TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - The Latest on Florida’s primary election (all times local):
11 p.m.
More than 3.5 million voters cast ballots in Florida’s primary election, or about 27 percent of the state’s 13 million registered voters.
The overall turnout surpasses the last several primaries, including the 2010 primary, which also featured a wide-open race for governor. That year the turnout was 22 percent.
The 2002 primary that featured former Attorney General Janet Reno vying for the Democratic nomination against Tampa attorney Bill McBride had turnout of nearly 29 percent.
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10:20 p.m.
A Florida congressman who is a staunch defender of President Donald Trump has easily won the Republican nomination for his northwest Florida seat.
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz defeated former Marine official Cris Dosev and John Mills in the primary Tuesday.
District 1 is a conservative district that is home to several military bases and includes the city of Pensacola.
Gaetz has emerged on national television as a vocal backer of Trump and a critic of the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump endorsed Gaetz in his primary contest this summer.
Gaetz is an attorney and former state legislator. He will square off against Democrat Jennifer Zimmerman in the general election. Zimmerman, a Santa Rosa pediatrician, won the primary over Phil Ehr.
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Businessman Nicolas Kimaz was nominated by Republicans to face Democratic U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch in Florida.
Kimaz, who is originally from Lebanon, says he is a health entrepreneur, life coach and television and film producer. He has lived in the U.S. since 1978 and defeated two other Republican candidates in Tuesday’s election.
He will run against Deutch in the House 22nd District that includes large parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties and is considered safely Democratic.
Deutch has been in Congress since 2010 and easily won his primary Tuesday night.
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A former Leon County commissioner has won the Democratic nomination for a north Florida congressional seat.
Bob Rackleff on Tuesday defeated Brandon Peters in the Democratic primary for District 2. The district stretches all the way from Panama City to northern Marion County.
The winner of the primary will square off against incumbent U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn in November. Dunn, a Panama City surgeon, easily won the solid GOP seat in 2016.
The 74-year-old Rackleff is a former speechwriter who once worked for the administration of President Jimmy Carter. Peters is an attorney and mediator who lives in Levy County.
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10:10 p.m.
State Rep. Ross Spano has captured the Republican nomination, and attorney Kristen Carlson has secured the Democratic nomination in a wide-open contest for a central Florida congressional seat.
Spano won a five-way Republican primary on Tuesday that included Neil Combee, a former state legislator who worked for the Trump administration. Carlson secured a majority in a three-way race.
Spano is an attorney who initially planned to run for attorney general but dropped out of that race to run for Congress instead.
District 15 is just east of Tampa and includes Lakeland and a swath of Polk and Lake counties. The scramble for the seat occurred after Republican U.S. Rep. Dennis Ross retired.
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Joseph Kaufman emerged from a field of three candidates to win the GOP nomination in a Florida House seat occupied by Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Kaufman defeated Carlos Reyes on Tuesday. Wasserman Schultz has held the Broward County-based seat since 2004.
Kaufman is a counter-terrorism researcher who closely studies Middle East issues. He has tried three previous times to defeat Wasserman Schultz and is a strong supporter of President Donald Trump.
Wasserman Schultz won in 2016 with 56 percent of the vote.
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9:45 p.m.
Former Clinton administration Cabinet member and university president Donna Shalala has won the Democratic nomination for a U.S. House seat in South Florida.
Shalala defeated four candidates Tuesday in the Miami-area race. Incumbent Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is retiring. The seat is widely viewed as one of the Democrats’ best chances for a pickup. Shalala will face the Republican primary winner, Hispanic TV journalist Maria Elvira Salazar, in November.
Seventy-seven-year-old Shalala served eight years as President Bill Clinton’s Health and Human Services secretary. She also was president of both the University of Miami and the University of Wisconsin.
Shalala banked that voters would see her experience as an asset. The Democratic candidates had similar positions on most key issues, such as tackling climate change, reducing gun violence, improving health care, and overhauling immigration. But none could match Shalala’s lengthy record or familiar name.
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A Republican state representative from Fort Myers will face a Democratic lawyer from South Florida to become Florida’s next agriculture commissioner.
Matt Caldwell defeated fellow GOP candidates Baxter Troutman, Denise Grimsley and Mike McCalister.
Nikki Fried won the Democratic nomination, defeating Jeff Porter and Roy David Walker.
