Florida's CD-1 Congressional Candidates Meet with Voters in Navarre
December 10, 2024 11:16pm
I was the emcee & moderator for yesterday's three hour forum with the Republican candidates seeking to replace Matt Gaetz in Congress. Eight of the ten candidates were present at the venue. Trump-endorsed Jimmy Patronis, who was out of town, participated by telephone but only for a two minute introductory speech. He did not remain on the phone for any questions.
The eight candidates in the room answered my questions about immigration, tax policy, Ukraine, Israel, Iran, Taiwan, Social Security, energy independence, tariffs, infrastructure, the environment, education, and more. The public asked questions of the candidates during the last third of the event. In between my questions and the public's questions, I had the candidates ask questions of each other. That pretty much never happens at debates. But when I moderate such events, I always ask the organizers if I can include candidate to candidate questioning. It's usually approved, and it becomes the most memorable part of the forums.
With ten candidates and no runoff, it is possible for a Republican to win the nomination with less than 11% of the vote. The Pensacola News Journal story quoted me about this: "Moderator Mike Bates, a talk-show host with WPNN, pointed out that with such a crowded field, it’s possible for someone to win with less than 11% of the vote. 'Now, I'm not predicting that's going to happen,' Bates said. 'It's not going to happen. But if there's 10 candidates, and nine of them each get 9.9% of the vote, that's 89.1%. So the remaining candidate could win with 10.9% because there's no runoff. So every vote will matter.'”
The Republican primary will be held January 28th. There is no Democrat primary because only one Democrat is in the race. The general election will be held on April 1st.
Some of the media coverage of the event can be seen at these websites:
Pensacola News Journal: https://www.pnj.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/12/09/gaetz-special-election-republicans-battle-against-jimmy-patronis/76860431007/
Yahoo: https://www.yahoo.com/news/republican-candidates-florida-congressional-district-032907819.html