Also in today’s edition of ‘Regular Order’ for August 19, 2026:
Speaker Johnson hits the stump in Michigan.
Trump loses another GOP race for Governor - this time in Wyoming.
Democrats urge Supreme Court to nix White House ballroom.
FLORIDA. There was no shortage of storylines in the Sunshine State on Tuesday night. Voters defeated a scandal-plagued GOP Congressman, rejected an out-of-state carpetbagger backed by President Trump for another U.S. House seat, and dealt a surprise defeat to the Democrat favored in a primary for U.S. Senate.
MILLS. The election headline from Florida was the GOP primary defeat of Rep. Cory Mills (R-FL) - who has faced a series of sexual misconduct allegations. The final tally wasn’t close, as former TV anchor Ryan Elijah defeated Mills by almost 13 percent, as Mills will leave Capitol Hill after two terms in office.
CHANGE. “The voters in Seminole and Volusia County delivered a strong message tonight that was heard around the country,” said Elijah, who had gone directly after Mills.
SUPPORT. The big turning point in this campaign was a few weeks ago, when two Florida GOP lawmakers - Rep. Anna Paulina Luna and Rep. Mike Haridopolos - publicly endorsed Elijah over Mills. That changed the race.
SCANDAL. But let’s be honest. It never should have come to this. Mills knocked around one woman, and narrowly avoided arrest. Then Mills was hit with a restraining order after he threatened to release nude photos and videos of another woman he had dated. That should have been enough.
TRUMPED. But Mills refused to step aside even with a House ethics probe. He repeatedly touted his February endorsement from President Trump, though Trump did not repeat that support in the days leading up to the GOP primary. “God is good,” Mills tweeted after voting.
CONGRESS. There will be few tears shed for Mills among fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill. His scandals were too obvious and too blatant. And he could still face punishment from the House Ethics Committee.
NUMBERS. Mills is the eleventh House incumbent to lose a primary in 2026. His loss means that 71 current lawmakers will not be back after the November elections. That’s a 16 percent turnover already. November is still coming.
NOVEMBER. The GOP results were a bitter pill for Florida Democrats, who were hoping that a wounded Mills would limp into the general election - and give them a chance to flip that seat in Central Florida.
SPEAK UP. There is also a larger lesson at play here in the halls of Congress. Mills probably doesn’t lose this race if not for the power play by Reps. Luna and Haridopolos. I wish more lawmakers would speak up about their embattled colleagues - instead of quietly watching them try to survive.
THE SPEAKER. Also, the refusal of House Speaker Mike Johnson to say anything bad in public about Cory Mills really looks like a poor choice after last night. It would have been real easy to tell Mills to give up his campaign for reelection - and endorse Elijah instead.
SETBACKS. The Mills defeat wasn’t President Trump’s only loss in Florida last night. GOP voters in southwest Florida brushed aside Trump’s hand-picked candidate for a U.S. House seat in the Naples area, rejecting a series of carpetbaggers, and instead picking a homegrown Republican for Congress.
FL-19. The winner of the GOP primary in FL-19 was Jim Schwartzel, a local radio executive who prevailed over six out of state transplants, including two former U.S. House members.
HOMEGROWN. Born in Naples, Schwartzel emphasized his roots during the campaign. “Vote local - Vote Schwartzel,” he said on Tuesday. “I’m the only candidate in this primary who was born and raised here.”
LAUFING. It was the third time that Trump’s candidate, Catalina Lauf, had run for Congress and lost. The first two losses were in Illinois. She thought it would be different with Trump’s support this time. It wasn’t, as Schwartzel defeated her 29-22 percent.
CARPETBAGGERS. Finishing third was Jim Oberweis, who had lost a run for Congress before in Illinois as well. Trailing in single digits were ex-Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) and ex-Rep. Chris Collins (R-NY) - both had also moved to southwest Florida to run for Congress. That didn’t work.
INCUMBENTS. Other than Mills, no incumbents in Florida had a bad night. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) had no problem running in a different district - despite criticism from Black leaders. Wasserman Schultz won her primary easily with over 45 percent of the vote.
POSTGAME. Statewide in Florida, Democrats had a mixed night. Their candidate for Governor, former Republican and ex-Rep. David Jolly, won easily. But in the race for Senate, a progressive state Rep. from Jacksonville, Angie Nixon, won an upset win, defeating Alexander Vindman by 12 points.
FLORIDA SENATE. Money isn’t everything. And that was especially true in the Nixon-Vindman race. Vindman, whose brother serves in Congress from Virginia, was the strong favorite, as he had raised over $16 million.
