All 16 Florida House incumbents facing primary challengers survived Tuesday, as the majority of state legislative seats now turn to the general election where the Democrats have scattered challengers into almost every contest.

Meanwhile, several House members were also poised to move closer to the Senate.

House Speaker-designate Sam Garrison, R-Fleming Island, promised support from the political committee he oversees to assist GOP incumbents and first-time candidates moving on to the general election.

“The Florida House Republican Campaign Committee will engage full force over the next 11 weeks in House races from Pensacola to Miami and everywhere in between,” Garrison stated Tuesday night.

Of the 13 incumbent Republicans facing primary challengers, Rep. Mike Redondo, an attorney from Miami who is in line to be the House Speaker in 2030, easily fended off Marco Insua, an educator from Miami who listed a single donation of $100 since opening his campaign account March 10.

Other House Republicans winning Tuesday night were Rep. Doug Bankson of Apopka, Rep. Bill Conerly of Lakewood Ranch, Rep. Randy Maggard of Dade City, Rep. Vanessa Oliver of Punta Gorda, Rep. Kim Kendall of St. Augustine, Rep. J.J. Grow of Inverness, Rep. Ryan Chamberlin of Belleview, Rep. Taylor Yarkosky of Montverde, Rep. Brian Hodgers of Viera, Rep. Robert Brackett of Vero Beach, Rep. Rachel Plakon of Lake Mary and Rep. Jon Albert of Frostproof.

All three Democratic incumbents that faced primary challengers also were easily ahead of challengers on Tuesday: Rep. Kim Daniels of Jacksonville, Rep. Jose Alvarez of Kissimmee and Rep. Mitch Rosenwald of Oakland Park.

Chamberlin, Daniels and Rosenwald will return to the House as they don’t have any general election challengers.

Other notable House primary races include Republican Jon Maples defeating Jonathan Rubin, setting up a rematch from March with Rep. Emily Gregory, D-Jupiter, in District 87 that runs along Palm Beach County’s east coast and includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort.

In District 13 in Jacksonville, Audrey Gibson is set to return to the Legislature where she served in the House from 2002 to 2010 and the Senate from 2011 to 2022, after she bested Leslie Jean-Bart, a civil rights and personal injury attorney. Gibson’s opponent in the general election is a write-in candidate.

Former legislator Daphne Campbell was in place to emerge from a three-way Democratic primary in Miami-Dade County’s District 108. Campbell served in the House from 2010 to 2016 and the Senate from 2016 to 2018. North Miami Republican Wancito Francius awaits Campbell in the general election.

In the Senate, House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa, defeated Rep. Michele Rayner, D-St. Petersburg in the Democratic primary to replace term-limited Sen. Darryl Rouson. There is no other candidate in the race so Driskell will head to the Senate after the November elections.

Senate Democratic Leader Lori Berman, D-Boynton Beach, was quick to welcome Driskell to the Senate.

“During her time as Democratic Leader in the Florida House, we fought back together against the corruption of the DeSantis administration and partnered on an affordability agenda that would benefit all Floridians,” Berman stated.

Also in the Senate, Rep. James Buchanan, a Sarasota Republican and the son of U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, defeated Vic Rohe, a member of the Sarasota Memorial Hospital Board, for the seat held by Sen. Joe Gruters, R-Sarasota. Democrat Lew Wasserman and independent Martin Hyde await Buchanan in the general election.

Gruters is the chairman of the Republican National Committee and can’t run for re-election due to term limits.

In South Florida, Miami Democratic state Rep. Ashley Gantt swept to victory in the Democratic primary for the Senate District 34 seat over Shannan Ighodaro, a former Miami Gardens councilwoman and Christine Alexandria Sanon-Jules Olivo of North Miami. Gantt will face Elizabeth Jeanty in the general election.

The election is to replace State Sen. Shevrin Jones, who decided to run for Congress after longtime Democratic Congresswoman Frederica Wilson chose not to run this fall. 

In other Senate contests, Democrat Gerald Baldi of Bradenton was elected to take on Senate President-designate Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, in the District 20 contest.

Also, Democrat John Lowndes of Maitland was won his party’s primary for the District 10 seat in Central Florida and will take on Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford.

In the 18 seat in Pinellas County, Democrat Karla Kemp of St. Petersburg was elected to take on Indian Rocks Beach Republican Sen. Nick DiCeglie.