The 37-year-old Caldwell, whose family has a history in farming, was first elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 2010 but is unable to run again due to term limits.
The 40-year-old Fried helped lobby for medical marijuana legislation two years ago. Last week, Wells Fargo shut down Fried’s campaign account after she had “funds received from lobbyists from the medical marijuana industry.”
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9:30 p.m.
U.S. Rep. Al Lawson has fended off a challenge from former Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown.
Lawson defeated Brown on Tuesday after a bruising Democratic primary in which Brown attacked Lawson over his past support for the state’s “stand your ground” law when he was in the Legislature. Brown also contended that Lawson was too supportive of President Donald Trump.
Lawson responded by criticizing Brown’s record as mayor.
Lawson, who is from Tallahassee, won the seat two years ago after he knocked off incumbent U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown in the Democratic primary. Brown was facing felony fraud charges at the time and was later convicted.
Lawson will face Republican Virginia Fuller in the November general election, but the district that stretches across a long swath of north Florida is heavily Democratic.
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A Republican businessman with a military background will square off against a former top official in the administration of President Bill Clinton in the battle for a coastal Florida congressional seat.
Nancy Soderberg defeated two other Democrats to win the party primary for District 6. Former Army Green Beret Michael Waltz defeated two other GOP candidates to win the Republican nomination.
The district covers three Atlantic coast counties as well as part of Lake County in central Florida. GOP U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis gave up the seat in order to run for governor.
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State legislator Mike Miller defeated two other Republicans in a congressional primary to face U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy in November.
Miller defeated Scott Sturgill on Tuesday. Murphy easily won the Democratic nomination for her battleground district in central Florida.
Murphy pulled off an upset in 2016 when she beat 12-term Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica to represent the Orlando-area district that includes the University of Central Florida and suburbs northeast of the city. The district barely went for President Barack Obama in 2012 but went for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
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8:55 p.m.
The race for Florida’s next attorney general will be between two people from the Tampa area, a former Republican Hillsborough County judge and a Democratic state representative.
Ashley Moody won the Republican primary, defeating Pensacola state Rep. Frank White. Sean Shaw beat Ryan Torrens in the Democratic primary.
The 43-year-old Moody had the endorsement of outgoing attorney general Pam Bondi, who is unable to run due to term limits, and most of the state’s law enforcement groups.
The race between Moody and White was rife with partisan infighting usually seen in higher-profile races. Both tried to position themselves as the most conservative and best suited to carry out the policies of President Trump.
The 40-year old Shaw has served in the Florida House for only two years. His father is Leander Shaw, who was the first black chief justice on the Florida Supreme Court.
The race between Shaw and Torrens was mired in litigation for the past month. A Leon County judge ruled on Friday that Torrens had flouted the state’s campaign finance laws in order to qualify and threw him off the ballot. A state appeals court issued a stay on that ruling on Monday, allowing the race to proceed as normal.
Torrens, an attorney from Tampa who specializes in consumer protection cases, has filed a countersuit against Shaw for libel.
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A lawyer from South Florida with ties to the state’s medical marijuana industry has won the Florida Democratic primary for agriculture commissioner.
Nikki Fried defeated Jeff Porter and Roy David Walker on Tuesday.
The 40-year-old Fried helped lobby for medical marijuana legislation two years ago. Last week, Wells Fargo shut down Fried’s campaign account after she had “funds received from lobbyists from the medical marijuana industry.”
Fried would be the state’s first woman agriculture commissioner if elected.
The Republican race has four challengers - Matt Caldwell, Denise Grimsley, Mike McCalister and Baxter Troutman.
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A Florida congressman who is a staunch defender of President Donald Trump has easily won the Republican nomination for his northwest Florida seat.
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz Gaetz defeated former Marine official Cris Dosev and John Mills in the primary Tuesday.
District 1 is a conservative district that is to home to several military bases and includes the city of Pensacola.
Gaetz has emerged on national television as a vocal backer of Trump and a critic of the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump endorsed Gaetz in his primary contest this summer.
Gaetz is an attorney and former state legislator. He will square off against Democrat Jennifer Zimmerman in the general election. Zimmerman, a Santa Rosa pediatrician, won the primary over Phil Ehr.
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Veteran U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings is likely to win his 14th term in Congress.
Hastings on Tuesday defeated Miramar Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick to win the Democratic nomination for District 20. The district includes neighborhoods in Broward and Palm Beach counties in south Florida.
