>>This week on NewsNight, the presidential race as new numbers show Republicans with a record voter registration advantage in Florida.

Plus, Florida's Venezuelan community condemns President Maduro's crackdown on dissent.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Steve Mor and welcome to NewsNight where we take a deep dive into the stories and issue that matter to central Florida and how they shap our community.

First tonight Floridians will go to the polls in primary elections on Tuesday with early voting underway.

But as Democrats prepare to hold their convention starting Monday, the presidential race will once again be front and center in the coming days.

According to new figures, Republicans now have a large lead over Democrats in voter registration in Florida, which the GOP says is a sign of the changin political makeup of the state.

But Democrats say it's an indication of successful Republican voter suppression in recent years, and they say they hope the Harris-Walz ticket will improve their chances of becoming competitive again in the Sunshine State.

Well I sat down this wee with political scientist Patrick Rickert from Rollins College.

>>The Democrat have definitely been excited the past couple of weeks and certainly that's helped the in some of the swing states.

But they still have quite a long way to go in Florida.

Some recent polls that have come out since Harris became the nominee have shown former President Trum with about a 5 to 7 point lead.

That's pretty hard to make up.

>>Those are much bigger gaps than we used to see in Florida just a few years ago.

>>Absolutely.

And that gets at why Florida is such a risky state for Democrats to invest in right now.

Not only is it expensive to buy campaign advertisements here, but it's quite a gamble that Florida will be a state that matters in terms of determining who wins the presidential election.

There are a lot of states that are much closer and much easier for Democrats to justify spending money on.

>>How important do you think early voting and mail in voting is going to be in Florida, given the momentum that we've seen certainly at the start of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz' campaign?

Do you think it's going to be necessary for them to try to get people to the polls as early as possible in somewhere like Florida in order to kind of take advantage of any of that momentum that might be left?

>>Absolutely.

Especially with the Democrati National Convention coming up.

Almost always we see a bump for campaigns coming after their convention and some states have early voting that starts as early as next month.

Florida is a bit later, but you're always on a race against the clock with these elections and trying to make sure your enthusiasm sticks by the time that the votes are actually cast.

One thing that is beneficial fo Democrats in Florida are since President Biden stepped down, 18,000 volunteers have signed up to work on the Harris-Walz campaign.

And that is something that is really helpful for establishing Democrats in Florida, because that's not a risk that the National Party is taking.

People who are volunteering are not transferable.

They're not deciding, oh, am I going to volunteer in Florida or Pennsylvania?

They're only going to volunteer here.

And so if Democrats want to boost their chances, it's going to be through those volunteers and organizing at the local level.

That doesn't require the national party to take those risks.

>>Patrick Rickert from Rollins College there.

Well, let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

Joining us in the studio this week, Erik Sandoval, investigative reporter at WKMG News 6.

Thanks for coming in, Erik.

>>Good to be here >>Good to see you again.

Randi Hildret for the first time from FOX 35.

Nice to see you, Randi.

>>Nice to be here.

>>And Matthew Peddie, favorit of the show from WUSF in Tampa.

Good to see you as well, Matt.

Thanks for coming in.

Erik let me start with you if I can, and the news of the week on that growing voter registration gap.

I mean, how big a hole does it put the Democrats in?

>>This is really interesting.

I mean, you guys have to remember a few years ago it was the battle of I-4 for any presidential race They were all here campaigning.

But, you know registration has shifted.

I just checked the numbers yesterday.

Republicans are a millio registrants ahead of Democrats.

But what I found interesting is the no party affiliation has pretty much stayed the same over the last five years.

>>The Democrats held an advantage in Florida for so many years.

>>We have really see the political landscape change very quickly here in Florida 2020, when we look at registered voters, Democrats did hav a slight edge over Republicans.

But then fast forward, we talk about the very latest numbers and people are looking at what has caused these shifts.

I want to break down just a couple reasons.

I think people would point t demographic demographic shifts.

So when governor DeSantis got into office, people really resonated with some of the policies, the laws and the prom-- >>During the COVID era.

>>Yes, during the COVID er especially really resonated with wanting him, wanting to keep the state open and operational, keeping schools open.

And so I think you did have a wave of people who moved to Florid specifically to live in Florida and and live in a state under Governor DeSantis.

I think on the flip side, since COVID and what we've seen after that, you have had people who don't really lik some of the policies, procedures and promises that have come from his administration.