Republican Hector Rivera of Coral Springs emerged from the District 30 primary and will take on former Senate Minority Leader Lauren Book of Plantation for the seat opened by Sen. Tina Polsky’s decision not to seek reelection.

State Rep. Angie Nixon, a staunch progressive, defeated establishment favorite, Lt. Col. Alex Vindman in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate on Tuesday, overcoming a vast fundraising disadvantage.

As of Tuesday evening, Nixon led with about 56 percent of the vote to Vindman’s 44 percent.

“We are strong, we are united, and it’s going to take all of us to win in November,” Nixon said at her watch party in Duval County on Tuesday evening.

Vindman was a central figure in the first impeachment of President Donald Trump, but largely ignored Nixon in his campaign, preferring to focus on Moody and Trump.

Nixon will face incumbent U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Tampa, in the general election. Moody won 80 percent of the vote, easily defeating her three GOP challengers – Chris Gleason, who received 14 percent, Ernest Rivera who had 5 percent, and Neelam Perry who received 2 percent.

“I am energized and inspired by the momentum we are building together,” Moody told supporters in a victory speech in Plant City. “We are standing for common sense, a commitment to safe communities, a commitment to accountable and responsive government.”

Nixon, who was endorsed by Our Revolution, a national progressive organization associated with U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-VT, won with a little less than $1 million in campaign contributions compared to Vindman’s $16.2 million.

Nixon joins several progressive candidates across the nation who have won their primaries, including Abdul El-Sayed, who won his primary U.S. Senate race in Michigan, and Peggy Flanagan, who won her primary for the U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota.

In a released statement, Vindman said he’ll support Nixon in the general election.

“Who would’ve ever thought that a Jewish refugee would make it to the U.S. Army, to the White House, and to becoming a candidate for the U.S. Senate. Only in America is that possible,” Vindman said. “Rep. Nixon ran a strong campaign. I will be standing by her side in the fight against Ashley Moody. I hope you’ll join me.”

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which backed Vindman, immediately announced its support of Nixon.

“Angie Nixon has dedicated her career to fighting for Florida. A lifelong native of Jacksonville and a former union organizer, Angie’s dedication to put working families first runs deep – and now, she’s running to take that fight to the Senate,” U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, and DSCC Chairwoman U.S. Sen. Kristen Gillibrand, D-NY, said in a released joint statement.

Nixon will face Moody, Florida’s former attorney general who was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Gov. Ron DeSantis after Marco Rubio left the position to become Secretary of State.

“My focus in being the senator on behalf of Florida is fighting for Florida families, making sure I am accountable to the constituents and that I am moving the ball forward on their issues, clearing out regulations that are making things harder for them or costing money,” Moody told the News Service of Florida on Monday. 

Moody has raised approximately $11.2 million this year. Comparably, Gleason and Rivera raised about $26,000 and $16,000, respectively.

The winner of the U.S. Senate race will serve the remaining two years of Rubio’s term before facing reelection in 2028.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds fended off challenges from 10 other Republicans in Tuesday’s primary to carry his party’s nomination for governor into the general election.

He’ll face former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, a former Republican who switched parties and easily defeated five other Democrats.

Donalds called on Republicans to come together and immediately focused on Jolly.  

“Now is the time for the Republican Party to unite. By working together, we can make Florida more affordable and defend the Florida Dream for our families, seniors, and young people,” Donalds posted on X. “My Democrat (sic) opponent would raise taxes, make life more expensive, and bring the Democrats’ radical left agenda to the Sunshine State – Florida cannot afford Liberal David Jolly.”

Donalds, 47, faced vocal opposition from Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, former House Speaker Paul Renner and conservative activist James Fishback.

As of Tuesday evening, Donalds had 48 percent of the vote, while Collins received 25 percent, Fishback had 10 percent and Renner had 9 percent.

Jolly, 53, brushed aside his opposition, taking 62 percent of the vote. The next-largest vote-getter in the Democratic primary was Dayna Marie Foster, who received 15 percent, and state Rep. Dotie Joseph of North Miami garnered 10 percent.

Jolly also was eager to pivot to the general election.

“We’re a state gripped by an affordability crisis and exhausted by culture wars. People want change,” Jolly said in a video posted on X.