Hastings has only a write-in opponent in November, meaning he will probably win a new term.
He was first elected to Congress in 1992. Hastings has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and boycotted the inauguration.
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8:45 p.m.
U.S. Rep. Brian Mast is headed to a November showdown with a one-time member of the Obama administration after he defeated two Republican challengers in the primary.
Mast won the three-way primary for District 18 over GOP rivals Dave Cummings and Mark Freeman. The district is on Florida’s east coast and stretches from northern Palm Beach County to St. Lucie County.
Mast was criticized by his Republican opponents because he called for a ban on the sale of certain types of military-styled weapons after 17 people were killed at a Florida school.
Mast will face Lauren Baer in the general election. Baer defeated Pam Keith in the Democratic primary. Baer was a foreign policy adviser in President Barack Obama’s administration.
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A Florida Democrat who tangled with President Donald Trump has been re-elected.
U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson on Tuesday handily defeated California businessman Ricardo De La Fuente in the primary.
Wilson won re-election because there are no Republicans or members of other parties challenging her in District 24.
The district consists of neighborhoods in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
The 75-year-old Wilson is a former teacher and Miami-Dade schools administrator who was first elected to Congress in 2010. Wilson also spent 12 years in the Florida Legislature.
Wilson criticized President Donald Trump last year over his remarks to the widow of a soldier killed in Niger that she called insensitive. Trump responded with insulting tweets, calling Wilson “wacky” while White House Chief of Staff John Kelly called her an “empty barrel.”
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A Republican state senator who pushed to let guns be carried on college campuses has won the GOP nomination for a southwest Florida congressional seat.
State Sen. Greg Steube defeated State Rep. Julio Gonzalez and another Republican candidate in a bitter GOP primary for District 17. The district stretches from Venice on the Gulf coast to Lake Okeechobee.
During his time in the Florida Legislature, Steube has pushed for several gun rights bills including one that would allow concealed weapons permit holders to carry guns on college campuses.
Steube goes on to face Cape Coral film and television producer April Freeman in the November general election. Freeman defeated Bill Pollard in the Democratic primary.
The winner of the general election replaces outgoing Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney.
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8:20 p.m.
A state representative from Tampa has won Florida’s Democratic primary for attorney general.
Sean Shaw easily won his party’s nomination, defeating Ryan Torrens.
The 40-year old Shaw has served in the Florida House for only two years. His father is Leander Shaw, who was the first black chief justice on the Florida Supreme Court.
The race between Shaw and Torrens was mired in litigation for the past month. A Leon County judge ruled on Friday that Torrens had flouted the state’s campaign finance laws in order to qualify and threw him off the ballot. A state appeals court issued a stay on that ruling on Monday, allowing the race to proceed as normal.
Torrens, an attorney from Tampa who specializes in consumer protection cases, has filed a countersuit against Shaw for libel.
The Republican primary matches former Hillsborough County judge Ashley Moody against Pensacola state Rep. Frank White.
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U.S. Rep. Val Demings is heading to a new term in Congress.
The Orlando Democrat on Tuesday defeated Wade Darius in the primary. Demings won re-election because there are no Republicans or members of other parties challenging her.
Because there were no other opponents, the primary was open to all registered voters in District 10. The district is based in west Orlando and western Orange County.
The 61-year-old Demings is the former police chief for Orlando and is married to Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings. She ran unsuccessfully in 2012 before she was elected in 2016 to a newly-configured District 10.
The 37-year-old Darius is president of T.D. Homes Marketing Group and lives in neighboring Polk County.
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Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell will face off against U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo in November.
Mucarsel-Powell beat Demetries Grimes for the nomination on Tuesday.
The district has switched back and forth between both parties in the past few elections and is again considered a battleground for control of the House.
Mucarsel-Powell, a native of Ecuador, runs a consulting business and unsuccessfully sought a Florida state Senate seat in 2016.
Curbelo, the son of Cuban exiles, won re-election in 2016 with 53 percent of the vote.
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A Siesta Key attorney has won the Democratic nomination for a Tampa Bay area congressional seat.
David Shapiro defeated Jan Schneider in the District 16 Democratic primary. The district includes south Hillsborough county as well as parts of Sarasota and Manatee counties.
Shapiro will face Republican U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan in the November general election.