And so progressives for example, we have likely seen a shift of people leave the state.

So potentially Republican moving to Florida and Democrats leaving Florida.

I think if you talk to Democrats specifically, they may point to some of the laws that have been passed recently, specifically about how parties or organizations work to register voters.

And so they may argue that it stunted the work that they can do in thos organizations, typically target college students, minorities who would skew Democrat.

I think if you ask Republicans, it goes back to they are just believing that people are buying what they are selling.

>>I mean, is that what you're hearing as well?

I mean, is it generally what Democrats would call, as I said before, voter suppression?

>>Yeah.

I mean, you hear tha at the start of the show, right?

That's what they're claiming.

Nikki Fried, the chair of the Democratic Party of Florida, called it a systematic and coordinated effort of Republican vote suppression tactics.

And she sai millions of Democratic voters had been eliminate from the rolls in the past year.

Just a note on that, though.

I mean, according to the Florid Division of Elections last year, 268,521 active voter removed for a variety of reasons and 16,827 inactive voters removed.

So a big difference in those numbers there.

But the Democrats are saying, well, you know, we are hoping to overcome that, that difference by this sort of surge in, I guess, enthusiasm since Kamala Harris launched her presidential campaign not too long ago and sort of hope to turn that around.

>>Well, talking about that boost in popularit that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have seen since tha ticket came together nationally.

Do we know beyond tha how the presidential candidates currently stack up here?

>>Oh, yeah.

There's there's polls all over the all over the plac measuring this one on July 30th.

I have it here on a piece of paper from the University of North Florida's Public Opinion Research Lab.

It shows Trump ahead by seven points, 49 to 42.

But then you factor in the margin of error there, it gets a little bit closer.

You know, most of these polls have pretty much the same results.

But, you know, when you hyper focus on specific areas of Florida, let's see The Villages, The Villages leans, you know, traditionally Republican.

So you're going to have Trump head by a large margin in The Villages.

But then you go south to Miami.

You know, it's going to b Harris and Walz way ahead there.

But here's the secret, though you can poll all you want.

And Republicans traditionally are really good at galvanizing their bas and getting them to the polls.

Democrats really struggle with that.

>>The Democrats VP pick, Randi, Tim Walz, has been very critica of the DeSantis administration in the past, particularly again, on that issue of COVID.

What's he said and how is th governor here responded to Walz?

>>We have seen back and forth during the pandemic and Walz really being conservative in making sure that schools were shut down.

Very opposite of what we saw here and what was advocated for by Governor DeSantis.

If we look at under Governo Walz administration, what we see what we've seen is lawmakers do codify abortion protections, protect gender affirming care, allowed undocumented citizens to get licenses.

And we know that Walz is a former teacher, so he has had a lot to say about the bac and forth here about whether AP African-American studies could be taught in schools and book bans.

And as soon as Walz was announced as the vice presidential pick for the Democratic ticket, we saw DeSantis go to X and sa this as an extreme left ticket.

And I don't think the ti for tat will end anytime soon.

>>I mean, Kamala Harris the top of the ticket, has also been highly critical of Florida.

And we've seen her this year in the state making points that directly attacked Governor DeSantis' position, particularly on things like abortion.

>>Yeah, when she was in Jacksonville in May, this was just as Florida's new restrictions on abortion, the the ban beyond six weeks, with some exceptions, rolled into effect.

And really.

Harris and the Democrat trying to tie Trump to Florida's restrictions on abortion.

I mean, you saw Vic President Harris referring to it as the Trump abortion ban when she came here.

And also, Randi brought up the teaching of African American history.

That was something that Vice President Harris has been outspoken on, too.

Last year, she was also i Jacksonville about a year ago.

Speaking about that, a big crowd at that particular event, which I guess kind of foreshadow a little bit of the enthusiasm we might have seen sort of latent and that's kind of come to the fore sinc she's announced her candidacy.

But these are issues where Democrats are really hoping to get some traction with voters here in Florida, particularly those, you know, no party affiliation voters and people who may, as you said, be kind of thinking that some of the policie that the DeSantis administration has rolled out have not been so popular.

>>An you guys just did a discussion of the community on abortion and we'll put a link up to that on our website.

Just want to mention really quickly, the unions and hospitality, if I can.

Unite Here, represent thousands of hospitality workers across Florida They've endorsed Kamala Harris.

