Jennifer Jenkins Challenges MAGA Rep. Randy Fine in Florida

Summary

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The MeidasTouch Podcast

Episode: Jennifer Jenkins Challenges MAGA Rep. Randy Fine in Florida

Date: February 18, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, the Meiselas brothers interview Jennifer Jenkins, a former Brevard County School Board member and founder of Educated We Stand, who has announced her candidacy for Congress in Florida’s 6th district. Jenkins discusses her history of confronting extremism, particularly her personal battles with incumbent MAGA Republican Rep. Randy Fine, and outlines her vision for restoring decency and effective representation to the district. The conversation delves into Fine's incendiary rhetoric, harassment tactics, and internal GOP conflicts, while highlighting Jenkins’s commitment to public service and grassroots organizing.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Extremism of Randy Fine (02:04 – 07:31)

• The hosts describe a political atmosphere in Florida marked by a shift away from MAGA and growing discontent with extremist politicians like Randy Fine.
• Fine’s public statements were called out as bigoted and inflammatory, including his recent social media post:
  • Quote from Randy Fine: “If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one.” (Approx. 02:40)
  • This drew widespread condemnation, including calls for resignation from Gov. Newsom and Rep. Ro Khanna.
• Fine’s pattern of behavior is further highlighted:
  • He has posted fake lyrics to attack Bad Bunny, pushed anti-immigrant rhetoric, and supported punitive measures against perceived political enemies.
  • The host characterizes Fine as someone who “wakes up in the morning, goes on social media and starts posting heinous, racist post after heinous, racist post.” (03:00)

2. Jennifer Jenkins's Candidacy and History with Fine (07:31 – 12:02)

• Jenkins details her adversarial relationship with Randy Fine, tracing it back to her 2020 school board campaign, in which she unseated a Republican incumbent (who then founded Moms for Liberty).
• Fine previously supported Jenkins for being pro-masking during COVID but turned on her when she publicized his support as his stance shifted for political gain.
• Jenkins recounts the harassment she endured from Fine:
  • False DCF claims of child abuse.
  • Private investigators hired to follow her.
  • Protesters sent to her home.
  • Defamatory websites and social media posts accusing her of infidelity.
  • Verbal attacks and threats relayed to other officials, including derogatory remarks and funding threats to local causes.
  • Quote from Jennifer Jenkins: “Randy Fine is a piece of shit... These quotes that you’ve read and these interviews that you show, these aren’t isolated incidents. It’s a pattern of his behavior. And patterns don’t correct themselves. They just continue to escalate.” (07:31)
• Despite these attacks, Jenkins emphasizes the importance of accountability and her determination to bring normalcy and decency back to public office.

3. Community Reaction & Jenkins’s Perspective (12:02 – 14:32)

• Jenkins notes a bipartisan backlash against Fine, stating that the district’s residents are “sick and tired of fabricated outrage... They want a representative who’s going to show up in their district, do the work, and [treat] people with dignity.” (13:00)
• She frames the race as “not between left and right,” but “about decency versus extremism.”
• Jenkins underscores her relatability:
  • She and her husband are both educators in Florida, struggling with low pay and rising costs.
  • Quote: “I know what it feels like to stretch my paycheck. I know what it feels like to see the rising cost of groceries and utilities and homeowners insurance eating away at my monthly budget.” (14:32)
• Jenkins contrasts her lived experience with Fine’s privileged circumstances:
  • “Randy Fine lives in a multimillion dollar home on the ocean. He has absolutely no idea what it feels like to live this every single day.” (14:47)

4. Campaign Strategy and Intraparty GOP Conflict (15:30 – 17:18)

• Jenkins encourages listeners to visit her campaign site and support her grassroots campaign.
• Reveals Fine is actively trying to prevent a GOP-led redistricting plan favored by Trump—demonstrating his fraught relationship even with MAGA loyalists:
  • “He is currently calling Tallahassee every single day, trying to stop them from redistricting the congressional map because he knows it’s going to impact him negatively and he’s really, really scared he’s going to lose this race.” (15:54)
• Notes Fine’s lack of support within the party:
  • “Desantis has said he repels people. He called him a squish... He’s not a loyalist in their eyes. He’s far right extreme. But he does it to benefit himself, not the party overall.” (16:48)

5. Final Appeal and Closing (17:18 – 17:23)

• Jenkins thanks the hosts and listeners, reiterating the need for “all hands on deck” and restating her belief in grassroots power to defeat Fine.