UNDERDOG. Meanwhile, Nixon had struggled to get to $1 million in campaign funds. But it didn’t matter, as she won handily. “We did it ya’ll,” Nixon told supporters. “Get ready, the fight has just begun.”
NOVEMBER. While Jolly will have a chance to win the Governor’s race in November against Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Nixon will be a heavy underdog to Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL).
OUTLOOK. Moody seems like a somewhat weak incumbent who is not an active campaigner. But a Democratic Socialist running statewide in Florida doesn’t seem like the answer in November - at least not right now.
JOLLY. Could Florida voters split the difference in November and vote Jolly for Governor and Moody for Senate? Something to think about.
DEFEAT. Donald Trump has a very good record when it comes to endorsements in Republican primaries. His choice of a candidate can often determine the winner. But his magic seems to be wearing off - especially in GOP races for Governor.
EQUALITY STATE. Last night in Wyoming, Trump lost a GOP race for Governor for the fifth time this year. FIVE TIMES. Trump backed the state school superintendent Megan Degenfelder - but she fell short.
GOVERNOR. Degenfelder joined a series of other Trump-backed candidates who have failed all across the country in races for Governor:
Minnesota - Mike Lindell
Georgia - Burt Jones
Iowa - Randy Feenstra
South Carolina - Pamela Evette
WYOMING. For all the talk about Wyoming going hard to the right, it was actually quite the night for established Republican elected officials.
SENATE. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) easily won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate. She will be the favorite in November.
HOUSE. Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray won a closely contested GOP race to replace Hageman in Congress.
GOVERNOR. Former state House Speaker and current state Senator Eric Barlow won the GOP nod for Governor, defeating Trump’s candidate.
CALIFORNIA SPECIAL. The vote was too close to call last night in a special U.S. House election in California. Two Democrats were vying to fill out the term of ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), who resigned back in April - under fire for various allegations of sexual misconduct.
TOP TWO. Ahead in the count was state senator Aisha Wahab. She leads Melissa Hernandez by less than 2,000 votes. Wahab is a progressive backed by the state Democratic Party. Hernandez has the support of AIPAC.
BLUE MAIL. As many of you know, California is notorious for a slow election count, as it deals with massive numbers of mail-in ballots. It could take a few days to see how this race shakes out.
COUNTING. Why does Florida get finished so fast - but California does not? The answer is simple. Florida won’t accept any mail ballots that arrive after 7 pm on Election Day - when the polls close. California waits a week to count any ballots which were postmarked by Election Day.
NUMBERS. Along with this California seat, a second Democrat is likely to win a special election next week in Georgia. Those two would make the House 218 Republicans, 214 Democrats, and 1 Independent - making life even more difficult for House Speaker Mike Johnson.
CAMPAIGN TRAIL. As for Speaker Johnson, he continues to hopscotch around the country during this August break to help GOP lawmakers campaign for November. On Monday, he was in Virginia Beach. Tuesday, the Speaker was in Michigan to help freshman Rep. Tom Barrett (R-MI) who represents a district centered on the state capital of Lansing.
MESSAGE. Johnson’s message on behalf of Barrett (upper right of the photo) was much the same as in Virginia Beach on Monday, arguing that Democrats are badly divided - and that they are led by nothing but a bunch of commies and socialists who will run the country into the ground.
MICHIGAN. “This is a contrast election, a contrast between common sense, represented by a guy like Tom Barrett, and crazy, and that’s what his opponent represents,” Speaker Johnson said.
OUTCOME. “I am very bullish on the outcome of the election,” Johnson told reporters. “People understand you cannot turn the government over to radical Marxist communists, okay?”
CARAVAN. For a second straight day, Rep. Stephanie Bice (R-OK) and Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA) were with the Speaker. Also appearing at this Lansing stop was Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and former Michigan Gov. John Engler.
AMICUS. 33 Democrats in Congress are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to block further construction work at the White House, where President Trump is building a ballroom plus some kind of underground military nerve center. The argument of the 16 Senators and 17 House members is no surprise - they say Congress never authorized Trump to do anything.
BRIEF. “Congress neither authorized the demolition of the White House’s East Wing and construction of a ballroom nor appropriated funds to carry out that project,” the Democratic lawmakers wrote to the High Court.
HOLD A VOTE. “If the President believes national-security concerns warrant the demolition or construction of federal property, the Constitution requires him to come to Congress,” they added in the brief.
