Runoff elections for Primary contests won't be returning to Florida any time soon. House Speaker Paul Renner said legislation that emerged last week is dead for the Regular Session.
"We had a conversation. It was a short conversation," Renner told reporters, acknowledging the vehement opposition from many Republicans to the bill (PCB SAC 24-06).
The bill would have brought back runoffs for Primary Elections, which Florida held until 2002. In any Primary contest where no single candidate received 50% or more, the top two vote-getters would square off in a second Primary to see who would go on to the General Election. The change wouldn't have taken effect until the 2026 election cycle.
Another part of the bill would have eliminated the number of drop boxes a county could set up to receive mail ballots. That provision upset Democrats, putting more scrutiny on the bill.
Critics of the measure — including U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican, and state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, a Spring Hill Republican and former Republican Party of Florida Chairman — argued it would hurt more conservative candidates. Gaetz posted on social media that he wasn't going to run for Governor in 2026, so lawmakers didn't need to do it.
Renner didn't mention Gaetz specifically, but indicated it wasn't aimed at helping or hurting any particular candidate.
"I think I heard Carly Simon singing in the background, 'You must think this bill is about you,' because we certainly had some feedback from people who thought it was," Renner said.
Renner said he first heard the idea of looking into reverting back to Primary runoffs last summer, but the bill only emerged last week. But after the backlash, the State Affairs Committee opted to postpone hearing the bill.
With two and a half weeks left of the Regular Session, Renner said there isn't enough time to take on something so controversial.
"We're in a tight time frame now. We don't have a lot of bandwidth and time to do things that are not going to create consensus," Renner said.
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