Florida

MIAMI — Karem Yepez proudly displayed her Latinos for Trump sign in the windshield as the car inched along a busy stretch of road as part of a caravan. Her driver, Alfredo Zapata, was not happy about her love for President Donald Trump; he called... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- If Florida faces another uncomfortably close presidential election on Nov. 3, rejected vote-by-mail ballots could spell trouble. The unprecedented spike in demand for mail-in ballots spawned by the coronavirus has led to a subsequent surge in the number of ballots that... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump burst back onto the campaign trail Monday night, delivering an energetic and combative hourlong speech in Central Florida meant to demonstrate his recovery from COVID-19 and resuscitate his faltering reelection campaign. Trump portrayed his illness... Read More

MIAMI — Cuban-American voters continue to favor President Donald Trump over Joe Biden in Miami-Dade County, but more are moving toward the Democratic nominee, boosting Biden’s chances of winning battleground Florida, according to a poll by Bendixen & Amandi International... Read More

MIAMI — Joe Biden’s ground game in Florida is getting a jolt from billionaire Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg told the Miami Herald on Monday that he’s giving $4 million to get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of the Democratic presidential nominee in the... Read More

WASHINGTON — Michael Bloomberg is starting to put his money where his mouth is. Aides to the Democratic billionaire said Thursday that Bloomberg will spend $5.4 million on a weeklong TV ad campaign in Florida, part of his pledge to... Read More

WASHINGTON — Florida Republican Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott want to make sure there is plenty of time for wasting away again in Margaritaville in the sunlight this winter. If they get their way, revelers in Key West, Florida,... Read More

MIAMI — If you’re Hispanic and living in the U.S., chances are good that Joe Biden’s campaign knows a lot about you — including your family roots. Ahead of Biden’s first trip to Florida as the Democratic presidential nominee —... Read More

MIAMI — Mike Bloomberg, the billionaire former New York mayor whose self-funded presidential bid fell short this year, says he’ll spend $100 million over the next seven weeks to help Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden win Florida. Bloomberg’s financial commitment... Read More

WASHINGTON - It was the end of a long day and night in Florida’s Martin County. Straggling reporters wandered into the newsroom, filing a few late sentences to be added to the local election coverage. But inside the newspaper's library,... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - A Florida judge struck down a state order Monday that required "brick and mortar” schools in the state to be open five-days-a-week by the end of the month. Judge Charles Dodson of the Leon County Circuit Court... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The votes were swiftly counted, winners were declared, and by about 10 o'clock that night most of the results of Tuesday's primary election — one with large numbers of mailed votes — were known in Florida.... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Former Navy pilot Scott Franklin has ousted Rep. Ross Spano, making the Florida congressman dogged by ethics investigations the eighth incumbent House member to be defeated in party primaries this year. Tuesday's contests were shaped by... Read More

WASHINGTON - In the aftermath of a bizarre earthquake and the above average number of named storms this season, officials are examining how natural disaster response should continue while overlapping with the nation’s ongoing efforts to combat the coronavirus. State... Read More

WASHINGTON - Roughly half of voters in the battleground states of Michigan and Pennsylvania have health concerns due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak and would prefer to vote by mail in the November election, according to a new poll. The... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's hopes to salvage a four-night celebration for his reelection campaign have been thwarted by spiking coronavirus cases across the Sun Belt, with the president announcing Thursday that he was calling off the public events... Read More

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Manatee deaths are on the rise in Florida. Coronavirus isn't likely at fault, but it has kept officials from performing as many necropsies as normal on the dead animals. As a result, experts from the Florida... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court turned down an emergency appeal from voting rights lawyers Thursday, leaving in place what a federal judge in Florida called an unconstitutional “pay-to-vote system” that could prevent hundreds of thousands of ex-felons from casting a... Read More

WASHINGTON - Reps. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., and Bill Posey, R-Fla., have introduced legislation that would create Centers of Excellence on Harmful Algal Bloom research, prevention, response, and mitigation to aid in the fight against harmful outbreaks of red tide and... Read More

Voting by mail, a centerpiece of elections in Florida for almost 20 years, is being hailed in 2020 as a life-saving necessity amid the coronavirus pandemic and attacked by President Donald Trump and his supporters as “fraud.” Elections supervisors can... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal appellate court has temporarily stopped a judge’s order that granted hundreds of thousands of felons the right to vote, the latest turn in Florida’s battle over felon voting rights. The U.S. Court of Appeals for... Read More

ORLANDO, Fla. — President Donald Trump retweeted a video Sunday morning that includes a supporter shouting “white power” during a rally in The Villages. “Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will... Read More

Republican lawmakers in North Carolina plan to vote Tuesday on a measure that would allow President Donald Trump to speak in front of a capacity crowd at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte without the restrictions officials have imposed on... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida law requiring felons to pay legal fees as part of their sentences before regaining the vote is unconstitutional for those unable to pay, or unable to find out how much they owe, a federal... Read More

A species of bee from Florida that scientists thought might no longer exist was rediscovered earlier this spring, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. Before then, the blue calamintha bee had not been observed since 2016. “I was... Read More

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — If Florida experiences the misfortune of a hurricane on top of an epidemic this year, the encounter will be unlike any previous confrontation with the powerful storms. If you lose power, it may take longer to... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden is back on the campaign trail, targeting the critical battleground state of Florida — but without actually leaving home. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is staying in his Delaware house amid efforts to slow the spread of... Read More

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — For the last 18 months, the voting status of more than 1 million felons in Florida has been arguably the premier voting rights case in the nation. And this week it’s on trial — virtually. The initiative... Read More

LONDON (AP) — Nations and U.S. states have begun easing coronavirus lockdowns, each pursuing their own approach but all with a common goal: restarting their economies without triggering another surge of infections. Restrictions are being lifted piecemeal with no clear... Read More

As several Southern governors began to reopen their states shuttered by the coronavirus outbreak, some mayors pushed back Tuesday, saying they have yet to see the decline in COVID-19 cases needed to ease stay-at-home orders. “I am beyond disturbed,” Van... Read More