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Notable Quotes

• Jennifer Jenkins on Fine’s Pattern of Abuse:
  “He emboldened people to make false DCF claims against me, to have private investigators follow me around and make a website saying I was having an affair. And now that he's on this national level, he has been given permission through silence to spew hate and radicalism. And I refuse to give permission for hate to be normalized from a seat in Congress.” (07:45)

• On Bipartisan Dissatisfaction:
  “I’ve had conversations with many people on the right in this district already who are ecstatic that I’m jumping into this race because it’s about decency versus extremism.” (13:06)

• On Personal Motivation:
  “I felt like it was my duty to ensure not only for Congressional District 6 to have proper representation, but for the state of Florida to no longer be embarrassed by this man.” (10:35)

• On the Cost of Living and Representation:
  “I know what it feels like to stretch my paycheck... Congressional District 6 deserves a leader who works for the people in that district, not for the donors that are funding their campaigns.” (14:32)

• On Fine’s Place in the GOP:
  “He knows that the legislature and the governor are going to be working against him because they don’t support him. He’s not a loyalist in their eyes. He’s far right extreme. But he does it to benefit himself, not the party overall.” (16:48)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• 02:04 – 07:31: Background on Randy Fine’s extremism and public controversies
• 07:31 – 12:02: Jenkins details her history with Fine, harassment campaigns, and the toxic environment in local and state politics
• 12:02 – 14:32: Community reaction to Fine’s rhetoric; Jenkins’s relatable background and call for decency
• 15:30 – 16:48: Jenkins discusses Fine’s opposition to Trump’s redistricting plans and his lack of GOP support
• 17:18 – 17:23: Closing remarks and campaign appeal

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Key Takeaways

• Randy Fine exemplifies the kind of MAGA extremism increasingly rejected in his district, with Jenkins presenting both a personal and political alternative grounded in decency, accountability, and everyday experience.
• Jenkins has survived and pushed back against Fine’s extensive harassment, leveraging her own experiences and grassroots record to mobilize support.
• There is evident bipartisan frustration with Fine’s tactics, creating a unique opportunity for Jenkins’s campaign, especially as intra-party divides threaten his incumbency.
• Jenkins’s message resonates with voters frustrated by both national dysfunction and the local impact of rising costs, underfunded schools, and performative politics.
• The episode positions this congressional race as a microcosm of the broader fight against extremism and for practical, compassionate representation in American democracy.

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Transcript

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[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

