President Donald Trump is giving his “Complete and Total Endorsement” to U.S. Rep. Randy Fine.
Trump called Fine a “MAGA Warrior who is doing a fantastic job representing Florida’s six-county 6th Congressional District” in a social media post Saturday morning that is well-timed for Fine’s purposes.
Challenger Charles Gambaro, currently a Palm Coast City Council member who had a role in the final months of the first Trump administration, recently expressed confidence that Trump would endorse him over the former state lawmaker, but clearly that’s not coming to pass. Will Furry, the Flagler County school board member, is also among the numerous candidates running against Fine.
Fine enjoyed Trump’s endorsement this year when he won the Special Election to succeed former U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, now the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. The Fine endorsement follows closely on the heels of the first round of campaign finance reports, which showed Fine well ahead, and both Gambaro’s and Furry’s lesser hauls to have been swelled by their own loans to themselves.
Fine’s district includes all of Flagler County, Daytona Beach, and extends northward toward St. Augustine and west toward Ocala and Gainesville.
Fine won his last Primary with 83% of the vote, largely on the strength of the Trump brand. He also got nearly 57% of the vote in the General Election in a district that was 46% Republican and 27% Democratic earlier this year. He beat Democrat Josh Weil.
Numerous candidates are challenging him, but with the President’s backing he has an advantage that may be tough to dislodge.
Trump also endorsed another term for Reps. Mike Haridopolos and Greg Steube on Saturday, and for Kat Cammack earlier this week.
Like Fine, none of these incumbents are in seats Democrats likely can win.
In more good news for Fine, he again is being backed by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an endorsement that was questioned in recent days when he wasn’t on their page of preferred candidates. AIPAC is the country’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group.
–FlaglerLive and Florida Politics
Kat says
I am starting to think that if Americans continue to vote for these people who do not have the American people as their priority, then we are going to deserve what we get. Unless you are a rich, white, Christian (in name only) constituent your voice is impotent.
Chris says
I’ll NEVER vote for someone that pumpkin head likes !!!!!!!!
David schaefer says
What a friggin idiot he is useless.
Laurel says
At least you know who the worst, butt kissing candidates are. Don’t you Republicans ever get tired of holding your noses?
How was that last trip to the grocery store? What’s the cost of a sandwich in a restaurant today? In what direction is your health care insurance going? How about homeowner’s insurance, or auto insurance? Cost of living down? Well, you did nail that one trans kid in Somewhereville U.S.A.! Congrats!
NJ says
Randy Fine is an Israeli FIRST and NOT a MAGA person! Charles Gambaro lives in Palm Coast and will TRULY Represent everyone in FL-6. Trump made a “DUMBASS” Mistake endorsing Fine!! Voters of FL-6, wake up and learn the Real UGLY Truth about Fine!
Endless dark money says
I’ve seen enough republican terrorism . I’ll never vote for a fascist or a pedo. Republicans support both
Ray W. says
Over the past decade or so, much has been made of the idea of American energy independence. Some argue, inaccurately, that America actually is energy independent. The accurate term is that America is a net energy exporter, which a completely different thing. According to the EIA, America was a net energy importer from 1958 to 2018, but crossed the threshold back to net energy exporter in 2019.
One of the reasons why America returned to exporting more energy than it imported was the rise of liquefied natural gas (LNG) plants. But one facet of an LNG plant that is unreported is the existence of LNG tankers.
According to Barron’s, a news outlet geared toward business activity, only one U.S.-flagged LNG tanker is in operation today, and it services at least part of, if not all of, the natural gas needs of Puerto Rico. What this means, then, is that the newly opened U.S. LNG plants rely on foreign-flagged tankers to export their product.
China, on the other hand, has some 50 operating LNG tankers, according to the reporter, with another fifty under construction. What this means is that American LNG plant operators are dependent on foreign-flagged tankers to export their product, and China is building a whole lot of tankers.
According to the reporter, former President Biden initiated an effort to bring American-made LNG tanker shipbuilding into service. The Barron’s article comments on the Trump administration’s decision to continue with that effort, perhaps to counter future Chinese LNG tanker dominance.
This issue has gained importance in recent days because earlier this month the Trump administration imposed new restrictions, including port and docking fees, on the use of foreign-built ships that dock at U.S. ports, with an exclusion for foreign-built LNG tankers, an exclusion that will expire in three years.
Make of this what you will.
Me?
I am not yet convinced that American shipbuilders, what with how few that remain, can ramp up specialized shipbuilding production in as little as three years to build enough American-flagged LNG tankers to avoid the fees and costs that will have to be eaten by someone is the export chain. Maybe they can. Maybe not.
I agree with the idea. If China owns the majority of the LNG tankers in the world and if America exports more LNG than any other country in the world, then it seems to me that China could hold American LNG plant owners hostage in any business dispute or tariff war or actual outbreak of hostilities.
If the story is factually accurate, I say thank you, President Biden, for initiating this facet of American independence from foreign-flagged shipping, and I say thank you, President Trump, for following through on Biden’s initiative.
Whether that means that American companies will have to make use of existing Swedish or South Korean shipyards to build these specialized ships may become an issue, because we have very little in the way of an existing workforce skilled in the manufacture of such ships. From what little else I have read on this subject, once a shipyard loses skilled personnel, it takes some 10 years to redevelop the lost workforce needed to make shipbuilding cost-competitive, but we have to start somewhere.
I am reminded of a fabled conversation between Napoleon and one of his generals about Napoleon’s order to plant trees on major French thoroughfares to provide shade for marching soldiers. The planting of the trees happened, but the fabled conversation likely did not. Every summer when I watch the Tour de France, I see elm trees lining the race course out in the French countryside and I am reminded of the fable.
It goes like this.
General: “Our soldiers can’t march that far, that quickly. The sun would dehydrate them.”
Napoleon: “We must line both sides of the roads with trees so our soldiers can march in the shade.”
General: “But Emperor, these trees will take decades to grow!”
Napoleon: “Yes, so we must get started immediately.”