A surfer enters the water near Anglin’s Fishing Pier as the ocean is whipped up by Tropical Storm Nicole on November 09, 2022 in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 2:52 PM – Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to strengthen into a hurricane, bringing rain and strong winds to Florida this week.

On Wednesday morning, Tropical Storm Nicole was focused around 240 miles off the south-eastern coast of the Sunshine State. It is expected to reach hurricane strength in the coming hours.

Numerous counties across the state’s seaboard were placed under hurricane warnings on Tuesday. Central Florida faces an elevated threat for severe storms including isolated tornadoes.

Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) says the brunt of the storm will roll in later Wednesday evening and into Thursday morning.

“The most recent track shows that it will make landfall in Martin County as a category 1 hurricane and will move through the state, exit into the Gulf of Mexico, and then make landfall again somewhere in the big bend region of north Florida,” said DeSantis. “Winds are the main concern with Nicole, but we also expect to see some heavy rains, the potential for flash flooding and 3 to 5 feet of storm surge in some areas. Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucia, Brovard, Indian River and Velucia counties are currently under a hurricane warning.”

Nicole marks the 8th tropical storm to hit Florida this season.

Former President Donald Trump (R) reportedly threw his wife Melania Trump under the bus Wednesday after the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate Republican nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz lost against the incredibly weak Democrat nominee, John Fetterman.

“Trump is indeed furious this morning, particularly about Mehmet Oz,” a quote in a Fox News report said, “and is blaming everyone who advised him to back Oz – including his wife, describing it as not her best decision.”

“There are people pushing Trump to reschedule his announcement next week, and several Rs have texted asking whether he will, but it’s risky and would be acknowledging he’s wounded by yesterday, something that some of his advisers insist is not the case,” the quote continued. “Worth remembering that Trump is a grown man who endorsed Oz over the objection of some of the people closest to him, and instead went beyond just endorsing and attacked Dave McCormick from the stage at a rally.”

Trump has spent the day blaming others for many of his key candidates either losing or struggling to win their races, including blaming the candidates themselves for not embracing conspiracy theories. He even celebrated Republicans losing a key U.S. Senate race.

The bulk of the winners in the races Trump endorsed came from safely Republican districts, with 16 of the candidates actually having run uncontested. Election results also show that 13 Trump-endorsed candidates lost in highly competitive or closely watched races. Of the 219 wins referenced by Trump, only around a dozen of those races were extremely competitive.

Trump has also spent the day trying to downplay the historic night that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) had in his re-election, suggesting that the votes he got in the presidential race were more impressive than the votes DeSantis got in a gubernatorial race even though DeSantis’ margin of victory was roughly 6X larger than Trump’s.

“Now that the Election in Florida is over, and everything went quite well, shouldn’t it be said that in 2020, I got 1.1 Million more votes in Florida than Ron D got this year, 5.7 Million to 4.6 Million?” Trump said on social media. “Just asking?”

It is impossible to compare the turnout for midterm elections to the turnout for presidential elections because the turnout for presidential elections is always higher. What can be compared, though, is the margin of victory.

In 2020, Trump won the state by 3.3 points or 371,686 votes. DeSantis won the state last night by 19.4 points or 1,507,081 votes

DeSantis won 62 of Florida’s 67 counties, including 59 counties by double digits. DeSantis won Miami-Dade County, the largest county in the state and a Democrat stronghold, by 11 points. He won Palm Beach County, the third largest county in the state and another Democrat stronghold, by three points.

Hank Berrien contributed to this report.

Related: Trump Attacks DeSantis: I Got More Votes Than Him, Needs To Be ‘More Gracious’ To Me. I Won His Primary.