‘They call us extreme, they call us radical,’ the progressive Senate candidate said. ‘But I think people see through that’

• US politics live – latest updates

It wasn’t supposed to be this way.

In conservative Florida, Alex Vindman – a retired army intelligence officer who blew this whistle on Donald Trump in his first term – appeared set to carry the Democratic establishment banner as the party staged a long-shot bid to topple a Republican US senator.

Michael Caruso, once praised by Ron DeSantis, removed from Palm Beach county civic official roles after arrest

Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, has suspended a former close ally and senior civic official who was arrested on felony child sexual abuse charges.

Michael Caruso, who was removed as clerk of court and comptroller for Palm Beach county on Tuesday, was a vocal supporter of a law signed by DeSantis in 2023 that allowed the death penalty for anybody convicted of the sexual battery of a child under 12.

Congressman had pledged to implement president’s agenda if he gained governor’s seat

• Democratic socialist Angie Nixon clinches surprise primary win in Florida US Senate race

Byron Donalds, a congressman backed by Donald Trump, won the Republican nomination for governor on Tuesday in the race to succeed Ron DeSantis.

Donalds, who has represented south-west Florida since 2021, trounced three reasonably prominent Republican rivals, including Jay Collins, DeSantis’s handpicked lieutenant governor.

Politics that worked for Democratic candidates in New York, Minnesota, Michigan won’t cut it in red Florida, analysts say

If primary elections elsewhere this summer were tussles between progressives and moderates for the direction of the Democratic party’s political future, Tuesday’s contests in Florida could not be more different.

In a former swing state that has in recent years become reliably red, moderate Democratic candidates Alex Vindman and David Jolly are heavily favored to become the party’s nominees for November’s Senate and governor’s race, respectively.