LaVon Bracy Davis is one step closer to succeeding her mentor Geraldine Thompson after the sophomore lawmaker won the Democratic nomination for state Senate in Tuesday’s special election.

Bracy Davis’ chief of staff, RaShon Young, also won his special Democratic primary to fill the state House seat she is vacating.

The battle to succeed Thompson, a political icon in Central Florida who died in February just months after her reelection, drew some high-profile Democratic names including both Bracy Davis and her brother Randolph Bracy, a former state senator.

Former congressman Alan Grayson also made his latest bid to return to office, and personal injury attorney Coretta Anthony-Smith, a political newcomer, made a strong showing.

Bracy Davis took in nearly 43% of the vote in the special primary, with Anthony-Smith second with about 28%, Grayson in third with about 17%, and Bracy in last with just over 12%.

“I am humbled and honored to have earned the trust and support of the people of Senate District 15,” Bracy Davis said in a statement.

An election bill requiring new Florida voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship failed to advance in the just-concluded regular legislative session, drawing sighs of relief from both voting-rights and voting-integrity groups, although for different reasons.

The measure arose shortly after President Trump issued his executive order requiring voters to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote. “This bill fully answers the president’s call,” said Lee County Republican Persons-Mulicka when introducing her proposal (HB 1381) before the House Government Operations Subcommittee on April 1.

The bill would have mandated that all voter registration applications, including any with a change in name, address, or party affiliation, could only be accepted after the Florida Department of State verified that the applicant was a U.S. citizen in one of three ways:

• The applicant’s voter record indicated that his or her legal status as a U.S. citizen had been verified.
• The applicant’s legal status as a citizen was matched against records of the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles or U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
• Or the voter showing one of seven identification sources, such as a driver license, a U.S. passport. or a birth certificate.

Critics noted that the provision removed several previous categories to verify voter identification, such as a debit or credit card, student identification, or retirement cards.

After a wave of successful citizen-led efforts to expand abortion rights via ballot measures, some state legislatures are making it harder for members of the public to put such measures before voters.

Florida, which late last week became the latest state to enact stricter rules around the process, is already facing a lawsuit over whether imposing more restrictions on the ballot initiative process is constitutional. The suit was brought by a group, Florida Decides Healthcare, that is trying to get a proposal on next year’s ballot to expand Medicaid in the state.

The group, which faces a February deadline to collect nearly 900,000 signatures from residents supportive of the plan, said that the new law was making signature-gatherers nervous.

The law imposes a possible criminal penalty if someone circulating petitions does not register with the state; limits to 25 the number of signatures that an unregistered canvasser can collect; requires canvassers to collect more identifying information, and shortens the time frame for petition submission to 10 days after signatures are received.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Progressive advocates have filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging new restrictions on Florida’s process to get citizen-driven initiatives on the ballot before voters. 

Florida Decides Healthcare, the campaign to secure a measure on the 2026 ballot to expand Medicaid in the state, is bringing the legal challenge, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Elias Law Group, which frequently represents Democratic groups and candidates.

Sunday’s filing came days after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the restrictions into law, over the objections of critics who argued the new hurdles would make it prohibitively expensive and effectively impossible for grassroots campaigners to get measures on the ballot.

“This bill is not about improving the ballot initiative process. It attacks the fundamental freedom of Floridians to participate in their own democracy,” said FDH Executive Director Mitch Emerson. “It is a calculated and cowardly attempt by politicians in Tallahassee to rewrite the rules — not to serve the people, but to protect their own power.”

TALLAHASSEE – On the last scheduled day of Florida’s regular legislative session, lawmakers passed a Gov. Ron DeSantis priority to change the state’s ballot initiative process.

DeSantis signed it into law just hours later Friday night.

The measure passed by the Legislature didn’t go as far as DeSantis’ office wanted. But opponents of the bill said it would still make it difficult for everyday people to participate in the ballot initiative process, and would instead keep power in the hands of state lawmakers and corporate interests.

Tallahassee, FL – HB 1205, a bill to restrict citizen-led amendments, was approved by the Florida Senate earlier today. State Voices Florida opposes this legislation. The citizen-led amendment process in Florida is the strictest in the nation, requiring nearly one million signatures to get on the ballot and 60% support from voters to pass. The process should be made easier…not harder.

Floridians have used citizen-led amendments to pass transformative policies, such as the $15 minimum wage, legalizing medical marijuana, restoring voting rights to returning citizens and prohibiting gerrymandering when drawing Congressional Districts.  

The following is a statement from Larry Hannan, communications and policy director at State Voices Florida. 

“The citizen-led amendment process is one of the most direct ways Floridians can shape the future we all deserve. It embodies the collective power of Floridians, uniting us across race, zip code, and income to address the issues that matter most to our communities. This is direct democracy at its best—a system where the will of the people drives progress and shapes a better future. We call on legislators to abandon efforts to make this process harder.” 