Backed by an endorsement from President Donald Trump, Donalds dominated the field and easily outraised his opponents, raking in more than $110 million. Much of the money he spent in the primary was aimed at Jolly, with ads bashing him for supporting transgender issues, such as allowing transgender women in women’s bathrooms and to play in female sports.

But Donalds bore the brunt of attacks from Collins and Renner, who accused him of being weak on crime, favoring data center construction and slammed him for refusing to debate them.

Donalds, who is Black, also shrugged off racist jeers from Fishback, who called him a “DEI hire” and a “slave” to his donors.

At one point Collins sued to kick Fishback off the ballot, alleging his voting record in Washington D.C. in 2020 and the purchase of a primary residence there in 2021 showed he didn’t live for seven consecutive years in Florida as required by the state constitution. A Leon County judge, though, rejected the suit saying there wasn’t enough evidence.

Collins campaigned heavily on his military background as a Green Beret who had his leg amputated due to injuries sustained in Iraq, as well as his appointment by DeSantis at lieutenant governor in August 2025. He even tapped DeSantis’ Director of Emergency Management, Kevin Guthrie, to be his running mate on Monday evening.

But DeSantis never formally endorsed Collins or anyone else in the campaign, although he specifically criticized Donalds.

After initially saying Renner’s decision to enter the race in 2025 was misguided, DeSantis this month said he would make a “good governor.”

Renner touted his term as Speaker in 2022-2024 in which much of DeSantis’ conservative agenda was passed, including universal school vouchers, bans on transgender surgery for minors, eliminating diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and a bill allowing people to carry concealed weapons without a license.

The efforts of Donalds’ opponents, however, ran into a wall of campaign ads and implicit trust in Trump among the GOP electorate.

In the Democratic primary, Jolly waltzed to victory over Foster and Joseph, who got in the race at the end of qualifying, after Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings dropped out due to a cancer diagnosis.

Joseph wanted to give Democrats an alternative to Jolly, a former Republican who moved away from the GOP as Trump rose to prominence. But she had minimal fundraising and low name recognition throughout the state.

Gas prices across most of Florida continue to waver under the $4 mark.

According to AAA, the state’s average price of a gallon of gas was $3.85 on Monday, 1 cent lower than a week earlier and 77 cents more than a year ago.

Averages on Monday ranged from $3.55 in Escambia County to $4.11 in Monroe County. Palm Beach County, at $4.04, was the only other county on Monday topping the $4 mark.

Since the state average dipped under $4 on June 2, the daily mark has been around $3.85 a gallon, with a low of $3.62 on June 22.

Prior to the start of military strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, the average was under $2.90.

AAA Florida spokesman Mark Jenkins cautioned that prices in the state could soon rise as the U.S. price of crude oil was up 5 percent over the week.

“That could limit how much further pump prices fall in the near term,” Jenkins stated in a release. “If crude oil remains elevated, drivers could see renewed upward pressure at the pump.”

Nationally, the average was $4.06 on Monday, a 5-cent increase on the week.

Diesel in Florida stood at $5.38 a gallon on Monday, a 9-cent increase from a week earlier. A year ago, diesel in Florida averaged $3.65 a gallon.

For motorists with electric vehicles, the average kilowatt hour cost at charging stations in Florida on Sunday rounded down to 41 cents, a rate mostly unchanged since early March.

More than 1.9 million Floridians have already cast ballots for Tuesday’s primary election.

The Division of Elections on Monday morning posted that nearly 1.1 million mail ballots have been returned to county elections offices and more than 818,000 voted in-person at early voting locations.

Republicans carrying a 1.6 million advantage in registered voters in the state have accounted for 45.5 percent of the ballots cast already, while registered Democrats were at 42.1 percent.

Registered Republicans in Florida have cast more than 448,000 early votes to just under 306,000 by Democrats. Meanwhile, Democrats are up in mail voting – 501,000 to 422,000.

The biggest race in the state is the field of 11 Republican gubernatorial contest, which features U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, Lt. Gov. Jay Collins and former state House Speaker Paul Renner.

The 2022 primary, the last time there were statewide gubernatorial and Cabinet primaries, 3.7 million votes were cast, of which nearly 1.75 million were mail ballots and just over 613,000 were early votes. Turnout was just under 26 percent.

Of the more than 3 million votes cast in the 2024 primary, 1.4 million came through the mail and 656,500 were done at early voting locations. Turnout was 22 percent.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has submitted for judicial review a rewritten version of the title and ballot summary for Amendment 3.

