Winner and Loser of the Week in Florida politics — Week of 7.13.25

Good news this week, as Gov. Ron DeSantis appears ready to back additional teacher pay raises ahead of the 2026 Legislative Session.

Speaking at a Teacher of the Year ceremony in Orlando, DeSantis spoke of the $1.36 billion pot in this year’s budget dedicated to teacher salaries, a total the House initially resisted.

“I think we can do better next year, so we’ll be pushing for that, and just make sure you tell your state Representatives to get with the program here,” DeSantis said, never resisting a chance to take a shot at his newfound enemies in the House.

Interchamber bickering aside, that’s a welcome announcement for the hardworking teachers who do one of the most important jobs in society: help educate our children and build them up to be successful.

But it’s important to note that those raises may be a matter of necessity, as DeSantis’ own administration seeks to exert additional control over the state’s education system.

He’s already made the issue a priority during his tenure as Governor. But just this week, DeSantis’ hand-selected Education Commissioner, Anastasios Kamoutsas, issued an additional warning to schools to ensure they are backing parental rights initiatives.

As we’ve written, the Left has been a bit too extreme here in endorsing a sort of anything goes attitude in the classroom in the name of inclusivity. But the Right’s counterbalance to that has been to empower kooks to go raise hell at School Board meetings and beyond to try to bully educators into bending to their will.

Kamoutsas’ letter appears to foreshadow additional penalties if schools aren’t toeing the administration’s line. And add to that another announcement this week from the State Board of Education lowering the standards for specialists who manage school library books. In other words, it’s a way of getting in unqualified people who will also enforce the administration’s viewpoint here.

That’s not to mention all of the changes coming due to cuts in the U.S. Department of Education.

These likely aren’t welcome announcements for teachers across the state, who likely aren’t keen to have the state constantly watching over their shoulder.

So additional pay raises may just be the cost of doing business to avoid a further exodus of teaching talent from Florida.

Now, it’s onto our weekly game of winners and losers.

Winners

Honorable mention: Rays baseball in Tampa Bay. It appears the Tampa Bay Rays — with emphasis on “Tampa Bay” — have found a lifeline.

As The Athletic reported this week, it appears there’s a deal to sell the team to Jacksonville developer Patrick Zalupski, who in turn says he’ll keep the team in the Tampa Bay area.

The news followed months of uncertainty after a deal to build a new stadium in the Historic Gas Plant District, along with new development, fell through following the fallout from Hurricane Milton.

With that deal dead, it was unclear what Rays owner Stuart Sternberg would do going forward. Now, Sternberg will be out of the picture entirely, with an agreement in principle to sell the team for $1.7 billion.

Interestingly, while Zalupski wants to keep the team local, he does reportedly prefer having the new stadium in Tampa rather than in St. Pete.

It remains to be seen how that might happen or whether it can help the Rays overcome their reputation as one of the worst-attended teams in baseball. But at least a generation who has grown up with the team won’t have it yanked out of the city because of a domino effect triggered by an act of God.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: Ralph Massullo. In 2022, Massullo — then a member of the House — got bullied out of running for the open Senate District 11 seat after Gov. Ron DeSantis decided to endorse his close ally, Blaise Ingoglia, in the Republican Primary.

With DeSantis then at the peak of his powers in Florida, Massullo saw the writing on the wall and withdrew from the race, returning to the House and winning a fourth and final term.

There will be no such drama this time.

Massullo, now two years removed from service after hitting term limits, announced his run for the SD 11 seat in a Special Election to replace Ingoglia as Senator after DeSantis appointed Ingoglia as Chief Financial Officer (more on that in a second).

And this time, Massullo is running with the Governor’s support.

“Succeeding Blaise Ingoglia in the Senate will be a tough act to follow, but if anyone can do it, Ralph Massullo can,” DeSantis posted on X. “Ralph has my support to be the next senator from Senate District 11.”

That all but guarantees that Massullo will win this Special Election, setting him up to run as an incumbent in November 2026.

The biggest winner: Ingoglia. Ingoglia will now join the Cabinet, a move that will allow him to have incumbent status ahead of a high-powered 2026 showdown with Sen. Joe Gruters.

It’s a stark move by DeSantis, who is openly defying President Donald Trump’s preferred choice in Gruters and selecting Ingoglia instead.

DeSantis also took the time to bash Gruters at a presser announcing his selection of Ingoglia, showing the Governor is ready to spend political capital to back Ingoglia as he runs for a full term in 2026.

For Ingoglia, he’ll now see his profile rise, and it’s likely that he and DeSantis have a fallback position ready for him depending on how next year’s Primary shakes out.

