the money also covers campus safety measures like fire systems, perimeter fencing, and enhanced security. While voters previously approved a separate tax for teacher and staff pay increases, state law bars those operational dollars from being spent on brick and mortar repairs. And this has been passed for 10 more years. For more information on the election coverage, head to our website, fox13news.com. Reporting, Heather Healy, Fox 13 News. All right, thank you, Heather. When we come back, we are going to switch gears here. We've done enough election talk, and trust me, that is going to continue throughout the day. But a story that happened yesterday that got a little overshadowed because of how much extensive election coverage we were doing. Our buddy K9 Ace making an appearance after a local coffee shop did a T-shirt campaign to raise money for the Polk County Sheriff's Office K9 Foundation. There was a check presentation. K9 Ace was wearing sunglasses. So, of course, we're going to end with that. When we come back, stay with us. Cool K9 Ace is looking these days in his retirement. Before we go, with all the election news yesterday, we wanted to make sure this moment got a little love too. You may remember the K9 Ace shirt that I was wearing the day he came into Fox 13. It was created by Dark Horse Coffee Company in Plant City. Well, sales of their K9 Ace products and their Judd Java helped raise money for the Polk County Sheriff's Office K9 program. And yesterday, it was time to present that check to share. Sheriff Grady Judd and their K9 team. So we wanted to play for you just a few moments of that because we heard from Sheriff Grady Judd himself and the owner of Dark Horse. The one I want to say thanks for everybody being here. I know you guys don't see the officers. There are the deputies behind that are all in attendance as well. I want to thank everybody for being here. I'm Jeremy with Dark Horse Coffee Company. Um... We're here for a simple reason, to thank Polk County Sheriff's Department for... Their K9 program and then also we want to put, we just want to, we want to thank K9, Ace and the proceeds from Judge Java to support what we're doing here and put them where they rightfully belong, which is with K9s for Cops. I just told the sheriff and you guys all know the story of Ace, but this is a community That allowed us to do this. This is just Dark Horse being a middleman to what this community represents and what it supports and the events that happen. And we just wanna say thank you. And we appreciate everyone for attending and we appreciate the sheriff and we appreciate what K9s for Cops does for the community. And obviously it's always nice to see K-9 Ace and Deputy Natalie. Natalie and Strike Okay, so with that, we just want to, we'll be giving a check for the proceeds for $15,000. Again, like I said, this is a community that speaks. And this is where we're rightfully putting the proceeds rightfully where they belong with the deputies and the officers and the front lines. Thank you very much. You know, first and foremost, Michelle Robert has run fundraisers to buy canines for years and years and years. And we can't thank you and Carpenter's Home, the estates, enough for all of that. But we can never forget the tip of the spear in our delivery of customer service in the most dangerous situations is our canine team. And on that particular night... Natalie and Ace went out to do what we do hundreds of times every day, and that's we try to make contact with people where there are outstanding warrants. Of course, there was no inkling that this was gonna go any different until they arrived at the tent and the guy who was zipped up in his tent said, I have a gun and I'm gonna shoot and started shooting. We all remember that night like it was yesterday. So glad to see that canine Ace is doing good. He's got his binky, he's got his shades on, and he's got his new prosthetic leg, which apparently I was talking to the photographer who was out there shooting this. He's hobbling around well on it. So always good to see Ace and even better to see that support for our local canine team, $15,000. That is a lot of money. And those t-shirts and that merch were really, really cool. So that is going to wrap up our show. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll We'll see you at 2 o'clock on Florida Live on Fox Local. But our election result post-midterms continues over on the Fox 13 News at Noon with Linda Hurtado. Hey, Linda, how's it going? Hey, Regina. By the way, great job last night on Tampa Bay Live. Oh, thank you. Craig Patrick, always a great asset. Lindsay was over there rocking and rolling in the producer corner. You guys did great, too. Great team coverage, as always. We have a great team here at Fox 13. We're going to take it here.