Congress
This is Fine: Florida sends a bare-knuckle brawler to Congress
Congress has seen plenty of firebrands and confrontational lawmakers — especially from Florida. But Washington still might be in for a shock when it comes to Randy Fine.
Over his nine years in the Florida Legislature, he gained a reputation for his bare-knuckle style of politics and spats with local officials. Now the former gambling executive will be going national with last week’s special election win in a deep-red district on Florida’s northeast coast.
Three years ago, Fine called a school-board member a “whore” in a text. During Covid, he got sanctioned by Facebook after he wrote a post alerting constituents to a school-board meeting on masking that included the school-board member’s phone number. A judge sent Fine to anger management after pictures surfaced that appeared to show him giving the middle finger during a virtual hearing. (He insisted he was scratching his forehead.)
He recently became irritated with a pro-Palestinian activist who was testifying at a hearing and dismissed the man with, “Enjoy your terrorist rag.” When people began to protest, he threatened to empty the room.
“I’m the chairman, I can say what I want,” he said. “If you don’t like it, you can leave.”
And most eye-popping of all, he’s been a frequent foil of Gov. Ron DeSantis ever since he swapped his 2024 presidential endorsement from the governor to Donald Trump, even topping it with a scathing Washington Times op-ed that accused the governor of not doing enough to fight antisemitism in Florida in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.
Though it’s been more than a year since that fallout, DeSantis has made it clear all is not forgiven. “He repels people,” DeSantis said about Fine in the middle of a 10-minute rant after the election. He then dumped on Fine as someone who had underperformed in the race and argued he was only able to pull off a 14-point victory after the president helped “bail him out in the end.”
Fine’s response: To needle DeSantis over how he has less than two years left in office, with no clear path for where his political career is headed next. “A dying star burns hottest before it fades into oblivion,” Fine wrote on X before taking that same message into his first national interview with FOX Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria.”
Fine has some enemies. But to his allies, his personal style makes him a good lawmaker. “The guy is destined for stardom,” said Florida state Sen. Joe Gruters, another GOP DeSantis antagonist who was Fine’s roommate when they served in the Legislature and is his closest friend. He praised Fine’s “ability to throw the hardest right hook in the business.”
“Somebody punches him, he throws the biggest haymaker that’s around at his opponents,” Gruters said, “and that goes for Republicans and Democrats.”
The ordeal between DeSantis and Fine has been a dramatic U-turn. Fine was once DeSantis’ Jewish outreach chair. He even introduced or co-sponsored many of the policies DeSantis became known for nationally, including measures to limit race-related trainings in classrooms and to punish businesses that allow minors into “adult live performances” — seen by many as targeting drag shows. He was also a key player in the law to give parents more say about what happens in schools, the bill critics like Walt Disney World dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
And when Disney protested, Fine introduced legislation that aimed to dissolve the theme park’s special tax district. He rejoiced after the feud ended, saying he couldn’t wait to once again enjoy Disney’s cruises and parks with his family.
Chris Sprowls, the former speaker of the Florida House, said he often turned to Fine to ask him to do “really difficult things,” in part because he thought he was smart and could articulate the policy in ways people could easily understand, but also because he could get up and debate against anyone.
“He’s the guy who wants the ball,” Sprowls said. “Every coach wants the guy who wants the ball, and Randy wants the ball for people all the time.”
Gruters agreed. “If you want a bill to pass in the Legislature, the first guy I always recommend is Randy Fine, because he will beat the crap out of his colleagues to try to make sure that that bill passes,” he said. “There’s nobody with the personality and the willingness to get in the mud and make things happen like Randy Fine.”
Nicknamed the “Hebrew Hammer” by Gruters — a title he embraces — Fine was the only Jewish Republican for most of his time in state government.
He has said a key reason he’s in politics is to support pro-Israel causes. But he has also lashed out against Muslims, referring to Josh Weil, his Democratic opponent in the special election who is a convert to Islam, as “Jihad Josh.”
The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations has called for Fine to be censured, including for comments he made on social media saying, “Gaza must be destroyed.” Fine also posted on X that Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota “might consider leaving before I get there. #BombsAway.”
But the Republican Jewish Coalition endorsed Fine early in his campaign, and his allies defend him as someone passionate about pro-Israel causes and fighting antisemitism.
“He is unapologetic about fighting for Israel,” said Sprowls, who joined Trump and Fine on a trade mission to Israel. He pointed to Hamas’ acts of terrorism and said of Fine: “He’s not going to equivocate on these issues. He’s going to be strong, and I think that is really important to have members like Randy who can fight for the moral imperative that is protecting Israel and their right to live and thrive in the Middle East.”
Trump endorsed Fine over Truth Social before he got into the race and later called him a “tremendous Voice for MAGA.” The race ended up tighter than expected in the closing weeks, with Fine’s opponent polling close to him and estimating he raised $14 million.