A Florida law that has pushed public schools to remove thousands of books, including literary classics, from their shelves could get even more restrictive soon, as Republican lawmakers move to close a “loophole” they say still allows volumes depicting nudity or sexual conduct to remain on campuses.

New bills backed by GOP legislators would mean school districts could no longer consider a book’s artistic, literary, political or scientific value when deciding whether to keep it. Instead, any book that “describes sexual conduct” could face removal.

Already, critics argue the 2023 law is unconstitutional — a pending federal lawsuit says it violates the First Amendment — and overly broad and vague. Some worried educators have removed children’s picture books, such as “No David!” by David Shannon, showing cartoonish bare bottoms out of fear they depict the prohibited “sexual conduct.” Classics such as Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” and Ernest Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls” also have been pulled.

But Republicans say there are still inappropriate and “pornographic” books in school libraries and classrooms, and they argue the law needs to be strengthened.

Tallahassee, FL – HB 1205, a bill to restrict citizen-led amendments, was approved by the Florida House of Representatives earlier today. The citizen-led amendment process is one of the most direct ways Floridians can shape the future we all deserve. It embodies the collective power of Floridians, uniting us across race, zip code, and income to address the issues that matter most to our communities. This is direct democracy at its best—a system where the will of the people drives progress and shapes a better future.

If this bill or its companion in the Senate, SPB 7016, becomes law it will give only ten days to turn in petitions, and create unnecessary and burdensome fines on volunteers, preventing everyday Floridians from being able pass policies that improve our lives and strengthen our communities when politicians refuse to act.

State Voices Florida opposes this legislation and urges the Senate to reject both HB 1205 and SPB 7016. The citizen-led amendment process in Florida is the strictest in the nation, requiring nearly one million signatures to get on the ballot and 60% support from voters to pass. The process should be made easier…not harder.

As lifelong conservatives, we believe in limited government, personal responsibility, and the rights of the people to shape our own governance. We founded Conservative Women for Freedom because we are a dedicated group of local Republican women committed to safeguarding the rights and futures of our children and grandchildren. We’re speaking out against House Bill 1205, a dangerous assault on grassroots democracy that would all but eliminate the ability of everyday Floridians to bring citizen-led ballot initiatives to the people.

In a state that has long championed individual freedom, HB 1205 does the opposite. It stacks the deck against regular citizens and ensures that only the wealthiest and most powerful can even attempt to bring an initiative before the voters. This bill is not about election integrity. By requiring initiative sponsors to post a staggering $1 million bond before gathering signatures, the bill ensures that only the well-connected can afford to participate. Who among us can write a check that size?

The bill also creates unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles that make compliance nearly impossible and dramatically increases fines for simple mistakes, establishing financial punishments that could bankrupt a citizen-led effort. This red tape is unnecessary, costly, and serves no real purpose beyond discouraging participation. The bottom line is that these rules have nothing to do with preventing fraud.

As conservatives, we have long argued for limited government and the rights of the people to hold their elected officials accountable. And Republican primary voters agree—one recent poll showed 55 percent of GOP primary voters in Florida oppose any effort to make it even harder for a citizen-led amendment to make the ballot.

A day after the Florida House started moving forward with its version of the plan, the Senate on Friday released a wide-ranging bill that would add restrictions to the state’s ballot-initiative process.

The Senate Ethics and Elections Committee on Monday will consider the bill, which, among other things, would place new requirements on petition gathering and open the door to legal challenges after constitutional amendments pass.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has made a priority of trying to restrict the initiative process after he successfully led efforts last year to defeat proposed constitutional amendments on abortion rights and recreational marijuana. DeSantis and other Republicans contend changes are needed to combat fraud in the process, particularly in the collection of petition signatures needed to put measures on the ballot.

“Amending Florida’s constitution is a responsibility every voter takes very seriously, and petition integrity is critical to ensuring the effectiveness of the citizen initiative process,” Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, said in a statement Friday as the chamber released its bill (SPB 7016). “This legislation increases transparency and accountability for sponsors of initiatives; deters, prevents and penalizes fraudulent activities; and provides voters with objective information about financial impacts of proposed amendments at the front end of the process.”

TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s Legislature is eyeing changes to the ballot initiative process after last year’s intense fight over two proposed amendments on abortion access and recreational marijuana. 

Opponents say the bill would consolidate more power in the hands of Tallahassee and monied special interests. Proponents say the changes ensure the integrity of the process and keep out-of-state special interests out. 

Florida’s ballot initiative process, a right guaranteed in the constitution, has long been used by groups to pass measures that have been otherwise stymied by state lawmakers. It’s how Florida got a $15 minimum wage, medical marijuana and felon voter restoration.

The process is among the hardest of any of the 24 states that allow citizens to directly amend their laws or constitution. Legislative changes have made the process in Florida harder and costlier in recent years. 