We've been following what's going on in Florida as there's a massive trend there of people turning away from Donald Trump and maga, feeling ultimate betrayal and seeing these MAGA extremist politicians not representing their interests, downright, attacking them, acting weird, racist, heinous, bizarre. This is completely embodied in Florida's 6th congressional district, where you have a MAGA Republican Congressmember there who won the special election after Mike Walz went into the Trump regime. MAGA Republican Congressman right now has only been there for a short period of time, but people in Florida do know him, but they definitely don't like what they're seeing right now as they get to know him even more. His name is MAGA Republican Congressman Congressmember Randy Fine in the past 24 hours in Florida. It should be noted as Florida right now is about a negative net seven, negative net eight, Trump. I don't think this MAGA Republican guy, Randy Fine is helping much. He posted. If they force us to choose, the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one. He says the choice between dogs and Muslims is not a difficult one. This is, by the way, who Randy Fine is. I mean, this is a despicable, heinous human being who wakes up in the morning, goes on social media and starts posting heinous, racist post after heinous, racist post. Governor Newsom called on him to resign after he made this comment about Muslims. Atrocious words. Randy resigned. Now Congressmember Ro Khanna posted. We must call this what it is, disgusting bigotry. And basically everybody condemned him. But he doubled down and he said, this is just what I saw. Say this is who I am. And it is who he is. Because if you look at other posts that he made, you know, following the murders of Renee, Nicole Good and Alex Pretty, Randy Fine posted things like this. An armed seditionist attacked federal law enforcement today as they were rounding up foreign invaders in Minneapolis. The insurrectionist was put down. Well done. I stand with ICE as they fight against these foreign invaders and their treasonous allies. We will not stop until every illegal is deported or post like this. Today would be a great day to round up and deport illegals, especially those who liked Bad Bunnies filth, all of them, no exceptions. He went on to then repost made up lyrics that actually were not the lyrics that Bad Bunny sang, but were posted by kind of just right wing propagandists. So he posts fake lyrics and then he goes, you can't say the F word on live tv. Bad Bunny's disgusting halftime show was illegal. He said. These lyrics and all of the other disgusting and pornographic filth in English on live tv. The broadcast would have been pulled down and the fines would have been enormous if it wasn't English. Puerto Ricans are Americans and we all live by the same rules. We are sending Brendan Carr, fcc, a letter calling for dramatic action including fines and broadcast license reviews against the NFL. NBC and Bad Bunny. Lock them up. Nothing says doing your due diligence like posting fake lyrics and then running to your daddy Donald Trump's FCC and saying, please, can you stop Bad Bunny? Can you please stop Bad Bunny? I mean, I could show you. This guy does hundreds of posts like this when he makes TV appearances. I'll just give you the kind of gangsterism masquerading as I don't even know what the hell that spews from his mouth. Here's what this is, a typical interview with Randy Fine. Here, play this clip. These ICE agents, the left believes they can do anything they want, and we're just supposed to sit down and take it? It's time for Americans to say, enough. And if you get in the way of the government repelling a foreign invasion, you're going to end up just like that lady did yesterday.

[T-Mobile Advertiser]

All right.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Florida Congressman Randy Fine. Great to see you this morning. I wish it was under better circumstances.

[Jennifer Jenkins]

Me, too.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

He's also been harassing Renee Nicole Good's family since she was murdered. I want to bring in somebody right now who's running against Randy Fine. Her name is Jennifer Jenkins. She served on the Brevard County School Board, beating a Moms of Liberty candidate in a district Donald Trump won by double digits. But Jennifer didn't stop there. She went on to found Educated We Stan, which is a national organization dedicated to protecting families across the country from political extremism in public education. In other words, she took her fight against an extremist candidate and the extremist group Moms for Liberty. Her win. And built the template that we now see in Florida and across the country of normalcy reclaiming school boards from extremism and people like Randy Fine who are manifested in this Moms for Liberty group. So you know how to fight extremism, Jennifer. And you were running for Congress in Florida's 6th congressional district. You announced about a week ago, moving over to this congressional race. So talk to us about Randy. Who.

[Jennifer Jenkins]

How much time do we have? Randy Fine is a piece of shit. I have a very long history, unfortunately, with this man. And that's exactly why I'm running. Because these. These quotes that you've read and these interviews that you show, these aren't isolated incidents. It's a pattern of his behavior. And patterns don't correct themselves. They just continue to escal. Randy Fine sent protesters to my home. He emboldened people to make false DCF claims against me, to have private investigators follow me around and make a website saying I was having an affair. And now that he's on this national level, he has had been given permission through silence to spew hate and radicalism. And I refuse to give permission for hate to be normalized from a seat in Congress.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, I'm going to have to rewind there for a moment. Because people need to know this history that exists in Florida between what Randy Fine was doing to you as you were fighting this battle against Moms for Liberty. So, as I alluded to in my intro, Randy Fine was in the state House there in Florida for a short period of time. He served in the state Senate and the types of things we're seeing at the national level. His behavior in Florida was abhorred. This is who he is. Talk to us, though, about those incidents where he was harassing you, making up that you were having affairs, sending private investigators. How did that all develop?

