Ryan Nicol
Labor Day signals the unofficial end of Summer — and the start of a political season already heating up in Florida.
With the state’s 2026 Primary now less than a year away, the outlines of some key races are starting to come into focus.
In Southwest Florida, the path is clearing for Rep. James Buchanan in the open Senate District 22 contest. Rep. Fiona McFarland, once floated as a possible contender, announced she’ll instead seek re-election to the House and endorsed Buchanan for the Senate seat. That gives Buchanan momentum heading into a Primary that will likely decide the successor to now-Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters.
Meanwhile, in Palm Beach County, the pending HD 87 Special Election is shaping up into an early intraparty fight. Meg Weinberger, a prominent ally of President Donald Trump, endorsed Republican businessman Jon Maples to succeed Mike Caruso after Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Caruso as Palm Beach County Clerk.
That’s notable, as Caruso’s wife, Tracy Caruso, had already filed to succeed him in 2026 and will likely swap over to the Special Election as well once it’s scheduled. Caruso is a noted DeSantis ally, meaning it appears we’ll get a proxy war between Team Trump and Team DeSantis here, even as both camps try to play nice in public.
Yes, far more Floridians are focused on the start of football season than Primary positioning (and rightfully so). But the 2026 cycle is officially upon us.
Now, it’s onto our weekly game of winners and losers.
Winners
Honorable mention: Kindred Lubeck. A Florida State University graduate found her name splashed across global headlines thanks to perhaps the biggest celebrity engagement story of this century.
Lubeck, a 2018 FSU graduate is suddenly in the spotlight after it was revealed that she designed the engagement ring Travis Kelce gave to Taylor Swift, a proposal that immediately captured attention around the world.
Lubeck, a Neptune Beach native, earned her degree in psychology at Florida State before pursuing a different passion: jewelry design. Her father made a career as a goldsmith. So after college, Lubeck began working with her father to learn the ropes.
She built on that crash course to launch her own company, Artifex Fine Jewelry, in New York in 2024. Until now, her work was largely known within design circles and among clients seeking one-of-a-kind pieces, though she had some viral success on social media.
But that success blew up when her name was linked to Swift’s engagement.
For FSU, it’s another alum making waves in an unexpected arena. For Lubeck, it allows a relatively young designer with Florida roots to field global attention, with her brand introduced to millions of Swifties who now are potential customers.
It’s a breakthrough moment for a Florida-born talent.
Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: Adam Botana. Rep. Botana just proved that politics can have a playful side, and he went massively viral doing it.
Botana has a side hustle with “Cinnamon Rolls by Omar,” a business owned by his family and named after his father.
In Michigan for the Summer at the Midland County Fair, Botana was making some of his family’s famous giant cinnamon rolls as a child watched through a window. An Instagram reel shows Botana spreading sugar for a bit before playfully tossing it right at the child’s face — protected by the window’s glass, of course. The kid flinched, his parents laughed, and the internet ate it up.
As in, to the tune of more than 7.4 million likes and counting.
Florida is a state where lawmakers are often in the headlines for bitter fights, especially during this past Session which saw plenty of Republican-on-Republican attacks in addition to the standard interparty scuffles. Botana served up something lighter — showing he can sprinkle in humor as he represents Southwest Florida.
It may not change the course of next year’s Session, but the reel gave him a sugar rush of attention, and reminded voters that sometimes the best politics come with a little frosting on top.
The biggest winner: University of Florida. It was a strong week in Gainesville on two fronts, with the school making progress regarding both its reputation and leadership.
UF earned national recognition, with Forbes ranking UF the No. 5 public university in the country and placing it No. 30 overall on its list of America’s Top Colleges. The ranking highlighted UF’s value, student outcomes and return on investment, affirming its status as one of the top-performing schools in the nation.
That momentum carried into the administrative arena. After months of turmoil following the collapse of UF’s last presidential search — when the State University System Board of Governors shot down Michigan’s Santa Ono — the school finally landed on a steady hand.
