Party leaders across the state of Florida declare victory in the state primary Tuesday, and voters set to vote to lower rising healthcare costs.

Inside the Florida primaries

Last night was a clean, but expected sweep for both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump.

Biden won primary contests in four states, and Trump won them in five, including Ohio, Arizona, Kansas, Illinois, and Florida.

Trump won the sunshine state with 81% of the vote.

Most of the remainder went to former Gov. Nikki Haley, Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Gov. Chris Christie, even though all three have suspended their campaigns.

It’s a smaller margin of victory than he secured as the incumbent in 2020 when he carried nearly 94% of the vote, easily squashing challenges from Bill Weld, Joe Walsh, and Rocky De La Fuente.

And then there’s the issue of voter turnout. In last night’s primary, it was as low as 20% in some areas.

However, both parties are calling last night a success, but there are questions about whether not holding a Democratic Primary for Biden was a good move.

Voting is the cornerstone of democracy, but getting folks to the polls can be tough. 

“We had some tremendous successes all across the state,” Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said. “Of the 47 races where we had a Democratic candidate and incumbent last night, Democrats won at least 25 of those, and a few that are going into a runoff.”

While her claim of a night of success, some question the party’s strategy to not hold a presidential primary. 

Dr. Joshua Scacco is the director for the Center of Sustainable Democracy at the University of South Florida.

He says not holding a primary is a missed opportunity. 

“Getting individuals voting early and getting them voting on a regular basis is actually very important because you are essentially priming them for what’s to come in November,” Scacco said.

He says this could have had an effect on some of the local races. 

But for Fried, that’s not the case. She said the party has taken this route before when Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were in office. 

Florida Republican Party Chair Evan Power touted the results of some of the local elections, including the election of two Republicans to Clearwater’s city council: Ryan Cotton and Mike Mannino.

Part of a statement from Power reads quote,

“From Delray Beach to Clearwater and from Winter Garden to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, the Florida GOP remains committed to electing Republicans up and down the ballot in every corner of the state,” Power said.

DeSantis signs homeless camping ban

To "combat homelessness" in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Wednesday a statewide ban against sleeping or camping in public. 

The new law, HB 1365, bans local rules that tolerate homeless camps or sleeping in public places. 

The new law also urges cities and counties to establish temporary shelters to house the unhoused. 

The new law goes into effect in October. 

“We are going to protect and fight for our public spaces, our parks, our libraries, the sidewalks we walk down,” said the bill sponsor, Fleming Island Republican Rep. Sam Garrison. 

Residents and business owners may take legal action if a city fails to uphold the ban. The bill empowers them to sue local governments in violation. 

“You have to make sure that everything we do is geared toward quality of life and public safety,” said DeSantis at the bill signing in Miami Beach. Those are non-negotiable."

The legislation lays out several rules for new housing sites. They must include security, running water and mental health support.

They must also be located somewhere that does not impact nearby property values.

Critics suggest the new law will do more harm than good, particularly in smaller, rural, and financially constrained areas. 

“I have cities that stretch sometimes just a mile,” said Hollywood Democratic Sen. Jason Pizzo last month.

Critics also question the legislation’s finer details. They fear the new law may create legal and logistical hurdles.

“I don’t know if this gets us where (we) need to be,” said West Palm Beach Democratic Sen. Bobby Powell. 

According to a bill analysis, Florida’s homeless population is roughly 30,000 on any given night.

Rising health care costs could loom large in presidential election

As we continue diving into the issues at the forefront of voters’ minds in this pivotal election year, we’re taking a look at something that anyone who’s been to the doctor’s office is well aware of, the cost of health care.

It can be sky high even if voters have health insurance.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reports medical debt is now the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States, with $88 billion of that debt in collections nationwide.

Twice a week, Kanwar Bhutani puts on gloves, not for warmth or protection, but for electrical stimulation.

“I was willing to give anything a try because I had given up on life at that point, 10 years ago, and this was a saviour,” Bhutani said.

Bhutani began developing Parkinson’s disease when he was just 39 years old. He was the second person to try these experimental gloves.

“You get vibrations from the glove, and it’s the closest point to the brain, so it fires the neurons to the brain. So this has saved my life. In 2018, I was basically in a wheelchair,” Bhutani said.

But that miracle medication, even with insurance, costs him $47,000 a year.

“A little over $2,000 a month and it’s not covered by insurance, but this is the medicine that’s absolutely essential that’s helped me tremendously,” he said.

His condition forced Bhutani to retire early from his corporate executive job at Tupperware.

The medical costs threw his family into a financial tailspin.

But through word of mouth, Bhutani heard about The Assistance Fund, or TAF. It’s a national nonprofit based in Orlando. It helps cover the cost of people’s medications when insurance won’t.

To qualify, applicants must have a disease, be taking FDA-approved medication and be in financial need for help.

TAF is fueled mostly by corporate donations, and CEO Danielle Vizcaino’s drive to help people.

“And I know that it impacts individuals like Kanwar, and I’m so fortunate that the stress that I carry, that someone’s benefitting from that,” Vizcaino said.

Thanks to that medication, Bhutani is now able to run.

Getting help to pay the cost of his health care allows him to manage Parkinson’s for now. But he knows the medical challenges will increase.

Any savings he and his wife haven’t burned through yet, likely will have to go towards health care costs and not the retirement they always looked forward to.

In a year when who you vote for could have impacts on health care, Bhutani says he’ll be choosing candidates who will be focused on improving the affordability of health care.

“The whole medical system needs to be reformed in my mind. It’s not that we don’t have good doctors, we have excellent medical facilities, we have excellent doctors in this country. Probably the best in the world by far, but the rates are astronomical and it’s beyond anyone’s pocketbook to be able to afford it.”