— " Trump dominates 2024 GOP presidential nomination straw poll at Turning Point USA summit ," by Fox News' Brooke Singman and Tyler Olson
— " Gov. Ron DeSantis, Republican leaders tout tough stance against Democrats and avoid Trump ," by USA Today Network-Florida's Zac Anderson — " At Republican conference, Tampa Bay candidates vie to show they're red enough ," by Tampa Bay Times' Romy Ellenbogen BY THE NUMBERS — Here's the breakdown for the weekly fundraising totals in the governor's race: Ron DeSantis raised nearly $1.55 million during the period from July 9 to July 15, while Rep. Charlie Crist brought in nearly $304,000 and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried raised nearly $109,000. The totals including money raised for campaign accounts and for political committees controlled by the candidates. Following the money — Expense reports show that DeSantis' political committee made a $1 million contribution to the Republican Party of Florida on July 14. The governor's committee donated $2 million to the party in late May. These donations do come as the party is picking up the cost to pay for much of DeSantis' campaign staff (which is then reported as an in-kind donation to the official campaign account.) The latest donation from the governor also came about a week before the party held its big Sunshine Summit in Hollywood. In the bank — DeSantis has nearly $129 million unspent — about $100,000 more than he had last week — according to state reports (which don't reflect any future planned expenditures) while Crist has $6.64 million and Fried has just over $3 million. OVER 100K VOTES ALREADY CAST — So far, 102,189 vote-by-mail ballots have been cast in the Aug. 23 primary, according to the latest information on the state Division of Elections website. Of those, 44,674 have come from Republicans and 39,496 have come from registered Democrats. Overall, there are more than 3.94 million mail ballots that have been requested but not yet returned. Of those, more than 1.75 million are held by Democrats and more than 1.72 million are with Republicans. PRIMARY COLORS — More jabs were thrown over the weekend between the Democratic campaigns of Crist and Fried — this time over, wait for it, a non-endorsement. Fried fell just short of the two-thirds support needed to win the endorsement of the LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus. (The vote was apparently 25-13 reported Spectrum News' Mitch Perry.) F word — The Crist camp — despite a majority of the group wanting to endorse Fried — put out a mocking press release that said Fried had lost the endorsement even though she had tried to pack the room with supporters and that a Fried supporter led the vote. The press release said this was proof that Fried's campaign was running out of gas. "Nikki Fried has no momentum and her campaign is failing at every step," Sam Ramirez, a spokeswoman for Crist, said. Crist had also criticized Fried during an appearance before the caucus. What season is it? — Fried's folks responded by saying that if Crist is going negative it must mean the tide is turning. "I see Charlie is going negative now. I still remember when he wouldn't say my name — 'I don't respond to her,'" Fried tweeted out on Sunday. "Welcome to the WNBA, Charlie." That last quip is a reference to Crist using the words "Welcome to the NFL" to Marco Rubio back in the 2010 U.S. Senate campaign. Selling it — Fried's campaign also put out a memo to donors and the campaign team on Sunday from campaign manager Matthew Van Name that contended Crist was now "angry" and that "she's on message and he's off the rails. Let me be very clear, Charlie going negative won't distract us. It emboldens us. … In short, there is a 'voice of desperation' in this race, it's Charlie's." Caveats — It's important to remember, however, that Fried is still not up on the air even as voting is underway in the primary. The tracking firm AdImpact noted on Friday that her campaign purchased $624,000 worth of broadcast ads that are scheduled to air starting on Aug. 15. Now, maybe the campaign just did that initial buy and plans to add more before then. New campaign reports do show that Fried just did a big direct mail buy. One month to go before the primary. TO COURT — " Out of Africa: Jerry Torres accuses Kathy Castor of starting lawsuit ," by Tampa Bay Times' William March: "Republican Jerry Torres has charged in court documents that U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor and her husband instigated a lawsuit that seeks to remove him from the ballot for Tampa's District 14 congressional race. But the judge in the case has ruled against Torres's attempt to take depositions from Castor's husband Bill Lewis, the congresswoman and her campaign consultant. And in the court filings, Torres acknowledges he was in Africa at the time three versions of his legally required candidate oath were notarized by Mississippi-based notaries, even though two of them say he was physically present, and that he signed a blank oath form before leaving. The lawsuit says that means the oath isn't valid." CAMPAIGN ROUNDUP — State Rep. Anna Eskamani, one of the more well-known progressive Democrats in the state and deemed a 'radical' by Sen. Marco Rubio's campaign, is endorsing Maxwell Alejandro Frost for Florida's 10th Congressional District. Eskamani is backing Frost even though state Sen. Randolph Bracy is also running in the contest. "I've known Maxwell for years and am proud to call him a fellow fighter and friend," Eskamani said in a statement. "He's worked at the ACLU to protect abortion rights and has been a national leader in the fight to end gun violence." … Turning Point Action endorsed state Rep. Jackie Toledo in the race for Florida's 15th Congressional District. The race features several Republicans, including former Secretary of State Laurel Lee and state Sen. Kelli Stargel. … Rapper Trick Daddy announced that he's backing Nikki Fried in the race for governor — " Who's boosting Laurel Lee's campaign contributions for Congress ," by Tampa Bay Times' William March — "' Who knows?' Rick Scott stays vague on Ron DeSantis, Mitch McConnell political futures ," by Florida Politics' A.G. Gancarski — " Ted Deutch weighs in, knocks down charge that Moskowitz supports DeSantis or Trump ," South Florida Sun-Sentinel's Anthony Man — " Operatives working with FPL plotted primary challenge for Miami senator ," by Orlando Sentinel's Annie Martin and Floodlight's Mario Alejandro Ariza — " Aaron Bean calls Erick Aguilar a 'crook' and 'con man ,'" by The Floridian's Jim McCool
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