Do they say what their reasoning is?

>>She's very pro-union.

You know, one example is she's ensured an extraordinarily pro-union National Labor Relations Board and a general counsel.

They credit her with saving the livelihoods of thousands of workers across the United States.

>>What about taxing on tips that seems to have become an election issue now?

Both candidates weighing in on this.

Where do they stand?

>>Both appear to have found some common ground.

We don't see that very often between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

But this, at least at base level, seems to be something that they both agree upon.

Former President Trump has been campaigning on this issue since June.

We just saw Harris come out with this recently at a campaign stop in Nevada.

And we know that they mirror central Florida in having a booming hospitality industry.

Well received-- >>Service sector.

Yes.

>>Certainly well-received there.

And so when we think about how that would translat to central Florida voters, 200, roughly 270,000 hospitality workers in central Florida.

So it could be somethin that really resonates with folks here.

>>It's going to be a busy time for all of us for sure, between now and November.

Meanwhile, WUCF is committed to helping our community navigate the 2024 election by providing important information on how to vote and the races and questions on the ballot in our region.

So we've partnered with public media outlets around the state, including Matt's outlet WUSF to put together the 2024 Florida Voter Guide.

It features detailed information on every state and federal race, including the candidates and their positions on key issues.

Be sure to check it out at wucf.org/Vote.

Okay.

Next tonight, the investigation into an act of gun violence that has shocked the Lake County community of Eustis.

Julie Sulpizio is accused of ambushing three deputies, killing one and injuring two.

Police say she sent officers to her home under the guise of conducting a well-being check, but instead they were met by a hail of gunfire from members of her family.

Sulpizio faces multiple charges including first degree murder.

We'll discuss the details in a moment.

But first, let's watch a piece Erik filed in the hours after the shooting earlier this month.

>>What I'd like to refer to them as I can't, but we'll call them a family.

>>Lake County Sheriff Payto Grinnell mincing no words today as he addressed an arrest after three of his deputies were ambushed inside this mobile home near Eustis over the weekend.

Spokesman John Harrell told News six that investigators first encountered 48 year old Julie Jefferson Sulpizio around 8:00 Friday night.

>>This lady then sent them to this house under the guise of conducting a well-being check.

She said something to the effec that you need to go down to this hous and check on the people there.

So the deputie went down to this house and it appeared that the house had been burglarized.

In fact, they thought they had possibly a burglary in progress as they were posting up on that house.

They could hear commotion inside.

They tried to order the people out.

No one came out.

So at that point they made entry into the home, at which time they were immediatel met with heavy, heavy gunfire.

>>Harrell says the people shooting were the woman's husband, 49 year old Michael Sulpizio and his daughters, 23 year old Cheyenne and 22 year old Savannah.

He says all three appeared t have shot themselves and died.

>>A search of the hous showed gas masks, body armor, ghillie suits medical bags, bug out bags, MREs and bottled water just stockpiled up.

>>Tonight investigators are still trying to find out more about this family and what their motive for the shooting may have been.

News 6 tracked down family members today conducting our own investigation.

And we found out the last know interaction the Sulpizio family had with deputies was May of last year.

Court records show deputies tried repeatedly to serve them with a foreclosure summons, but neither Julie or Michael was there to be served.

That foreclosure was later dropped when they made arrangements to pay.

All right, Erik, we'll start with you on this one.

You and the team at News 6 have been finding ou much more about Julie Sulpizio since you put together that report.

What have you been hearing?

>>Yeah, well, as you saw in our piece, we've been knocking on doors, trying to talk to the people who were directly and indirectly involved in this and that day that we file that story.

I actually talke with Julie Sulpizio's mother she came to the door didn't have a camera with us.

We just wanted to talk with her.

And she said she spoke to her daughter in jail.

She was still trying to piece together exactly why this happened.

You know, she admitted she hasn't spoken to her daughter in a while.

She said she didn't know that they lean towards anti-government views, but she was really, really just torn up because she lost two granddaughters and that both of them taking their own lives.

Fox 35, has obviously bee covering this closely as well.

What do we know about the charges and the potential sentencing?

>>So we know that she faces 12 charges, seven counts of premeditated murder, four counts of battery, one count of first degree murde of a law enforcement officer.

I want to focus on that one because that one is the heaviest.

Obviously, we know the state attorney says that this is a case that they could seek the death penalty.