Circuit Judge David Frank in  Leon County ordered the AG’s office to rewrite the far-reaching property tax amendment’s ballot language after ruling the original title, “Save our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes,” was “akin to a political slogan” in violation of state law.

Under a 2011 law, the office had 10 days from the ruling, or until Aug. 14 — Friday — to submit new language for the judge to review. 

Former State Sen. Jeff Brandes, one of the named plaintiffs in the legal challenge, seemed satisfied with the new language submitted by Uthmeier.

“Finally, the practicing attorneys took control of the language. The text is honest about what the amendment does,” Brandes said in a text to the Phoenix. “I hope Florida voters will dig deeper, ask hard questions, and understand the consequences before they decide the outcome.”

If passed, Amendment 3 would constitute one of the most significant changes to property taxes in the state in more than a generation. Its projected financial impact could reach up to $12 billion annually beginning in 2031.

The new title and ballot summary language come days before the Aug. 18 primaries, after which the local supervisors of elections will start preparing ballots for the general election.

In the new version, the title “Save our Homes from Excessive Property Taxes” has been replaced by, “Increased Homestead exemption; Lower Cap on Increases in Non Homestead Property Assessment.”

The ballot summary would now make clear the measure would increase the homestead exemption for all non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028 and adjust for inflation thereafter.

The amendment reduces the annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead properties from 10% to 5%.

The summary makes clear the Legislature would write a law laying out a “uniform procedure” for counties and municipalities (and special districts, subject to referendum approval) to follow that would “increase the homestead exemption to the full assessed property value.”

The new ballot summary also makes clear counties and cities would be required to use property taxes solely for public safety, education and schools, infrastructure, natural resources, bond debt service, retirement benefits for employees, and operations and administration.

With a projected $12 billion annual loss in revenue, those interests will compete for a smaller amount of available revenue, which is why the amendment has drawn opposition from groups representing law enforcement, local government officials from both political parties, as well as the Florida Democratic Party.

And while Gov. Ron DeSantis says he supports Amendment 3, he isn’t investing his political energy into helping get it passed because, he says, it wasn’t his original plan. His proposal would included school taxes in the cuts, which was a step too far for the Florida Legislature.

Edie Ausley, a spokesperson for the “Vote No on 3” campaign, issued a statement saying Frank’s ruling along with the the new language “confirm what we’ve long known — this amendment is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

She said the Amendment is not tax relief but a tax shift.

“The proposal doesn’t eliminate the cost of local services — it shifts more of the burden onto renters, businesses, and other property owners while leaving communities to make up the difference.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday awarded $9 million for infrastructure improvements linked to the Birdon America shipbuilding initiative at the Port of Pensacola.

The Birdon initiative carries a $275 million price tag to build a 400,000-square-foot advanced shipbuilding facility at the port, which is expected to create 2,000 jobs after the facility opens in late 2027.

“I think the vast majority will probably be people from within this community,” DeSantis said during an event at the port to announce the funding. “And if you do the right things on the job training, leading into that pipeline, it’s going to be a natural fit.”

The work is intended to support U.S. Navy and defense contracts.

Earlier this year, the project was awarded a $76 million Triumph Gulf Coast grant, which is money from a $2 billion settlement over the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill directed to eight Northwest Florida counties.

The funding comes from the Job Growth Grant Fund, used by DeSantis to back infrastructure projects and workforce training programs.

The budget for the current fiscal year includes $40 million for the fund, with a requirement that half the new dollars be held in reserves until a new governor is seated in January.

A decline in Florida’s jobless claims slowed as the U.S. Department of Labor on Thursday estimated 5,622 first-time applications were submitted last week, 71 more than in the prior week.

Since the Independence Day holiday, the state had seen the weekly count slowly drop from 7,334 the week ending July 11, the third highest one-week total this year.

The claims for the past week come as West Marine advised the state on Aug. 8 that 80 workers will be let go from its Florida Support Center in Fort Lauderdale starting Oct. 3.

Through the first seven months of this year, the state Department of Commerce has received nearly 200 “Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification” letters from companies advising of just over 13,900 layoffs. At the same point in 2025, a similar number of letters were submitted to the state with the projected layoff count at 12,900. After seven months in 2024, there were nearly 140 letters showing an impact to 7,650 workers.

