The big picture: The algae outbreaks are the largest and longest-lasting in years. Weather patterns coupled with pressures on land use are stoking long-held tensions over natural resources between two of the state's biggest industries — agriculture and tourism. And it's happening at a time when Florida is also seeing massive population growth.

What's happening: The crisis is caused by two separate but equally toxic algae blooms. One is a salt-water red tide in the Gulf of Mexico, while the other is fresh-water blue-green algae stemming from the inland waters of Lake Okeechobee. The inland algae is festering in the vast canals and winding inland waterways of Southwest Florida.

• Red tide is caused by a flare of microorganisms, often in summer, that turns the water rust-colored. The inland event features guacamole-like, blue-green algae that started in giant Lake Okeechobee and spread to surrounding rivers and canals on the way to the coast.
• Each bloom, on its own, has turned water toxic and devastated marine life. Dozens of turtles, fish, dolphins, eels, manatees and even a whale shark have washed up dead on area beaches.
• Scientists don't know why the blooms are so severe this year. They suspect it's a combination of record rainfall, high levels of nitrogen caused by agricultural run-off, warmer waters, and other human activity.
• Gov. Rick Scott has declared two emergencies to deal with the blooms, the first one related to Lake Okeechobee and the latest on Monday to help seven coastal counties with the cleanup effort.

Residents have held town halls and organized rallies to put pressure on elected officials to do more. As a result, candidates are making environmental issues a central part of their campaigns leading up to the August 28 Florida primaries.

In the Senate race, Scott, a Republican, is finishing his last term as governor and looking to take the Senate seat of Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat.

• Scott faults Nelson for not doing more to solve the problem, since Lake Okeechobee's water levels are managed by the Army Corps of Engineers, a federal entity.
• Nelson blames Scott, who's been attacked by environmentalists for cutting water quality monitors and water management programs, and repealing a law requiring septic tank inspections. Nelson is considered to be one of the most endangered Democratic incumbents in 2018.

In the governor's race, candidates are making environmental issues a central part of their campaigns.

• All five Democratic candidates blame the sugar industry as a key source of waterway pollution.
• Republican congressman and gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis has used his lack of ties to Big Sugar to distance himself from opponent Adam Putnam, currently the state's agriculture commissioner, who has received campaign contributions from sugar farmers.

What to watch: In states like Florida that are experiencing more extreme weather events, voters may coalesce around climate and environmental issues heading into the next election cycles.

"People in these places understand that things are changing rapidly right in front of their eyes, and it's raised awareness to a level it's never been before," Denis Dison of the Natural Resource Defense Council's Action Fund told the New Republic.

Go deeper:

• Severe Florida red tide puts chokehold on wildlife, economy
• Florida faces another harmful algae bloom, declares emergency

That’s an argument being made by Cowen media analyst Paul Gallant, who calls this scenario “underappreciated” and notes that Sinclair’s first batch of licenses comes up for renewal in June 2020. And we’re hearing the same thing from other sources in the broadcast world, who describe Sinclair as a “hard headed” company that rarely engages with D.C. and which recently lost its top lobbyist.

• At issue are Sinclair’s alleged misrepresentations to the FCC during the Tribune Media review process.
• Those allegations can be reviewed by an administrative law judge during a license renewal hearing, were the FCC to recommend such a hearing (which may be likely, given FCC’s concerns and Sinclair’s many outside critics).
• The judge could revoke Sinclair’s licenses outright, if the company is found to have knowingly made false statements to the FCC.
• A more likely scenario, according to a telecom lawyer, is that the FCC would reach a settlement whereby Sinclair is required to divest stations.

Sinclair also is going to have troubles finding another merger partner. Not only because of its potential license renewal issues, but also because Tribune has filed a breach of contract lawsuit in which it accused the company of being "belligerent."

Bigger picture: The election seems to have shaken the broader tech industry into a political awakening, with tech company employees becoming more politically active, and some even forming organizations to put their skills to work, like Tech for Campaigns.

• Unsurprisingly, all of the candidates Axios identified who have ties to the tech industry are Democrats who, like many in the left-leaning technology industry, supported Hillary Clinton.

Axios talked to three tech-rooted candidates about why they chose to run, and they all cited the 2016 election.

• “I saw what happened in November 2016 and realized that I hadn’t done what I could have done,” said Brian McClendon, a former Uber and Google executive and entrepreneur who is running for Kansas Secretary of State.
• “After the election, I really felt like our country was in a place where I couldn’t stand on the sidelines anymore,” Suneel Gupta, who is running for Michigan’s 11th congressional district. Gupta sold a nutrition management startup two years ago and was previously a Groupon executive.
• “If good people don’t decide to run, then our government is in trouble,” said Phil Weiser, former White House technology advisor and deputy attorney general under the Obama administration, who also launched the popular Silicon Flatirons tech policy conference in Boulder. Weiser is running for Colorado Attorney General.

The desire to tackle problems with better tech, resources, processes, or management is a common theme among these candidates.

• “The challenge has been that politicians…haven’t had any business or operational experience,” said McClendon. “There’s an opportunity to increase the efficiency of the office.”
• For example, one of McClendon’s top priorities is voting, an area he says can be improved with better technology, security, and systems that make it easier for eligible Kansans to vote. He also chose a role he feels is more focused on implementing solutions rather than running for a legislative body, which is focused on representing constituents.
• “I think voters are looking for problem solvers, not politicians,” said Gupta. He also pointed out that “less than 10” of our current members of Congress have “have worked directly with lines of code, and that became clear during the [Mark] Zuckerberg testimonies.”
• Weiser says he wants to create a chief innovation officer role if he wins. “Ten to 15 years from now, every state AG office needs a CIO or CTO” that will focus on topics like broadband expansion, health care innovation, privacy and cybersecurity, he says. “If you’re anywhere in Colorado that’s remote and you want access to health care, the ability to deliver that with technology is a game changer.”

Other candidates who previously worked in tech include Josh Harder, a former Silicon Valley venture capitalist running for California's 10th congressional district.

• Candidates who did not advance past this summer's primaries include Alec Ross, a former technology advisor to State Secretary Hilary Clinton who ran for Governor of Maryland, and Brian Forde, an entrepreneur and former Obama White House tech advisor who ran for California’s 45th congressional district.

Reality check: Their enthusiasm for and focus on tech can be a double-edged sword for these candidates. While they can confidently sell the importance of STEM education, tech jobs and broadband access, for example, they may not have direct experience dealing with constituents' other non-tech-related priorities.