[Jennifer Jenkins]

So when I ran for this seat in 2020, Donald Trump won my district by 17 points, and I ended up unseating the Republican incumbent by almost 10. And that person went on to become the original founder of Moms for Liberty. And Randy Fine and his wife both told me that supported my campaign because I was pro masking and Covid mitigation. And when I made that public, when he suddenly became so anti Covid and mitigation strategies, he took it out on me very, very personally. You know, every single day, there were thousands of posts about sending me to prison, calling me a whore, calling me a Jezebel. He literally sent protesters to protest inside of or in front of my small beachside home. They made claims that I was abusing my daughter, where I had to take an investigator to date to look underneath her clothes to see if I was burning her body. He encouraged hundreds of protesters to come to the school board meetings continuously. I had received numerous death threats that quoted his social media platforms as a reason as to why they were contacting me. And then, most famously, that made national news. He was offended he wasn't invited to a Special Olympics fundraiser, called me a whore to multiple elected officials, and threatened to take away funding from the Special Olympics and a water mitigation project from one of our local communities. He's radically out of control. He always has been. Unfortunately, he's just never been held accountable. The state of Florida has found probable cause for multiple ethics violations against him, and he's never, ever been held accountable. He was ordered to anger management from a local judge here in Brevard County. He refused to show up again, has never been held accountable. And so I felt like it was my duty to. To ensure not only for Congressional District 6 to have proper representation, but for the state of Florida to no longer be embarrassed by this man and for people across the nation to have somebody who's bold and strong enough to stand up against him and finally hold him accountable at the Ballot box.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

And this. That aspect, his harassment of you in the ways you described began again because you supported people wearing masks during COVID and social distancing and things like that. And he said to you, I support you for doing that. Thank you. You said that. You said, well, he was someone who supported what I did. And that's what started. I mean, he's always been this way to other people, but his attack on you was rooted in that. That's where. That's where his personalized. Everything that he's doing to you starts with you describing what he had said to you.

[Jennifer Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah. And you know that. That is who he is. He is a walking hypocrisy at all times. He changes his views and beliefs based on how he's going benefit and climb the political ladder. And, you know, I'm an educator married to a teacher in Florida. To me, that was just astonishing to watch happening before my eyes. And so I called him out for it, and I'm going to continue to call him out for all of his hypocrisies.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Yeah, I think the background that you gave is so helpful because we understand more about the pathology. I mean, we also saw him. There was that video of him kind of walking around doing the proxy voting when he was in Florida. And he just. Everything the guy does, he looks like he's breaking the. Like he looks very suspicious. And everything he's doing, in my opinion, you know, that's just. That's the way he looks. So. So going though, to, you know, to this race now for Florida's 6 congressional district. I mean, just think about the statements he made recently. How are people in the district reacting to him, you know, saying that Bad Bunny, you know, needs whatever. The stuff he said about Bad Bunny using fake lyrics to attack Bad Bunny and going after Alex Pretty and Renee Nicole Goode, I mean, you know, calling Muslims, saying that if it's. We have to choose between dogs and Muslims, I mean, these are just objectively heinous things.

