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Florida's Latino voters, roughly a quarter of the state's electorate, are emerging as a key constituency heading into the 2026 midterms, after many shifted toward Republicans in 2024. Republican and Democratic strategists interviewed by News 6 disagree sharply on which issues will determine whether that shift holds.

Republicans, represented by RNC Hispanic communications director Jaime Florez, credit President Trump's economic record — citing lower inflation, prescription drug costs and job growth — for the party's gains. Democrats, through Puerto Rico Democratic Party chair Luis Dávila Pernas, counter that cost of living remains a burden and claim some Latino Trump voters now feel "buyer's remorse." Immigration enforcement is another flashpoint: the administration has reported more than 985,000 deportations and moved to end Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans and Haitians, actions Republicans defend as lawful enforcement while Democrats argue they have alarmed immigrant communities amid aggressive ICE arrests. Both sides agree voters increasingly want results over partisan conflict as Florida heads toward November's vote.

Florida's two marquee 2026 statewide races present unusual racial pairings, and candidates are handling the dynamic very differently. In the Senate race, Democrat Angie Nixon, a progressive from Jacksonville, faces Republican Ashley Moody, the former state attorney general appointed to the seat Marco Rubio vacated. In the governor's race, Republican Byron Donalds, who could become Florida's first Black governor, is running against David Jolly, a former Republican turned Democrat with strong Black voter support.

Analysts say Donalds has mostly avoided Black-specific outreach and race-focused messaging, emphasizing the economy and school choice instead, reflecting a common strategy for Black conservative candidates wary of alienating their base. Despite recent efforts to court Black voters, polling shows Jolly holding a commanding lead among Black voters. Nixon, by contrast, has leaned into discussing race directly while also courting white working-class voters with economic messaging, trailing Moody in current polling but with strategists calling her a credible underdog capable of winning with strong turnout.

Donalds has continued to draw national attention on other issues, recently criticizing far-left Florida Democrats who have called to abolish ICE amid the broader immigration debate.

Christian Emmanuel Sanon, a 67-year-old Haitian American pastor, went on trial Monday in Miami federal court on charges tied to the July 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise. Sanon has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to kill or kidnap Moise and faces a possible life sentence if convicted.

Prosecutors allege Sanon helped recruit participants in the plot, hoping to become Haiti's president after Moise's removal, and say the scheme was largely organized and financed in South Florida. His lawyers acknowledge his presidential ambitions but deny he knew of plans to kill Moise, arguing he was later sidelined by co-conspirators. Moise's widow, Martine Moise, who survived the attack, is expected to testify.

Sanon has been detained since his arrest in Haiti days after the killing and was extradited to the US in 2023. Five other defendants have already received life sentences, and dozens more, including former Colombian soldiers, face charges. Haiti has had no elected president since Moise's death, and the country remains gripped by gang violence ahead of planned December elections.

Rep. María Elvira Salazar, a Miami Republican, is facing pushback after releasing a campaign ad filmed outside the White House urging President Trump to soften immigration enforcement, warning his policies are hurting the GOP's standing with Latino voters. Many voters in her heavily Hispanic, majority-immigrant district say their support for Trump remains firm even as their confidence in Salazar has slipped, with some accusing her of political self-preservation and poor timing rather than genuine conviction.

Salazar faces Democratic challenger Eliott Rodriguez, a fellow former TV anchor, in a district Trump won by nearly 15 points in 2024 but which analysts now describe as competitive. Trump publicly criticized Salazar's ad but stopped short of harsher attacks he's aimed at other GOP critics; Salazar later said she had a "fantastic" follow-up conversation with him. The district has been heavily affected by immigration enforcement, with many Venezuelan, Haitian, Cuban and Nicaraguan residents losing humanitarian parole and TPS protections. The Cook Political Report still rates the race "likely Republican," though Democrats point to a fundraising surge for Rodriguez.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) won her party's primary in Florida's newly drawn 20th Congressional District, a plurality-Black seat centered on Broward County, after her old 25th District seat was eliminated in Republican-led mid-decade redistricting ordered by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Rather than run in a new, whiter district that favored Trump, she chose to compete in the 20th, drawing criticism from local Black leaders, the Broward Black Democratic Caucus, and Congressional Black Caucus members who saw her candidacy as a threat to Black political representation already weakened by the Supreme Court's rollback of the Voting Rights Act; Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries declined to endorse her.

Wasserman Schultz defeated a divided field of four Black challengers — former Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, rapper Luther "Luke" Campbell, Elijah Manley, and Dale Holness — leaning on seniority, fundraising, and an Appropriations Committee seat while her rivals split the opposing vote. Her win makes her the only white House member representing a plurality or majority-Black district heading into 2027, following the elimination of Rep. Steve Cohen's Memphis district by Tennessee Republicans. The broader Florida redistricting effort cut four Democratic-leaning seats ahead of the midterms.