Jennifer Jenkins, a target of Randy Fine's, wants to challenge him in race for Congress

Steven Lemongello, Orlando Sentinel on Feb 5, 2026

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ORLANDO, Fla. — The former Brevard County School Board member once called a “whore” by Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Fine is now looking to take on the man her campaign called “America’s most extreme and unhinged member of Congress.”

Jennifer Jenkins, who had initially filed to run for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, switched Thursday to run against Fine in the 6th congressional district in northeast Florida. That followed the massive $1.7 million haul taken in by Democratic Senate candidate Alexander Vindman, whom she would have faced in the primary.

Fine has gained national notoriety for his “Trump Thump Act” to defend drivers who run over protesters in roadways and has called for deportations and stripping citizenship from “Mainstream Muslim” people.

“There’s a fine line between chaos and leadership, and Randy Fine crossed it a long time ago,” Jenkins said in her announcement video. “My name’s Jennifer Jenkins, and I’m running for the United States Congress, and both sides can agree we need real representation, and it’s not Fine.”

District 6 stretches from just south of St. Augustine in St. Johns County to Mount Dora in Lake County, and also includes parts of Volusia, Marion and Putnam counties.

Jenkins joins three other Democratic candidates who have already filed in the race, which has also drawn five GOP challengers and four minor party candidates and independents.

But if she and Fine win their nominations in their June primaries, Jenkins will face off directly with the man who made her his most visible target in his fight against school mask mandates amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fine, a state representative at the time, was once suspended by Facebook for 24 hours after he posted Jenkins’ phone number on the social media platform and told Brevard County residents to contact her over masks in schools.

He also threatened to pull funding for Special Olympics Florida over his feud with Jenkins, according to texts obtained by Florida Today.

According to the report, Fine told West Melbourne City Councilman John Dittmore in a 2022 text that because West Melbourne police invited Jenkins to an event at a Chick-Fil-A, and not Fine, it would result in Gov. Ron DeSantis blocking funding for both the city and the Special Olympics.

“I’m not going to jack [expletive] where that whore is at,” Fine wrote, according to the report. “You guys will have to raise a lot of money given that’s who you want to honor, not the person who got you money in the budget.”

Fine has a long history of controversial statements, including floating the idea of a “5- and 10-year potential shutdown” of the University of Central Florida because of controversy over construction spending. Fine, who is Jewish, also twice called a Jewish Facebook commenter a “Judenrat,” a term used to describe Jewish Nazi collaborators.

But his rhetoric has only intensified since winning a special election to succeed former U.S Rep. Mike Waltz last year after Waltz was named by Trump as his national security advisor.

He has introduced the “Trump Thump Act” to “allow Americans to run over these Muslim terrorists,” clarifying later on X, “To be clear, the Thump Thump Act will also allow you to run over BLM, Antifa, illegal immigrants, and anyone else who intentionally blocks roads! Thump thump!”

Fine also called for “deportations of all mainstream Muslim legal and illegal immigrants, and citizenship revocations wherever possible. … Mainstream Muslims have declared war on us. The least we can do is kick them the hell out of America.”

Shortly after his election to Congress last year, Fine referenced the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in World War II and wrote that the pro-Palestinian movement “must be put down by any means necessary.”

“We nuked the Japanese twice in order to get unconditional surrender,” he wrote on X. “That needs to be the same here.”

In an interview with WKMG News 6 last month, Fine also said “100% of the blame” for Renee Good’s killing by immigration officers in Minneapolis last month “rests with the wacky leftists. … The other side needs to recognize they’re going to lose.”

Fine has alienated members of his own party, including his one-time ally DeSantis, who once represented the 6th district in Congress. DeSantis said Republican underperformance in the special election was “a reflection of the candidate.”

“He repels people,” DeSantis said of Fine.

Fine did not respond to a request for comment on Jenkins’ entry into the race.

Jenkins, like Fine, is listed as living in Brevard County, well south of District 6. Congressmembers are not required by law to be residents of the district they represent, only residents of the same state.

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