Ed Dean, a senior editor with Sunshine State News and the No.

State Sen. Dwight Bullard, candidate for Senate District 40, had a November surprise of his own -- of the exceedingly pleasant variety.

Former governor Charlie Crist has found a surrogate to go to bat for him in the black community in an eleventh-hour effort to reach black voters in Florida’s 13th congressional district. On Thursday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee announced President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be hitting the airwaves in radio ads on Crist’s behalf.

In the final days of the presidential election, Florida, once again, dominates the national spotlight. Donald Trump needs to carry the Sunshine State to beat Hillary Clinton which is why the campaigns are dispatching the candidates and their top surrogates to Florida as the clock ticks down to election day. Polls show a close contest with, as of Friday morning, Republicans clinging to an early lead in early voting.

After a long, chaotic year, the whirlwind election season of 2016 is finally coming to a close, and presidential candidates are hitting Florida hard before they call it a wrap.

Even though he is not backing Donald Trump’s presidential bid, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., is reeling in the support of some top Republicans while his Democratic opponent insists he’s not representing his district. 

As Republican incumbent Marco Rubio and Democratic challenger Patrick Murphy square off Tuesday for a U.S. Senate seat, independents and minority voters could be two groups to watch.

That was a takeaway from a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday that showed Rubio opening a six-point lead over Murphy, a congressman from Jupiter, in the high-stakes race.

Overall, the poll showed Rubio leading by a margin of 50 percent to 44 percent. But among independents, he was ahead 54 percent to 38 percent.

The No. 1 statewide political radio talk-show host focused on Florida politics, Ed Dean,  a senior editor with Sunshine State News, is expanding his reach starting Monday.

In four days, Floridians will decide the fate of medical marijuana in Florida, and tensions between groups supporting the measure and their opponents are only running higher as the clock ticks down to Election Day.

Charlie Crist vowed to fight for five failing schools in the St. Petersburg area if voters send him to Congress next week, but many in the black community say Crist has shrugged off some of the worst schools in Florida throughout his entire 2016 congressional campaign.