Even before the primary, Buchanan was airing attacks ads that targeted Shapiro. Shapiro has already gotten support from national Democrats in his effort to unseat Buchanan.
Schneider, who is also an attorney, has run for Congress six times including against Buchanan two years ago.
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A disaster management consultant and former college instructor has captured the Republican nomination for a Tampa Bay area congressional seat.
George Buck defeated Brad Sostack in the GOP primary for District 13. District 13 includes St. Petersburg and south Pinellas County.
The winner of the Republican primary will face U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist in November.
Crist was a Republican when he was elected governor in 2006, but he became a Democrat after he mounted an unsuccessful U.S. Senate run as an independent in 2010. Crist lost to Gov. Rick Scott in the 2014 governor’s race.
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A financial adviser from Naples has won the Democratic primary for a southwest Florida congressional seat.
Doug Holden defeated social worker and health care administrator Todd James Truax in the District 19 primary.
The seat includes parts of Lee and Collier counties and is solidly Republican.
Holden will face U.S. Rep. Francis Rooney. Rooney, a former United States ambassador, was first elected to Congress in 2016.
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8:10 p.m.
U.S. Rep. Darren Soto is ending firebrand Alan Grayson’s attempt to return to Congress.
Soto on Tuesday defeated the former congressman to win the Democratic nomination for a central Florida congressional seat.
Soto is a former state legislator and was the first Floridian of Puerto Rican descent elected to Congress.
Soto and Grayson blasted each other in the weeks leading up to the primary.
Grayson contended that Soto was not a true progressive and vowed to seek impeachment of President Donald Trump if he were elected. Soto, however, won the endorsement of many liberal groups.
Grayson earned national attention in 2009 when he said the Republican plan for health care was “don’t get sick” and “if you do get sick, die quickly.”
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U.S. Rep. Ted Yoho handily won the Republican nomination for his north Florida congressional seat.
Yoho on Tuesday defeated Judson Sapp in the GOP primary for the District 3 seat. District 3 includes Gainesville but also includes the suburbs of Jacksonville and rural areas in between.
President Donald Trump had endorsed Yoho for a fourth term earlier in the month. He will now square off against one of three Democrats in the November general election.
Yoho, a veterinarian, defeated U.S. Rep. Cliff Stearns in the 2012 GOP primary.
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8 p.m.
U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy easily won the Democratic nomination for her battleground district in central Florida.
Murphy defeated Chardo Richardson on Tuesday. She will square off against a Republican challenger in the November general election.
Murphy pulled off an upset in 2016 when she beat 12-term Republican U.S. Rep. John Mica to represent this Orlando-area district that includes the University of Central Florida and suburbs northeast of the city. The district barely went for President Barack Obama in 2012 but went for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.
The 39-year-old Murphy was the first Vietnamese-American woman and second Vietnamese-American to be elected to Congress.
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7:55 p.m.
A former federal prosecutor and FBI agent won the Democratic nomination for a Tampa Bay area congressional seat.
Chris Hunter defeated two other candidates in the three-way Democratic primary for District 12. District 12 is on Florida’s west coast and includes Pasco County as well as parts of northern Hillsborough and Pinellas County.
The other candidates in the race are Tarpon Springs tax consultant Stephen Perenich and Lutz criminal defense attorney Robert Tager.
The Democratic winner will go on to face U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis in November. The 55-year-old Bilirakis is an attorney and former state legislator who was first elected to Congress in 2006.
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U.S. Rep. Carlos Curbelo easily won the Republican nomination for his South Florida congressional seat, setting up a battle with a Democratic challenger in a swing district.
Curbelo defeated Souraya Fass on Tuesday.
The district has switched back and forth between both parties in the past few elections and is again considered a battleground for control of the House. Curbelo, the son of Cuban exiles, won re-election in 2016 with 53 percent of the vote.
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7 p.m.
Polls have closed for most of Florida, though voting locations remain open in the Panhandle’s Central Time Zone areas.
Florida voters on Tuesday were selecting the nominees for governor, agriculture commissioner, attorney general, and several congressional seats.
Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam faces U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis in a Republican gubernatorial primary where President Donald Trump has taken DeSantis’ side.
The Democratic primary is the most crowded since 1978, the year Bob Graham eventually won the governor’s race. Graham’s daughter, former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, is on the ballot and has been polling favorably.
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