And now it’s time for our recurring reminder that this is a weekly column.

Ingoglia is clearly on top this week. He won out to succeed now-U.S. Rep. Jimmy Patronis in this role. For now, the Spring Hill Republican will exit a body where he serves among 39 colleagues and instead be side-by-side with DeSantis as part of the Governor’s Cabinet.

But 2026 does loom. And already, Trump is bringing out the big guns, with close allies immediately joining Gruters’ campaign, showing that the President is also going to take this contest seriously and fight to get a close ally elected.

DeSantis is clearly popular in the Sunshine State, but one has to wonder whether he has enough juice to win out against the sitting President. A recent survey from St. Pete Polls casts significant doubt on Ingoglia’s chances.

So next year’s race may not end well for Ingoglia. But that’s a problem for next year. For now, he’s the incumbent and Gruters isn’t, and Ingoglia will be able to run that office as he sees fit for over a year.

Losers

Dishonorable mention: Cory Mills. Mills is now facing a lawsuit from his landlord seeking to evict Mills from his property in Washington.

According to the documents, Mills pays a whopping $20,800 in rent per month. But the suit alleges Mills didn’t pay on time from March to July, causing Mills to owe more than $85,000.

Mills has spent the week pushing back on the story, targeting independent journalist Roger Sollenberger, who first reported on the suit. Mills said the issues were related to technical problems which didn’t allow him to pay his rent online.

Sollenberger countered that those messages are recent and don’t show previous missed payments, references Mills also being behind on rent payments in months prior, leading to a warning in January.

Maybe Mills’ story is legit and he’ll prevail in the end here. But this is a guy who previously floated running for Senate to challenge U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody in 2026. At the very least, this lawsuit is another headache that Mills doesn’t need, and adds to other potential hurdles Mills is facing, including a House ethics probe.

Speaking of electoral difficulty, campaign finance reports that were due this week shows a challenger in Mills’ House district outraised Mills in the second quarter.

Democrat Noah Widmann didn’t beat Mills by much, bringing it more than $254,000 compared to Mills’ $253,000. But if Mills does stick around to run for re-election in the House, this could be a sign he’ll face a tougher-than-expected General Election matchup, especially with the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee already listing Mills’ seat as a target.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Black voters. The legal challenge to DeSantis’ congressional map is officially dead, with the Florida Supreme Court ruling in favor of the DeSantis administration this week.

A brief refresher: DeSantis essentially hijacked the redistricting process in 2022, vetoing a map passed by a GOP Legislature in order to force his own preferred district lines instead.

One of the most controversial changes DeSantis made was eliminating an oddly drawn district in North Florida that Florida’s Supreme Court had previously drawn during a different legal challenge last decade. That North Florida district was designed to give Black voters power to choose their Representative of choice, and U.S. Rep. Al Lawson served there until DeSantis’ map completely reshaped it.

Lawson lost in 2022 while running in a majority GOP district against fellow U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn, a Republican. Several groups sued, arguing Florida’s Fair Districts Amendment disallows this method of diluting minority voter power.

The Florida Supreme Court, now filled with DeSantis appointees, disagreed. They essentially said the previous Justices on the court were wrong, and that the U.S. Constitution overrides the Fair Districts amendment. The majority found that the Equal Protection Clause disallows the type of shoehorned district drawn to give minority voters power in the first place.

That means DeSantis’ map will stand, and North Florida will likely continue its all-Republican makeup for the foreseeable future.

The biggest loser: Brightline. The Miami Herald and WLRN teamed up for an absolutely stellar piece of journalism this week, showing how Brightline trains — already known for killing many people in crashes since they began operating — have killed far more people than previously known.

Reporters pored through federal and local data to count 182 deaths caused by those trains since 2017. More than 40%, 75 in total, were ruled suicides. But even more — 91 — were ruled accidental, with 10 more undetermined and the final six still pending rulings.

Accidents happen. But the reporters who worked like hell uncovering these totals shredded Brightline regarding culpability.

“The reporting team found that Brightline has failed to urgently address the train’s dangers, blamed victims for the high death rate, and, as fatalities climbed, turned to the public to pay for safety upgrades,” the story says. “Even then, critical life-saving measures, including fencing along the tracks and suicide-crisis signs, haven’t been installed due to years-long delays in the release of federal funds.”

There is also blame to go around for local governments. And in response to the story, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy already promised to work on making these trains safer.

But clearly, something needs to change. Either Brightline can willingly pay for more safety measures on its own, the government can provide more resources, or the government can place more restrictions and force the company to act.

But action needs to be forthcoming. According to the report, a person is killed every 13 days since Brightline began service, making it the most dangerous passenger train in the U.S.