Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis criticizes Republican who lost Tampa Senate special election

Romy Ellenbogen, Tampa Bay Times on Mar 31, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — After a well-financed Republican candidate lost the race for a Tampa state Senate seat last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday defended his decision to not get involved in the election.

Democrat Brian Nathan defeated Republican Josie Tomkow in the special election by just over 400 votes, despite a higher number of Republicans voting compared to Democrats.

“That’s just kind of the way the cookie crumbles,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis seemingly blamed Tomkow for the loss, noting that he won the district handily in his race for governor and that former Sen. Jay Collins also secured a solid win in 2022.

“The reality is when I get behind a candidate, I’m telling voters that this is somebody that shares my values and that shares our goals for the state of Florida,” DeSantis said.

“You have a candidate who does not do that, I am not going to be supporting them, and that’s what happened in that race.”

DeSantis said he wasn’t willing to support a candidate who has taken “really bad votes” and played “games.”

Tomkow, a former state representative, was part of House Speaker Daniel Perez’s leadership team.

DeSantis has feuded with Perez and the broader Florida House for more than a year over issues like tax cuts, higher education, immigration and inquiries into Hope Florida, a signature initiative of the first lady.

Though DeSantis noted that the Senate district isn’t necessarily an easy win for Republicans, he said the voter registration and turnout advantage should have delivered the race to the GOP.

DeSantis said that some Republicans must have voted for Nathan. He said he wasn’t sure if that was out of protest or another reason.

“I don’t know that it was a difficult election to win if you had the right formula,” DeSantis said.

Nathan, the union leader who won the state Senate seat, is running for reelection during the general election in November. Tomkow has also said she will run again.