WATCHDOG. Two government watchdog groups echoed that. “Congress, not the Executive, controls the country’s purse strings,” wrote the Campaign Legal Center and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “This is a check against both Executive extravagance and the risk of corrupting influence or its appearance.”
TIMING. It’s not clear how quickly the Supreme Court will deal with this matter. This was one of the photos the Trump Administration submitted to the Supreme Court in arguing for the project to keep moving forward. You can see how tall the new ballroom structure is going to be - next to the White House.
VOTING. Another day has gone by without a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on President Trump’s executive order which seeks to slap dramatic new federal rules on voting by mail. The Trump Administration brought their latest appeal to the Justices back on July 27. Briefs were due by August 3. But nothing has happened.
ABSENTEE. There could be a case bubbling in the lower courts which may get to the U.S. Supreme Court about age limits on who can use an absentee ballot. In a decision issued on Tuesday, a three-judge panel ruled against a South Carolina law that limits most absentee ballots to people over 65.
RULING. “That means voting is harder for voters under age sixty-five than those age sixty-five and older — which constitutes an abridgement of the right to vote on the basis of age and contravenes the Twenty-Sixth Amendment,” the appeals court panel wrote. You can read the ruling at this link.
CONFLICT. Two other federal circuits have ruled the opposite way, so that could possibly pave the way for this matter to get to the U.S. Supreme Court before the 2028 election.
LIMITS. South Carolina is not the only state with an age-related law on absentee voting - Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Indiana have similar systems as well.
SUPREME COURT. Let me circle back to where I started - the lack of a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on the Trump-mail voting matter. The midterm elections actually begin on September 4 when North Carolina starts sending out absentee-by-mail ballots. Would the Roberts Court change all the rules before then? Tell me what you think.
IRAN WAR. The Trump White House continues to send out a mixed message on the war with Iran. President Trump on Tuesday posted a map declaring the Strait of Hormuz as American territory, and later said ‘there are no talks’ going on with the Tehran regime to officially end the war.
CONGRESS. As you might imagine, most Republicans in Congress are saying very little about the Iran situation during this August break - especially as President Trump veers back and forth on how to deal with the Tehran regime.
STRAIT. GOP lawmakers support the goal of blocking Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But how do you achieve that? How do you get the Strait of Hormuz open again? How do you bring down gas prices? It’s giving Democrats some easy election targets.
GAS PRICES. “Americans are paying for the Iran war every time they fill up their gas tank,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), as the average price of a gallon of gas remains over $4.00. “The war with Iran has been a geopolitical catastrophe for the United States,” added Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO).
BEHIND THE SCENES. My report yesterday on our Q&A with Sen. Jim Justice (R-WV) prompted a number of questions about the Senator’s beloved ‘Babydog.’ The 60-pound English bulldog is not allowed on the Senate floor, but he accompanies Justice at times - dragged along in his own special cart by a staffer.
MUSE OF HISTORY. August 19, 1919. This was a remarkable day in U.S. government history. Members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gathered on this date at the White House to take testimony from President Woodrow Wilson - who wanted the Senate to ratify the Treaty of Versailles and help create the League of Nations. “I welcome the opportunity for a frank and full interchange,” Wilson told Senators. The full transcript of the meeting was placed in the Congressional Record the next day. Wilson’s lobbying effort did not work.
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM:
The House is back for votes on August 31.
The Senate next has votes on September 14.
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I can only speak for myself, but I'm beginning to feel that Donald Trump is the strong medicine America has needed for some time. His embrace of Zionism, white supremacy and fascism are a long-overdue laxative to the body politic. This election season is proving to have more impact than any I can remember since the Sixties -- almost as tense as Nixon vs. Humphrey vs. Wallace in 1968.
My web life burns with a political and social awareness spreading faster than an epidemic as another social/political shock is building. I have come across more Ossoff snippets the last day or two than I ever expected and figured it was just another algorithm feeding me stuff to make me happy -- I was reminded that he has a background as a documentary film maker.
I wouldn’t put it past the Court to issue the ruling before election day, but my feeling is they will issue their ruling afterwards because it’ll be against Trump. They may also rule in Trump’s favor, but are being prudent in delaying their ruling because if they issue it now (even stating its implementation is to be delayed) Trump would just go ahead and move forward, thus causing more harm.
One thing Republicans fully under appreciate is soft power. It doesn’t play as well for TV (clickbait) but it doesn’t make things run smoother.
The other item is a lack of candidate development. Candidates selections seem to be more reactionary rather than proactive.