The Rays didn’t get the ending they wanted. But what a ride.

The Brewers took the World Series in five games, and they earned it. They had the best record in baseball, and they swept the two-time defending champion Dodgers to get there.

Still, this was a special season for the Rays. A year ago, they were playing home games at a Spring Training park across the bay because Hurricane Milton had torn the roof off their stadium. This year, they came home to a rebuilt Trop and won 98 games, the most in the American League.

And even facing a sweep in the World Series, they refused to go quietly. Down three games to none, they won Game 4 in the 12th inning on a pinch-hit walk-off single from Ben Williamson, giving St. Pete one more night of World Series baseball.

Kevin Cash’s team did it the Rays way: smart pitching, great defense and a lineup built around young stars like Junior Caminero. Most of that core is coming back.

Opening Day is less than five months away (we hope).

Now, it’s on to our weekly game of winners and losers.

Winners

Honorable mention: Florida journalism. The Florida Trib announced a pair of big hires, proving that despite the massive headwinds the industry has faced in recent years, local news is still alive and kicking in Florida.

Carol Marbin Miller, one of the most decorated investigative journalists in the state, comes aboard as Editor at Large. Tess Riski, who covered Miami City Hall for the Miami Herald, is joining as the Trib’s Miami investigative reporter. The Trib also has Kate Payne, formerly the last Associated Press reporter left in Tallahassee, helping deliver South Florida coverage.

The Trib isn’t the only one putting in the work.

At POLITICO, Kimberly Leonard has been writing Florida Playbook and breaking down the election as we near the final vote tallies. Outlets like the Delray Gazette are covering City Hall fights that used to get a reporter’s full attention. And our friend Kartik Krishnaiyer has spent years at The Florida Squeeze covering Florida politics and government from a unique and interesting perspective.

Several of our old colleagues are also cranking out election coverage at the Florida Phoenix, covering every statewide race, the ballot measures and key legislative contests.

And we, of course, have been running dozens of our own election previews over the past week-plus (with more still to come today).

Several Florida newsrooms have been gutted over the years, and there are pockets of the state that get little to no coverage. But the people still doing this work are doing a lot of it, providing plenty of resources for people tuned in to one of the most active political periods of our lifetimes.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest winner: The people who got us here. Candidates get the headlines, the TV interviews and the victory speeches. But behind every one of them is a team of people who have poured sweat and tears into making things happen.

That includes the consultants, Campaign Managers, field staff, finance directors, volunteers and everyone else who keeps these political machines running.

These are the folks who cut turf, knock doors in October heat that still feels like July, and spend weekends stuffing envelopes and putting up yard signs. They show up at 6 a.m. to set up a rally and stay until midnight tearing it down.

Campaign Managers and staff have been running on caffeine and cold pizza for months, while consultants have been writing ads, arranging mailers and arguing over polling crosstabs at 2 a.m. And the volunteers, many of whom aren’t paid a dime, have given up nights and weekends because they believe in somebody or something.

The early returns show it’s paying off, with a huge chunk of the electorate already reached, persuaded or just reminded to show up.

Half of these teams are going to be disappointed Tuesday night. But win or lose, they’ve earned some rest and then some. Just not until Wednesday.

The biggest winner: Democratic congressional candidates. This week, several election forecasters shifted Florida races toward Democrats, and money poured in to support a blue wave on Nov. 3.

Stop us if you’ve heard this before.

We’ve been writing for weeks about Democrats holding clear hope for a big day on Tuesday, while also questioning whether that hype train will actually reach the station.

The polls could very well be off. And if we had to guess, a 2- or 3-point Republican edge in statewide races seems like a reasonable range, with some Democratic congressional candidates known to voters overperforming and eking out wins in red-leaning districts.

But certainly, if Democrats were to pull off a miracle in Florida, it would look a lot like this. President Donald Trump has vaporized his credibility with a large swath of voters, adding to the many who opposed him to begin with.

At the start of this cycle, Democrats were bracing to lose seats under a map built to wipe them out. Instead, with three days left, they’re playing offense in districts Trump carried comfortably.

If we had told Democrats one or two years ago that would be the playing field in 2026, they would gladly call that a win.

Losers

Dishonorable mention: Angie Nixon. There are a few questions every Florida politician should be able to answer in their sleep. Do you support drilling? No. Do you support our farmers? Yes. Is Disney World better than Disneyland? Obviously.

