TALLAHASSEE, FL—As Florida's primary day drags on, so does the hotly anticipated Republican race between Trump-endorsed David Shoar and DeSantis-backed Tom Leek for the newly vacant Senate District 7 seat, located in the Sunshine State's northeast quadrant.
In other words, a proxy DeSantis v. Trump battle is raging south of Jacksonville.
While polls for state and local candidates, which close at 7 p.m. ET, have yet to be released, live updates on county turnout show that as of 1 p.m., 24% to 30% of registered Republicans in the four counties wholly or partially represented by SD 7 (St. Johns, Putnam, Flagler, and Volusia) have voted. However, the St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections announced Friday that they have rejected a whopping 6.9% of vote-by-mail ballots due to stricter election laws.
At the time of this article's publishing, there are still five hours left for voters to show up.
The candidates in question, former St. Johns Sheriff Shoar and state Rep. Leek, are no strangers to headlines: one of which being that between them and candidate Gerry James—who has fallen behind in terms of endorsements and finances—over $10 million has been spent on mailers, ads, and political committees.
Leek, independently wealthy, has raised $772,505—only $500 of which came from his own account—and spent $625,449. Shoar, on the other hand, has raised a fraction of that: standing at $77,925 garnered ($2,000 self-contributed) and $31,887 spent. This is not taking into account the major benefactor of campaigns (or in Leek's case, detractor): political committees.
The Truth Matters, a committee that's slammed Leek for months while occasionally promoting Shoar, spent over $1 million on attack ads between Aug. 3 and 15. In two weeks, Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics reported, the committee raised over $2.4 million from other committees—one of which shelled out $2 million to the Conservative Veterans Alliance, which has spent upward of $3.1 million for Shoar.
Spending aside, Leek has been endorsed by DeSantis and a slew of incumbent state Legislators, including the outgoing seat-holder Travis Hutson, and appeared to have a clear path to victory. Until Trump stepped in and endorsed Shoar.
As pointed out by the major Democratic donor, personal injury lawyer, and recently-declared Leek-hater John Morgan—this is not the first time Trump has spoken out against Leek. In 2022, when DeSantis approved a Leek-sponsored insurance bill Trump took to Truth Social and slammed it as the "worst insurance scam in the entire country".
Now, it remains to be seen who will score the nomination, and likely the seat due to the district's heavily Republican makeup, at 7 p.m. tonight.
