Usually, gubernatorial races are followed by only the nerdiest election watchers. They often involve weird state-level issues, and the results sometimes don’t make sense unless you really dive deep into the candidates’ personalities involved or the long history of the state’s parties. But that’s not the case in the colorful, lawless swamp known as Florida.

That’s because the Florida gubernatorial race is a window into one possible short-to-medium-term future for national politics—and, oddly enough, a potentially important factor in the battle for Senate control. Current Florida Governor Rick Scott is running for Senate against Bill Nelson.