Fine was thought to be a shoo-in for the seat previously held by Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, who has been in hot water recently over accidentally adding The Atlantic’s editor in chief to a messaging group with other top officials. (In an ironic twist, the seat is also the one DeSantis held when he was in Congress.)
Fine said in an interview that he had been interested in going to Congress “when I was a kid.” But when he worked for a congressman one summer, the representative told him, “Don’t do this job until you know how you’ll pay your mortgage. Don’t be like me.” So Fine became a gambling executive whose millions allowed him to mostly retire by age 40. (His state financial disclosure counts his net worth at just over $30 million.)
He didn’t think politics was in his future at that point, but then, he said, “I got mad about my kid’s school.” His son was in first grade and he told the school he didn’t like how they were teaching common core math.
“I got told I wasn’t qualified to have an opinion about it, because I don’t have a degree in academic administration. And look, my degrees from Harvard aren’t worth that much, but I ought to be able to handle first-grade math,” he said, referring to his undergraduate and business graduate degrees from the storied Ivy League school. “We got upset, and so I decided I would go and fix it. And I did: We got out of common core math then I helped pass a law that said you can’t tell a parent they’re not qualified to have an opinion about their kids’ education.”
In January, the Legislature had its first big standoff with DeSantis over illegal immigration, after years of complying to his demands. After a state Senate floor session, many Republicans in the Legislature scattered to avoid talking to any reporters about the tension with the governor. But Fine came out of the chamber ready to discuss what had just gone down and why the Legislature disagreed with the governor’s proposals.
Looking toward the group of journalists, a senior Democratic aide who has described Fine as a “mean-spirited asshole” leaned over to a reporter and whispered, “I disagree with him on almost every issue, but he is very good at what he does.”
Most Democrats in Florida agree with DeSantis on Fine, with state Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried calling him an “asshole” as well as a “bad politician and a bad person.”
“For the first time in almost six years,” she said, “I agree with Ron DeSantis.”
Jennifer Jenkins, the former school-board member Fine insulted, called him a “piece of shit” and a “bully.” The two have fought over mask mandates and LGBTQ+ policies in schools. Fine also raged at a city councilmember in a text over the fact that county police had invited Jenkins and not him to an event, saying it would jeopardize funding for the Special Olympics and the county, texts obtained by Florida Today showed.
“Randy Fine’s behavior speaks for itself,” Jenkins said. “He is divisive, disrespectful, and entirely untrustworthy. He’s not a leader, he’s a cautionary tale that Florida is about to serve up to the rest of the country on what happens when you let a clown hold office.”
When asked about what his style in Congress would be, Fine said it took him a couple of years to break out in the Legislature. In Congress, he said, it’ll be similar because he’ll be so new and will still have to learn the process and learn from others.
Pressed about it, he said: “I do think that my style will work well in Washington. I mean, I’m an aggressive guy.”
Ideally, the Senate would be adjourning for a five-week break in less than 24 hours.
Instead, Republican senators are still navigating what Majority Leader John Thune described as a “train wreck” as they face a pileup of legislation, key nominations and public pressure from President Donald Trump and angry conservatives to show progress on a GOP election bill Trump views as his “No. 1 priority.”
They’re heading into Thursday — when the scent of jet fumes typically starts wafting through the halls of Congress — without a deal that would let them speed up votes on a government funding bill or long-stalled Russia sanctions bill.
Meanwhile, Todd Blanche’s attorney general nomination is still stuck in limbo after he came to the Capitol Wednesday for a roughly hourlong meeting with two key Republican holdouts.
That said, the general outlines of a deal that would allow senators to quickly get out of Washington and onto the campaign trail has started taking shape, even as senators and aides acknowledged they might have to stick around at least a little bit longer than they’d hoped.
“Don’t kill the vibe — it’s starting to pick up,” Thune said in an interview, while cautioning that “you’re not going to be smelling those [jet fumes] anytime real soon. … We’ve obviously got, like I said, a stack of stuff to do.”
One key issue Republicans haven’t yet settled is a new party-line spending bill that would pump billions of dollars into the Pentagon, to ailing farmers and into some elections-related spending that could take some of the Trump-fueled pressure off — even as several people with knowledge of the discussions said the votes aren’t there.
Thune hasn’t formally ruled out taking up a budget blueprint for the GOP bill, saying Wednesday it was “hard to say at this point” if he had the votes. But he indicated there was progress behind the scenes toward an exit strategy that would allow Republicans to start their recess with minimal internal friction.
“There’s not clarity, but it’s getting less cloudy if you put it that way,” Thune said.
Three people granted anonymity to discuss internal discussions said that endgame would not involve the time-consuming process of advancing a budget, but instead calling up a vote related to the SAVE America Act, the Trump-backed elections bill.
