Democrat Charlie Crist will face Republican Ron DeSantis on Nov. 8 in the race for Florida governor following Crist’s victory in Tuesday’s primary election.
With 99% of the votes counted, Crist had 59.7% of the votes. Nikki Fried was in second place with 35.3% of the votes.
In the race for U.S. senator, Republican Marco Rubio will face Democrat Val Demings in the general election.
With 99% of the votes counted, Demings had 84.2% of the votes.
U.S. Rep. John H. Rutherford (District 5) was re-elected. With more than 98% of the votes counted, he received more than 65%. His opponents were Mara Macie and Leigha Lopez.
Aramis Ayala prevailed in the Democrat race for attorney general with 44.9% of the vote. She is running against Daniel Uhlfelder and Jim Lewis. She will face Republican incumbent Ashley Moody on Nov. 8.
In the race for state commissioner of agriculture, Wilton Simpson won the Republican nomination and Naomi Blemur got the Democrat vote. They will face off in the Nov. 8 general election.
Closer to home, state Sen. Travis Hutson was re-elected, beating challenger Gerry James in a close race. Hutson and James were neck and neck in St. Johns County, but voters in Flagler and Volusia counties selected Hutson by a wide margin.
In the race for county judge group 2, Casey L. Woolsey won with 55.82% of the vote, defeating challenger Alyssa Camper Shorstein.
In the St. Johns County commissioner race for District 2, Sarah Arnold won with 50.91% of the vote. Her opponents were Nelson Cline, Johnny Coe Counts, Chuck Labanowski and LaShawnda L. Pinkney. Labanowski came in a distant second with 24.46%.
The District 4 county commission race was a nail-biter with only 188 votes separating challenger Krista Keating-Joseph and incumbent Jeremiah Blocker. Keating-Joseph received 50.25% of the vote to Blocker’s 49.75%. That margin is just small enough to activate a recount as mandated by law.
In the District 1 School Board contest, 37.55% of the votes went to Beverly Slough and 32.51% went to Racheal M. Hand. There will be a runoff between the two Nov. 8 during the general election. The third candidate, Nancy Tray, received 29.94% of the vote.
In the race for the District 3 School Board seat, Lauren Abell won, receiving 41.71% of the vote, defeating Rita Baldwin, Jennifer Collins and Douglas Anthony Russo.
In the School Board District 4 race, incumbent Kelly Barrera was the clear winner over challenger Yvonne Lockbaum. Barrera received 69.31% of the vote.
According to the St. Johns County Supervisor of Elections Office, 28.34% of the 219,381 eligible county voters cast a vote in Tuesday’s election. A total 62,162 ballots were counted, though 366 of the mail-in votes out of a total 17,862 were still uncounted at press time.
A total 14,975 ballots were cast in early voting. On Tuesday, 29,375 votes were cast.