So in terms of timeline, since her arrest 21 days before they conven or have to convene a grand jury, and then from that 45 day to determine that they will seek the death penalty.

>>So the deat penalty could be on the table.

Matt, which is interesting to note, because Florida last year resumed executions right after a hiatus.

The legislature also made significant changes to the state's law on capital punishment.

Remind us what those changes were and what it means for sentencing in cases of capital cases, potentially like this one.

>>Yeah, I mean, there were some changes made last year, and it's important to not that this isn't the first time there has been some tinkering with the death penalty in Florida.

But what happened was back in 2023, Governor DeSanti signed a law that meant juries no longer have to be unanimou to recommend the death penalty.

So that means the death penalty can be decided by a eight-four majority in the jury.

And that was prompted by the Parkland school shooting in 2018 where the shooter got a life sentence because the jury was not unanimous in recommending the deat penalty.

There's also some expansio of what cases are eligible for the death penalty these capital cases.

So, for example, it was expanded to include people convicted of sexual batter on children under the age of 12.

And just from what I was sayin before me back in 2016, the US Supreme Court struck down part of Florida's capital punishment system saying it was unconstitutional for a judge to have the final say i handing down the death sentence.

And then later that same year, the Florida Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional for there to be a death penalt decided by a majority decision.

In that case it was 10 to 2 in the jury.

So they had actually ordered resentencing fo about 150 inmates on death row, and that was upended by the latest law change.

So a lot of sort of back and forth here, which is complicated for people who are already on death row.

>>And we've definitely seen a lot of pushback in the courts, as you mentioned.

Meanwhile, the trial in another high profile shooting case is underway in Ocala.

The manslaughter trial of Susan Lorenz who is white, began on Tuesday.

She's charged in the shootin last year of her neighbor, A.J.

Owens, who is black through a locked door.

And Randy, I wanted to start with you on this one, because obviously at Fox 35, you guys have been covering this closely.

Remind us of the detail and the background to that case and why it triggered so many protests at the time, including from civil rights activists.

>>Yeah, so this happened a little over a year ago, June 2023.

And so to walk back to that day, a neighbors, the family says that Owens' children were playing in an open field near Lawrence's home.

And at one point, Lawrence allegedly threw skates at Owens' children used racial slurs.

And the children went back and told their mom.

And at one point, the mom went to go confront Lawrence about what had happened and knocked on her door to try and confront her about what happened.

During that confrontation, Lawrence shot through that locked front door, ultimately killing Owens.

And in that moment, she claimed that it was self-defense, that she feared for her life.

Well, there has been a lot of heartburn in the community, not just about what actually happened, but then in what happened after that shooting subsequently.

And so there were some concern about the time between when the shooting happene and when Lawrence was arrested.

It was several days after the shooting before she was arrested.

An investigator said they needed more time to look into the case because she said it was self-defense.

Next, people were upset about the charge itself.

Lawrence is charged with manslaughter.

She could get 30 years in prison if she is found guilty.

But a lot of people really wanted her to be charged with murder and they felt that the prosecutor said that there wasn't enough evidence to show that there was ill will or hatred to get that murder charge.

But people felt considering the the back story, the friction between those neighbors, that she should have been charged with murder.

>>Well, let's just talk about that self-defense issue.

And this brings up the issue of Stand your Ground, both in this state and other states.

We know that Stand Your Ground has been a controversial law in Florida, particularly since the killing of Trayvon Martin in Sanford all those years ago.

This does kind of reignite the debate over Stand Your Ground that has been consistently used in shooting cases.

>>That's right.

I mean, Stand Your Groun has been in effect since 2005.

So it has been a war o the Florida books for some time.

2012, of course, was the shooting of Trayvon Martin, a teenager by George Zimmerman.

And there have been several attempts to roll back Stand your ground now.

South Florida State Senator Sharon Jones had the latest attempt.

He wanted to effectively replace the Stand Your Ground with a duty to retreat from a deadly confrontation if it could be done so safely.

That was some legislation that he was hoping to get through that wouldn't have stopped people from using deadly force if they believe they had to.

And any case that didn't go anywhere, I should note, too, that although Stand Your Ground is kind of associated with that the shooting of Trayvon Martin, it wasn't actually used as a defense in that case, but it just sort of helps sort of highlight that law and its use-- >>There was a big hearing during that trial, and I think that's when everybody's eyes sort of locked in on Stand Your Ground.