Republican leaders are hoping that holding a vote on the elections proposal, at the Senate’s usual 60-vote threshold for legislation, will let them hammer Democrats as the holdup while satisfying Republicans who have been frustrated over the lack of progress and have threatened to oppose leaving town.
“We’re looking at options there,” Thune said about possible SAVE America-related votes.
He added that it “remains to be seen” if that would be enough to placate Trump-allied rabble-rousers, “but we’ve had a number of conversations now about how we get the votes people feel are necessary.”
A key MAGA ally, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, posted a social media video Wednesday thanking Thune, saying that the conversation has moved in a “favorable direction” and that Republicans were discussing “what procedural vehicle to use in order to get this thing done.”
Thune has several other obstacles to clear besides the SAVE America fight.
Senators want an agreement that would let them extend government funding into mid-December, pass a sanctions bill targeting Russia in honor of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, confirm dozens of Trump nominees, including Blanche, and start work on a bipartisan college sports bill.
The highest drama surrounds Blanche, who met Wednesday with GOP Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. Neither said afterward how they would vote on his nomination. With Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and every Democrat expected to oppose Blanche, and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) out for health reasons, he will need to win support from at least one of the two.
The legislative targets have issues, too: Republicans are grappling with intraparty wrangling over hemp language included in the stopgap bill, and Democrats are working through concerns in their ranks about the sanctions bill.
They also want to know if Republicans are going to force them to take a vote on cryptocurrency legislation that many Democrats currently oppose. They are eager to avoid taking that vote ahead of the recess as bipartisan talks happen behind the scenes — especially because a failed vote could potentially fuel tens of millions of dollars of campaign spending against Democratic opponents by industry allies.
Democrats are also looking for signals from Republicans about whether they will move forward with the party-line budget plan. But it was clear by Wednesday afternoon that major obstacles remained.
One GOP senator said Wednesday evening that “there won’t be the votes to do reconciliation and that will simplify things” for the rest of the schedule.
At a Senate GOP lunch meeting, Budget Chair Ron Johnson of Wisconsin presented his ideas for the budget blueprint. It would closely mirror a version that the House advanced last month, but it would also instruct a host of new committees to help draft the bill — expanding the range of issues Democrats could force vulnerable GOP incumbents to take tough votes on just months before the midterms.
Besides ongoing intra-GOP disputes about the amount of Pentagon funding to include and whether to offset the spending with cuts elsewhere, Thune is dealing with senators who aren’t convinced that they should force the issue just months before voters cast ballots.
Retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who described himself as a “lean no” on the budget, said his views were being influenced by wanting to protect vulnerable colleagues.
“There’s only like five members of my conference that I care about. and they’re the ones who are running in at-risk states,” he said.
Asked if he would vote “no” to protect them, Tillis added, “I’m going to support my members who are up for election. They’re the most important priority right now.”
President Donald Trump and top White House officials are privately lobbying Republican senators to delay a ban on intoxicating hemp that’s set to kick in this fall.
At the Trump administration’s urging, the government funding patch the Senate is working to pass this week would push off the forthcoming ban of some cannabis products derived from hemp. But several Republican senators are demanding a vote to strip the delay out and let that prohibition kick in come November.
They’re hearing from the White House about it.
Trump called Sen. Ted Budd on Tuesday night, after the North Carolina Republican filed an amendment to ensure the ban kicks in as mandated on Nov. 12, according to a Senate aide granted anonymity to describe the private discussion. On the call, the president discussed creating a federal regulatory framework for hemp but did not ask Budd to withdraw his amendment, the individual added.
“I’ve been asked by lots of people to stand down on this amendment,” Budd told reporters Wednesday.
Budd noted that the Trump administration has had almost nine months to come up with a plan for implementing the ban.
“So why all of a sudden pop up for some seemingly innocent delay?” he asked, accusing the White House of instead preparing to “jam this on some must-pass” funding package at year’s end to further delay the prohibition.
A White House official granted anonymity to discuss the private debate said the Trump administration is seeking “a modest four-week delay” through the Dec. 11 expiration of the funding patch “to allow for productive conversations to continue.” Some synthetic cannabis products would be permanently banned in the meantime, the official added.
The administration lobbying has successfully swayed some Senate Republicans, such as Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who said in an interview that “the White House has committed to me that they’re committed to regulate the industry.”
Republican Sen. Rand Paul of hemp-rich Kentucky said the issue came up “in a big way” during Senate Republicans’ private lunch meeting Wednesday. Paul said he spoke in support of delaying the ban and said those arguing for a delay “aren’t very rational.”
“They’re wanting to hold up the funding for the government over one month,” he said. “It’s kind of insane.”
Grace Yarrow contributed to this report.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche is in the Capitol meeting with holdout GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Bill Cassidy of Louisiania as he tries to lock down their support for his confirmation as permanent leader of the Justice Department.
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