Political Guyentist

Byron Donalds will face David Jolly to replace Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis

Donalds (Rep-R Florida) is Trump's pick. Jolly (D-FL) is a Republican who switched parties. They won the Aug. 18 primaries; the vote is Nov. 3.

What Trump's endorsement did to the Republican field: Trump backed Donalds in February 2025 — 18 months before the vote, and before DeSantis had a candidate of his own. DeSantis withheld an endorsement of Donalds for months, an open split with the president whose 2018 endorsement made DeSantis governor in the first place. Donalds has held the Naples-area 19th District since 2021 and had never appeared on a statewide ballot before Tuesday, Aug. 18.

ContextDavid Jolly represented Florida's 13th District in Congress as a Republican from 2014 to 2017, lost the seat to Democrat Charlie Crist, and left the party in 2018 after urging Trump from the House floor to quit the 2016 race. He now runs on insurance costs, public schools and campaign finance reform, and has raised about $6.4 million. Ron DeSantis is term-limited and leaves office in January. Florida last elected a Democratic governor in 1994.

THE HILL7 sources

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Trump-endorsed Cory Mills loses Florida primary while under House ethics investigation

Ryan Elijah (R-FL), a former TV news anchor who has never held office, beat the two-term incumbent in Florida's 7th District on Tuesday, Aug. 18.

What the open Ethics Committee inquiry put on the primary ballot: Allegations that Mills assaulted and threatened women, reported by the New York Times. Allegations of sexual misconduct, reported by the Washington Post. Separate allegations of domestic abuse. Alleged campaign finance violations tied to his own campaign accounts.

ContextSitting House members almost never lose primaries: in 2024, only three of more than 400 incumbents seeking renomination were beaten. Florida's 7th was a Democratic seat until the state's Republican-drawn 2022 map pushed Democrat Stephanie Murphy into retirement; Mills won the open race that November, then a second term in 2024. An ethics investigation cannot remove anyone from Congress — only a two-thirds House vote or the voters can.

NEW YORK TIMES7 sources

3uscontestedFCC and the networks

Disney sues the FCC, calling an early review of ABC's licenses retaliation for its coverage

Disney wants a federal judge to stop the review before it starts, and says the agency's pressure has already changed what ABC puts on the air.

What an early license review does to a broadcaster before anyone rules on anything: Disney owns eight ABC stations outright, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. More than 200 other ABC stations are licensed to separate companies such as Nexstar and Sinclair — the ones Disney cannot defend in this lawsuit. A license sitting under review is hard to sell, borrow against, or fold into a merger, so the cost lands on station owners months or years before the FCC decides anything. The FCC has never revoked a major network station's license over news content. The remedy nobody expects is the one that makes the threat work.

ContextA broadcast license is the federal permit a TV station needs to use public airwaves; the FCC grants it in eight-year terms and renews it on a fixed schedule. In April the agency ordered Disney's ABC stations to file years early — none were due before 2028 — with 30 days for paperwork that takes months. The fight escalated in September 2025, when FCC Chairman Brendan Carr attacked ABC's late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over his comments on Charlie Kirk's killing, and Disney pulled the show for nearly a week.

THE HILL2 sources

4not newsuscontested

A Justice Department lawyer says the Ivy League antisemitism cases were decided before anyone investigated

A whistleblower complaint says investigators in some of the probes found no violations at all — and the schools paid anyway.

What the task force collected from the schools that agreed to settle: Columbia University: $200 million to the federal government over three years, plus $21 million to settle Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims, announced July 23, 2025. Brown University: $50 million to Rhode Island workforce training groups over 10 years, agreed July 30, 2025. University of Pennsylvania: no payment, but a July 2025 policy deal that unfroze about $175 million in federal money.

ContextThe Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism was created Feb. 3, 2025, two weeks into Trump's second term. Its power comes from Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which lets Washington cut off federal money to schools it finds are discriminating. Most of that money is science research grants, so the threat lands on labs and teaching hospitals, not lecture halls. Harvard refused to settle. In September 2025, a federal judge ruled that the freeze on more than $2.2 billion of its research grants was retaliation that broke the Constitution.

THE HILL2 sources