The latest weekly figures remain close to the state’s average since the start of the year, which now stands at 5,980 new claims per week. In that time, the state’s unemployment rate moved from 4.5 percent in January to 4.7 percent in June, with 525,000 Floridians qualified as out-of-work from a workforce of 11.14 million.

The state Department of Labor will update the Florida numbers on Aug. 21.

A trio of federal judges Wednesday grilled an attorney representing the DeSantis administration over how the state terminated people from Florida’s Medicaid program in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Florida was first sued three years ago over how it disenrolled people from the safety net health care program — a process known as an “unwinding” — which resulted in hundreds of thousands of people losing benefits.

After losing before a lower court, the state appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, a court that Gov. Ron DeSantis has pointed out often sides with him and his Republican administration.

That may not happen in this case, as lawyers representing the state got an earful from skeptical judges, with one judge even offering the comment, “This is pretty bad.”

Andy Bardos, representing the state health care agencies that have been sued, tried to defend the state’s handling of Medicaid termination notices, arguing Florida only needed to adhere to minimum due-process requirements. Those included notice of the intended action, the date when that would occur, and a statement of the reason why.

“With nothing else?” U.S. Circuit Court Judge Adalberto Jordan asked.

“We think that’s the minimum requirement of due process,” Bardos answered.

Jordan said the state perhaps could have included additional information in the notices steering people to a website where they could input their annual salary and any other source of income, their expenses, and the number of children they have. 

They could be told whether they qualify for Medicaid and, if not, how much they earned above the qualifying threshold.

But the state didn’t offer that and didn’t include the information in letters to beneficiaries.

“This is pretty bad,” Jordan said.

Skeptical judges

U.S. Circuit Court Judges Barbara Lagoa and Robin Rosenbaum also seemed skeptical.

“If you don’t tell me what the basis is of the income determination that you’ve made, what you believe is the income, then how would I know what to challenge?” Judge Barbara Lagoa asked Bardos.

Lagoa, once a DeSantis appointee to the Florida Supreme Court, said “it’s clear” Medicaid notices must provide the recipient with meaningful notice and the opportunity to be heard.

“You cannot be heard if you don’t know what you’re objecting to,” Lagoa told Bardos. “Because, by the way, I don’t think you would like a trial judge to issue an order just telling you ‘denied’ and not tell you the basis. Correct? Because you wouldn’t be able to have meaningful appellate review.”

Rosenbaum grappled with the idea that the state wouldn’t provide the information it used to determine beneficiaries were no longer eligible.

“What is the whole point of hiding this information?” she asked.

State-federal program

Medicaid is jointly administered and paid for by the state and federal governments. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government increased by 6.2% its contributions. The increased funding came with the requirement states couldn’t disenroll people during the pandemic.

Congress agreed the continuous eligibility requirement would end March 31, 2023, and that, post-pandemic, states could unwind their Medicaid programs to their normal operations. 

Florida started Medicaid unwinding on April 1, 2023, and by the following year the Department of Children and Families redetermined the eligibility of more than 4 million people.

Attorneys for Florida Health Justice Project and the National Health Law Program filed the lawsuit in Jacksonville in 2023 on behalf of people who erroneously lost benefits. 

U.S. District Judge Monica Morales Howard agreed to certify the lawsuit as a class action in 2024 and in 2025 issued a 273-page ruling finding that termination letters issued by the state were “vague, confusing and often incorrect and misleading” in violation of federal law.

With the in-person early voting option in full swing statewide, voting for next week’s primary has surpassed 1 million votes.

The Division of Elections on Wednesday posted that more than 865,000 mail ballots have been returned to county elections offices and nearly 328,000 early votes.

And with a nearly 1.6 million registered voter advantage over Democrats, Republicans who have preferred the in-person early voting method over mail ballots have overtaken Democrats in the number of ballots cast for Tuesday’s election.

As President Donald Trump repeatedly questions voting by mail, registered Republicans in Florida have cast just under 190,000 early votes to a little more than 114,000 by registered Democrats.

Democrats hold the edge in mail ballots, 387,000 to 337,000.

Another 127,000 mail ballots and nearly 22,000 early votes have been cast by individuals without a party affiliation.

In the 2022 primary, the last time there were statewide gubernatorial and Cabinet primaries, 3.7 million votes were cast, of which nearly 1.75 million were mail-in-ballots and just over 613,000 were early votes. Turnout was just under 26 percent.