[Jennifer Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah. Listen, the people of Congressional District 6, and quite frankly, the state of Florida are sick and tired of fabricated outrage. They're sick and tired of people who have no respect for other people. I mean, they want a representative who's going to show up in their district, who's going to do the work, and who is continuously treating people with dignity. I mean, when you look at Randy Fine, you know, this is a battle not between left and right. I've had conversations with many people on the right in this district already who are ecstatic that I'm jumping into this race because it's about decency versus extremism. And I'm running because I feel like Congress has forgotten who they work for, and most especially Randy Fine has forgotten who he works for and who it's supposed to protect. I truly believe that public service should make people feel safer in their communities, not smaller. And they should be using their platforms to deliver to the people, not to continuously demean them. And the people of Congressional District 6 are absolutely sick and tired of his.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Nonsense, you know, and the people of the six. His nonsense also manifests and I think attacks on people of the six, whether it's ripping away their health care, higher energy prices, you know, higher prices in general, and then the gaslighting, you know, where he goes, you know, you should just be grateful and happy that I'm there for you. Just shut up. And he's an abusive person to the. He's an abusive person to people in his life, in my opinion. And he's abusive to the district.

[Jennifer Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, Congressional District 6 deserves a representative who truly understands what's happening right now in Florida. I, again, I'm an educator. I'm married to a middle school teacher in the lowest paid state in the country. I don't know the last time I put a dollar in my savings account. I've had two jobs since I graduated from college. I even did instacart to deliver groceries to my neighbors to make ends meet. I know what it feels like to stretch my paycheck. I know what it feels like to see the rising cost of groceries and utilities and homeowners insurance eating away at my monthly budget. And Congressional District 6 deserves a leader who works for the people in that district, not for the donors that are funding their campaigns. And, you know, Randy Fine lives in a multimillion dollar home on the ocean. He has absolutely no idea what it feels like to live this every single day. And so when he looks people in the eye and tells them everything is okay, we all know that it's just absolutely not true.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

You know, as my brother found out, I was doing this interview right now, and he goes wild to have the most horrific person as your opponent in a congressional race. And so I think that's how a lot of people feel about Randy Fine. So before we though, where can people learn more about your campaign? And what's your final message to our 6 million subscribers out there?

[Jennifer Jenkins]

Yeah. Oh, please. I mean, if you are disgusted by what you're seeing in Washington every day, Randy Fine is legitimately the most hateful and vile member of Congress currently that we have. And so we need to cut the cancer out when we can. And I truly know that we can do this. I've done it before. We're going to do it again. So please Visit us at jenkins4fl.com Contribute if you can. We need all hands on deck. And listen, Randy is shaking, kicking in his boots. He is currently calling Tallahassee every single day, trying to stop them from redistricting the congressional map because he knows it's going to impact him negatively and he's really, really scared he's going to lose this race.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

That's so fascinating. I was going to cut the interview there, but I want to learn. I want to know more about that. So he wants to. One of the people saying, don't do the Trump gerrymander that Trump wants to do in Florida is Randy. Fine. Because he worries that dilutes his district. So he's actually out there pushing against Trump's plan to gerrymander Florida.

[Jennifer Jenkins]

Yeah, yeah. And you know, Randy doesn't even get along with people in his own party. Desantis has said he repels people. He called him a squish. That was my favorite one. And so, you know, he knows that the legislature and the governor are going to be working against him because they don't support him. He's not a loyalist in their eyes. He's far right extreme. But he does it to benefit himself, not the party overall. And so, yeah, they're absolutely going to take seats to seats. I'm sorry, numbers from his district in order to ensure seats for other members of Congress.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Jennifer Jenkins, running for Florida 6 congressional district. Thanks so much for joining us.

[Jennifer Jenkins]

Thank you for having me.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Everybody hit subscribe. Let's get to 6 million subscribers. Want to stay plugged in? Become a subscriber to our [e-mail] you'll get daily recaps from Ron Filipowski ad free episodes of our podcast and more exclusive content only [e-mail].

[Jennifer Jenkins]

We're lost. I'm going to pull over and ask that man for directions.

[Podcast Host / Interviewer]

Hi there.

[Jennifer Jenkins]

We're looking to get to the campground.

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[Jennifer Jenkins]

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[Jennifer Jenkins]

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