HB 1205 would continue that trend, about a dozen public commenters warned during the bill’s first committee meeting Thursday. 

They pointed to the bill’s requirement that sponsors put up a $1 million bond before collecting any petitions, as well as its proposals to increase fines, add new requirements and tighten the window to return petitions.

The SAVE Act is back, and it’s dangerous for democracy.

Unlike 2023, when the first national voter suppression law never reached Joe Biden’s desk, this version of the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act is on a fast track to Donald Trump.

If it passes, millions of married and divorced women  — Republican, independent and Democrat alike — will not be able to vote in federal elections.

All voters would face new hurdles. But birth certificate names are a key to this bill, and only one voting segment routinely changes their birth name: married women.

Under the SAVE Act (H.R. 22), people who register to vote or update their registration, even for something as minor as a change of address, will have to confirm their citizenship.

For most, that would require producing either a birth certificate or a passport.

However, roughly eight in 10 women take their husband’s surname when they marry, and many who divorce keep that name. As a result, their birth certificate name will not match their legal name.

The bill has nothing to say about citizens whose current legal name doesn’t match their birth name.

So far in this year’s legislative sessions, three states have introduced state voting rights acts. If the bills pass, Arizona, Colorado and Maryland will join the eight other states that already have VRAs: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.

California was the first state to pass a voting rights act in 2002, and Illinois followed in 2011. Legislative action on state VRAs picked up in the late 2010s—between 2018 and 2024, six states enacted them. These laws apply to local jurisdictions and commonly include extensive provisions for language assistance, preclearance by a state entity for any proposed voting procedure changes, protections against vote dilution, and guidelines for determining what is a violation of voting rights.

Many state VRAs are modeled after the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. Among other things, the federal law prohibits race-based denial of the right to vote and protects the voting rights of people with disabilities or limited English proficiency. The VRA also plays an important role in redistricting.

Federal VRA litigation involves complex factors that are not written in the statute but have been interpreted by courts over time. Many state VRAs include these details in their statutory text instead of leaving it up to case law. For example, state VRAs commonly require evidence that voters are polarized along racial lines to prove the government has violated the law—a tenet adopted by decades of litigation in federal cases.

The program helps Black-owned businesses obtain borrow money when they can’t access traditional lending. 

As part of his budget proposal for fiscal year 2025-26, Gov. Ron DeSantisplans to eliminate funding for the Black Business Loan Program.

His budget, called “Focus on Fiscal Responsibility,” calls for the cancellation of $2.225 million for the program, which provides loans for “Black business enterprises that cannot obtain capital through conventional lending institutions but that could otherwise compete successfully in the private sector,” according to Florida State Statute. 

The program, last decade, had a record of controversy, including allegations of high rates of default, inadequate security for loans, and loans made improperly to ineligible people, including elected politicians and a convicted felon, according to reporting in the Florida Times Union of Jacksonville, theGainesville Sun and FloridaPolitics.com.

The budget cut falls under community development programs within Housing and Community Development. Overall, the department stands to be funded at $438 million under the Governor’s budget proposal, a little less than half its funding in the current budget year. 

TALLAHASSEE — For the last six years, Gov. Ron DeSantis has been used to getting his way with the state Legislature, at times slashing the priorities of Republican leaders and calling them back to Tallahassee to pass bills that boost his political profile.

No more.

DeSantis now finds himself in a place he’s never been before: in a standoff with the state’s Republican House speaker and Senate president over his call for a special legislative session next week to change laws on immigration, voting and condominiums.

So far, DeSantis appears to be losing.

He’s taken to publicly shaming GOP lawmakers on X and on Fox News, accusing them of hypocrisy by not supporting President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. On Tuesday, he sent a plea through the Republican Party of Florida’s email list asking voters to call their local lawmakers.

On Thursday, DeSantis held a news conference in Jacksonville to pressure lawmakers to act on immigration.

“Monday’s special session is a great opportunity for the members of the Florida Legislature to basically put their money where their mouth is,” DeSantis said.

TALLAHASSEE — For the last six years, Gov. Ron DeSantis has been used to getting his way with the state Legislature, at times slashing the priorities of Republican leaders and calling them back to Tallahassee to pass bills that boost his political profile.

No more.

DeSantis now finds himself in a place he’s never been before: in a standoff with the state’s Republican House speaker and Senate president over his call for a special legislative session next week to change laws on immigration, voting and condominiums.

So far, DeSantis appears to be losing.

He’s taken to publicly shaming GOP lawmakers on X and on Fox News, accusing them of hypocrisy by not supporting President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda. On Tuesday, he sent a plea through the Republican Party of Florida’s email list asking voters to call their local lawmakers.

On Thursday, DeSantis held a news conference in Jacksonville to pressure lawmakers to act on immigration.

“Monday’s special session is a great opportunity for the members of the Florida Legislature to basically put their money where their mouth is,” DeSantis said.