Tuesday’s Florida primaries are shaping up to be the starkest test yet of how widespread the scourge of antisemitism and extreme anti-Israel views are within both parties. 

On the Democratic side, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), one of the remaining pro-Israel stalwarts within his party, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), a pragmatic Jewish lawmaker who is running in a new district after GOP redistricting chopped up her old seat, are both facing serious primary threats from their left flank.

Moskowitz is facing the more direct threat, going up against a Democratic Socialists of America-backed challenger in Oliver Larkin, who is running as a far-left candidate hostile to the U.S.-Israel relationship in a GOP-leaning district with one of the biggest Jewish constituencies in the country. 

Larkin’s decision to run on a platform hostile to the district’s Jewish voters would typically be politically problematic. Deciding to campaign with Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) during the primary’s final stretch is a curious campaign choice, to put it mildly. The blowback was intense enough that several Fort Lauderdale venues declined to host the socialist shindig.

But if there is a surge of left-wing, anti-establishment anger — and latent anti-Israel sentiment from the district’s non-Jewish Democratic voters — it’s worth keeping a close eye on the election results. Even a respectable 40-45% Larkin showing, short of victory, would raise eyebrows about how widespread the far-left ideology has penetrated the party. 

After all, Moskowitz’s newly drawn district backed President Donald Trump, and his mainstream record is what’s allowing Democrats to have a good chance at holding the seat. Picking a DSA candidate like Larkin would all but guarantee Republicans pick up a seat that’s not currently at the top of their list.

Republicans will also be nominating their standard-bearer against Moskowitz, with polls suggesting former Boca Raton Mayor Scott Singer holding the edge against business owner Dan Franzese and former state Rep. George Moraitis.

In Florida’s neighboring 20th District, Wasserman Schultz is contending with a changed constituency after she chose to run in a new district with a larger Black population that’s a notch more progressive than her old one. But because multiple Black candidates are splitting the anti-incumbent vote, Wasserman Schultz looks favored to win renomination, though she may do so with a much smaller vote share than usual. 

Progressive activist Elijah Manley, who is gay and converted to Judaism, is running in the left-wing lane and attended Tlaib’s socialist rally on Friday. He’s the most credible challenger against Wasserman Schultz, and given that he’s only 27, may end up running again even if comes up short (as analysts expect).

On the Republican side, we’re closely watching how much support two fringe candidates running on openly antisemitic platforms end up receiving in primary races for governor and against Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL), one of only four Jewish Republicans in Congress. 

In the governor’s primary, Trump-endorsed Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), vying to become the state’s first Black governor, is heavily favored to win the nomination, and likely by a comfortable margin. But the candidacy of openly racist and antisemitic James Fishback has drawn outsized attention on social media. The results will serve as a barometer of whether there’s any real constituency for Fishback’s type of extreme bigotry with the GOP electorate. 

The primary polling has been inconclusive in breaking down Fishback’s level of support, with one recent poll showing him only winning 4% of the electorate, with another showing him hitting double-digits. Even as he’s headed towards a decisive defeat, his precise vote total will be watched closely by Republicans eyeing the level of beyond-the-pale racism in their own party.

The other openly racist candidate running is Jew-hating conspiracy theorist and podcaster Dan Bilzerian, who’s challenging Fine. About one-third of Bilzerian’s campaign messages are explicitly antisemitic, according to a study from the Combat Antisemitism Movement, and he’s lent his campaign over $1 million to amplify his message. This year, Israel’s Diaspora Ministry ranked Bilzerian the world’s leading antisemitic influencer for 2025. 

Fine is expected to be renominated handily, but as with Fishback, the level of support a neo-Nazi extremist gets in the primary will be an indicator of how widespread this sickness has spread within the Republican Party.