Of the more than 3 million votes cast in the 2024 primary, 1.4 million came through the mail and 656,500 were cast at early voting locations. Turnout was 22 percent.

The state doled out $25,000 to a handful of statewide candidates on Friday, bringing the four-week total for the public campaign finance program to just under $3 million.

U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, a leader in the 11-person Republican gubernatorial primary field, picked up more than $13,000 in the fourth round of voter-approved public campaign financing. He has now received just over $800,000 from the public pool.

Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, the only other gubernatorial candidate receiving money on Friday collected more than $9,200, bringing his four-week total to about $168,200.

The program matches contributions of $250 or less from individuals residing in Florida to the campaign accounts of candidates running for governor, state attorney, chief financial officer and agriculture commissioner.

A candidate for one of the statewide offices must apply for the funding. To qualify for the money, candidates must raise at least $100,000 in campaign contributions if seeking a Cabinet office or $150,000 if running for governor.

Former U.S. Rep. David Jolly, a candidate for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, didn’t receive any money on Friday. However, he continues to be the top beneficiary of the public campaign finance program this year at $1.6 million.

Attorney General James Uthmeier drew nearly $1,400 from the program last week and has now received almost $147,000. His Democratic challenger Jose Javier Rodriguez picked up $828 from the state last week and has now received a little more than $262,000.

In the 2022 election cycle, which includes both the primary and general election periods, the program distributed $13 million, of which more than half went to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ re-election effort.

Voters approved the program in 1998 and the Legislature unsuccessfully asked voters to end the program in 2010 and 2024.

Pediatricians in Florida are pushing back on President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for changes to the childhood vaccination schedule.

And the state’s leading pediatric medical association, the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said they’re not on board.

“We don’t answer to this nonsense, we don’t recommend changing it,” said Dr. Rana Alissa, president of the FCAAP and an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Florida. “We go by evidence-based science, we don’t go by politics and politicians.”

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order that advocates for the split of measles, mumps and rubella vaccine into three separate shots; directs the government to research vaccine safety; and directs all states to provide religious and medical exemptions from vaccine mandates. 

At his press conference in the Oval Office, Trump promoted previously debunked information that vaccines cause autism spectrum disorder.

“Decades ago, children received only a small fraction of the vaccines required today. In those times, people were much healthier and of course, the high rates of autism now observed did not exist. So there’s a reason for such epidemic rates of autism,” Trump said.

Claims that vaccines cause autism are unfounded and have been proven to be false according to numerous studies over decades of research. Dr. Tara Williams, a pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics in Orlando, said the debate of whether vaccines cause autism has been “settled,” and the president’s executive order will undo years of hard work.

“This is unprecedented, but that’s not unusual in this administration,” she told the News Service of Florida. “It’s unfortunately going to end up being at the cost of a child developing severe measles complications before this madness will end.”

In a statement, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics Dr. Andrew Racine called the executive order “dangerous.”

The order “will do nothing to support families of children with autism or advance understanding of the condition,” Racine said in a released statement. “The only purpose of this announcement is to sow confusion so that more people doubt the importance of vaccines. Delaying or skipping shots is risky, especially as measles continues to spread and children go back to school.”

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo have been outspoken critics of vaccine mandates. This year, DeSantis, First Lady Casey DeSantis and Ladapo pushed hard to expand vaccine exemptions for K-12 schools. All measures to do so, however, failed to make it past the finish line in the Legislature.

So far in 2026 Florida has reported 155 cases of measles, according to the Florida Department of Health. Most of those cases stemmed from a January outbreak in Collier County at Ave Maria University.

Herd immunity for measles requires a 95 percent vaccination rate, according to the World Health Organization, yet the average vaccination rate for Florida’s kindergartners this year is 88.9 percent, according to DOH data. Sarasota County has the lowest vaccination rate with 82.1 percent, while Calhoun County has the highest rate with 98.7 percent.

The closest Florida got to a 95 percent vaccination rate was in 2017, when the average was 94.1 percent.

Alissa said the president’s move will worsen the rates of herd immunity in Florida that pediatricians have been trying to raise for years.

“We almost eradicated measles, but no, let’s bring it back,” she said. “Please listen to your pediatrician. Please listen to the people who studied, not the people who have power to talk on TV.”