Then there’s the one Angie Nixon fumbled, generating controversy in the final week for no reason.

In a CBS News interview, the Democratic Senate nominee was asked whether Cuba is a dictatorship. Her answer: “That is what people have told me, I have never been to Cuba, and so I will have to take their word for it.”

In many states, that’s a dodge most people wouldn’t notice. In Florida, home to most of the country’s Cuban Americans, it’s borderline political malpractice.

To be fair, Nixon has a legitimate gripe about how CBS displayed the clip to the public. The network’s original post said she “declined to say” whether the country is a dictatorship, and the network later deleted that post because it didn’t accurately describe her answer.

Nixon also made her position clear as the week went on, saying she does believe Cuba is a dictatorship.

But in some ways, that makes it all the more perplexing that she would even open the door to being misconstrued. A simple “yes” would have stopped the uproar before it started.

Unsurprisingly, Republicans pounced. U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody posted the clip and tied it to Nixon’s vote against a state law requiring schools to teach the dangers of communism. The National Republican Congressional Committee used it to go after other Democratic candidates, arguing they would empower socialists like Nixon.

Nixon also got criticism from her own side.

Nixon had momentum to potentially pull off an upset. Will this be decisive? Not necessarily. But in a race where Moody was already favored, Nixon should have been playing it safe to finish this last week smoothly. Instead, she slipped up.

Almost (but not quite) the biggest loser: Watching sports in peace. We just finished thanking the consultants and campaign staff for doing their jobs. Now we have to talk about what that job looks like from the couch.

Here’s a typical Sunday this Fall. The Bucs punt. You get a 30-second ad telling you one candidate wants to raise your taxes, take your insurance and probably kick your dog. Next ad, his opponent comes on to inform you the first guy is a liar who wants to raise your taxes, take your insurance and probably kick your dog.

Then the Bucs punt again.

This isn’t just a Florida thing. AdImpact says political ad spending and reservations this cycle have hit $11.21 billion. That’s the most ever, more than even the 2024 presidential cycle, and it’s the first time a midterm has outspent the presidential year before it. Republicans account for about $5.2 billion of that, Democrats about $4.8 billion.

Florida is getting its share. Byron Donalds’ operation alone has raised nine figures, and that money isn’t sitting in a savings account.

And that’s not to mention the endless barrage of texts and phone calls mixed in with the now seemingly normal flood of spam we all have to deal with every day.

The good news is that relief is coming. Election Day is Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, the ad breaks go back to pickup trucks, beer and personal injury lawyers.

Never thought we’d say it, but we’ve missed the injury lawyers.

The biggest loser: Dirty tricksters. Every election brings out a few people who can’t win on the merits. This year’s crop showed up right on schedule for the final week.

Start with Miami-Dade, where the county Democratic Party’s General Counsel, former state lawmaker J.C. Planas, sent cease and desist letters over flyers being handed to voters that look like official party slates.

The first went to North Miami Beach Commission candidate Dayanara Torres, whose campaign has been passing out a flyer labeled “The Democratic Voting Slate” at polling sites. Torres says she did nothing wrong, arguing the flyer never claims to come from the actual party and just reflects her own personal recommendations.

Another “Democratic Voter Guide” floating around Miami is even shadier. It’s printed in party-friendly colors and backs a Miami referendum the local Democratic Party opposes.

In Jacksonville, someone vandalized a polling place sign to strip off the Spanish-language voting instructions. Duval County Supervisor of Elections Jerry Holland noted that federal and state law both require those instructions. Whoever did it wasn’t making a policy argument. They were just trying to make it harder for their neighbors to vote.

Then on Thursday night, Orange County Supervisor of Elections Karen Castor Dentel found swastikas painted on five trees near the Taft Community Center early voting site in south Orange County. Castor Dentel condemned the symbols, noting that intimidating voters is illegal under state and federal law.

Investigators haven’t said who did it or why, and nobody has established that it was aimed at voters. But when someone paints Nazi symbols a block from a polling place a few days before an election, you can read between the lines.

The good news is that none of these stunts appears to have worked. The Taft site stayed open, the swastikas were painted over by Friday, and voters kept showing up.

That’s the best response to people like this. They want voters scared, confused or discouraged. Floridians just keep voting anyway.