UF Trustees tapped Donald Landry, a physician-scientist from Columbia University and President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, as interim President. Landry’s appointment, pending Board of Governors approval, was broadly welcomed as a pragmatic choice that restores stability.
The news shows UF is working to shore up leadership credibility while still maintaining its status as one of the best-performing universities in the nation.
And with football season around the corner, optimism isn’t confined to the classroom, with Gators fans hoping Billy Napier’s team can turn a corner and compete for a title.
Losers
Dishonorable mention: Florida Memorial University. Another Florida university didn’t fare so well this week, however.
A bitter leadership battle is looming over FMU after the university’s Board of Trustees named William McCormick Jr., its interim President and an alumnus, as permanent President.
Hours later, seven Trustees and the alumni association President slammed the move as a “coup,” calling it “illegal” and a “painful and shameful moment” for the institution. Interim Board Chair Brandon Dumas argued that only he or an authorized representative can call meetings, adding that the McCormick decision was a violation of the university. Dumas has sued to invalidate the vote.
In response, Walter Weatherington, who resumed the Chair role on Aug. 10, defended McCormick’s appointment as legitimate, emphasizing a third-party evaluation and a majority Board vote. He called Dumas’ continued resistance “unfortunate” and insisted that Dumas had rightly been removed for violations.
It remains to be seen how the legal fight will play out and who will ultimately come out on top here. But the fight has already left FMU with dueling Chairs, a President whose legitimacy is in dispute and Trustees openly at war.
Instead of celebrating new leadership, the university is stuck in a courtroom drama that raises doubts about its governance and stability. For students, faculty and alumni, it’s an unsettling look for an institution just starting its Fall term.
Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Visit Orlando. For an agency that markets Central Florida as a premier destination, Visit Orlando is now facing the kind of bad press no amount of glossy ads can fix.
Orange County officials say Visit Orlando may have misappropriated as much as $20 million in tourist development tax revenues dating back to 2019 by improperly mixing public hotel-tax dollars with private funds.
County Commissioner Mayra Uribe didn’t mince words. “It’s $20 million, and it shouldn’t be taken lightly,” she said, pointing out that those dollars could have gone to programs the region needs.
Other Commissioners objected to what they saw as extravagant spending, including more than $100,000 on lobbyists and $28,000 on a legislative event in Tallahassee — expenses they argue should never have come from restricted funds.
Orange County Comptroller Phil Diamond warned that Visit Orlando’s practices risk legal liability and urged the agency to refund misclassified funds while tightening oversight. CEO Casandra Matej defended the group, insisting that they cooperated fully with auditors and have already resolved many complaints.
A reminder that this all comes just a few months after lawmakers took direct aim at local tourism promotion agencies and tourist development councils. That massive upheaval sputtered out this Session, but there’s no telling what the Legislature will do as preliminary meetings for the 2026 Session begin in just over a month. And if this criticism bears out, it’s going to give skeptics in Tallahassee all the ammo they need.
The biggest loser: Alligator Alcatraz. Florida’s high-stakes immigration gambit is unraveling — fast.
Alligator Alcatraz appears to be crumbling under the weight of lawsuits. Instead of standing as the shining example of Trump and DeSantis’ hard-line immigration policy, the facility is quickly becoming synonymous with detainee suffering, environmental harms and taxpayers getting gouged.
Last week, a federal Judge ordered the site to wind down, citing failures to complete required environmental reviews before building in protected wetlands. The state’s attempt to delay that ruling failed this week, with the Judge declining to pause her order that new detainees are barred from entering and infrastructure like fencing and generators must be removed.
Meanwhile, a leaked memo from Division of Emergency Management Executive Director Kevin Guthrie said the site could reach zero detainees within days, as the order ties the hands of the federal government. The Trump administration, for its part, has pushed back against the idea that they’ll go down without a fight in court.
Florida taxpayers are also facing a massive bill. The state has already sunk more than $400 million into contracts, with final losses estimated at $218 million, considering shutdown and potential restart cost.
What was once billed as a bold symbol of Florida’s hard-line immigration stance now looks more like a boondoggle. Alligator Alcatraz was supposed to project strength. Today it projects failure.