>>The popularity of Stand Your Ground laws has increased exponentially in states around the country.

I just want to finish off, Erik, by talking about the jury and the composition of that jury in the case in Ocala.

What do we know about that and what's the controversy?

>>Sort of dovetailing off what we were talking about earlier with with the heartburn of the community afterwards and outside the community.

We have a jury now seated who is all white in Ocala.

And I think a lot of people are looking at that just with a raised eyebrow, saying, you know, what's going on there?

Three were gun owners.

Three had ties to law enforcement.

They're middle age, have kids of their own.

But, you know, I think the testimony i what's going to be most poignant in this.

And so far, we've heard testimony from neighbors and even Owens' children in this.

So the trial continues.

We'll wait and see what the jury decides.

>>And certainly all our outlets, I'm sure, will be following it closely.

But that's all the time we've got for now.

My thanks to Erik Sandoval, WKMG News 6.

Thanks for being here, Erik.

Randi Hildreth from FOX 35 and Matthew Peddie from WUSF.

Thank you guys, so much for coming in.

Really appreciate it today.

In the meantime, we'll be right back.

All right.

Finally tonight, Venezuela's disputed election and the response from Florida' large Venezuelan community.

Venezuelans last mont appeared to handily reject President Nicolas Maduro at the polls in favor of oppositio leader Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

But the government controlled electoral authority declared Maduro the winner with 52% of the vote, triggering street protests and the police crackdown.

Madur was previously sworn in in 2019 following another election that scores of countries declared as illegitimate.

Well, my colleague Krystel Knowles has been following what the US calls Venezuela's slide towards dictatorship, and she joins me in the studio now.

Good to see you today, Krystel.

You spoke with someone who fled Venezuela a few years ago.

How do they view the situation there now?

>>Yeah, Roberto Pere and his family fled to Florida and they were granted temporary protected status.

They said after this election, they're expecting to see another wave of peopl trying to leave the country.

However, it' getting increasingly difficult for people to leave right now.

>>What I have heard from people not only from my family, but from friends very close friends.

And what is sai is that if they won and stayed in power these people hate dictatorship.

The migratory wave was going to be equal to or greate than what has already happened.

That is, the United States, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Europe, wherever the conditions are not livable.

And Venezuela right now you can't live you can't live on four or five or $10 a month.

>>Roberto Perez there.

Well, the U.S. State Department says it will work with international partners to try to help restore democracy in Venezuela.

You spoke with a community organization of central Florida's Venezuelan community.

Are they optimistic tha the State Department and others can foment that kind of change?

Do they have hope?

>>Yeah.

So I spoke to Casa de Venezuela founder William Diaz, and he says we might see an influx of immigrants coming to the United States after the election.

But he's hopin with more international support, the transfer of powe might actually occur this time.

>>The administratio have been telling Maduro what he might expect.

I mean, he, you know, recognized that he los and he got to leave the country.

But if we maintain the fight and if the international community assume their role, I guarantee you that a lot of people we want return to Venezuela.

>>William Diaz, there.

Well, what about the broader issue of corruption that has sort of led to these disputed elections?

There are efforts, aren't there, by a Florida based organization to return what people say are stolen assets, that the regime there has taken away, they say, from from people who live there.

We've seen these claims as well.

And in Cuba, where people have tried to to recover their assets.

You talk to a Florida based group that says it wants to help in that recovery effort.

What did you learn?

Yes, I got the chance to speak to Maria Alejandro Marquez.

She is the founder.

Now, she says there's a lot of corrupt Venezuelan politicians or former politicians living right here in the U.S. that have stolen billions of dollars.

And they're hoping to recover that now.

Their plan is to creat legislation aimed at recovering those assets and giving back to the Venezuelan people.

>>All we have currently a Bill introduced in the Senate which is called the PANA Act.

In the previous Congress, we managed to get the bills introduced in both chambers.

We're looking towards introducing the second one in the House and see if we can get i approved before the yesr's end.

>>Well, let's see if that happens.

Krystel Knowles thank you so much for your reporting.

Really appreciate it today.

You can find much more of Krystel's reporting on this issue, including content in Spanish on our website.

Visit us online at wucf.org/newsnigh along the bottom of your screen.

That is all the time we have fo this week.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

In the meantime, from all of us here at NewsNight, take care and have a great week.