Primary elections draw Central Florida voters to polls for myriad state, local races

Central Florida voters cast ballots in a slew of local and state races Tuesday to pick party candidates for governor, Congress and the Florida Legislature, to decide who sits on county commissions and school boards  — and, in Orange County, to weigh in on key races for mayor and chair of the school board.

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Seminole County’s Republicans also confronted one of the state’s most-watched congressional races, the GOP primary featuring embattled U.S. Rep. Cory Mills and three Republican challengers. And voters across Central Florida cast votes in judicial races, for a clerk of courts in Orange and a mayor in Sanford.

Turnout was light across the region, with a little more than 17% of Orange’s registered voters having cast ballots by early afternoon. That was on par with primary turnout two years ago, according to the Florida Division of Elections. In Lake, Osceola and Seminole counties turnout was slightly lower than in Orange.

At the polls, open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., voters reported little to no waiting to fill out ballots.

Tony Messires of Orlando arrived at the Renaissance Senior Center in east Orange to vote at 10 a.m. There was no line — but he was turned away because he had the wrong precinct.

“I wish it was here, because there’s nobody in there,” Messires said as he got in his pickup truck to drive to the correct voting site.

Four candidates — Chris Messina, Tiffany Moore Russell, Stephanie Murphy and Mayra Uribe — were vying to be the county’s next mayor in a nonpartisan race. To avoid a runoff in November, one must pick up more than 50% of Tuesday’s vote.

Orange’s Board of County Commissioners is expanding from seven to nine members, and the creation of new districts led to crowded fields of candidates. The final winner in many of those races will likely be decided in the November runoff.

In Maitland, part of the new District 7 in north-central Orange, Susan Caswell showed up around 7:30 a.m. to vote at Maitland Church.

“I’m in a new district and that’s kind of cool,” said Caswell, who is also new to the city. “I’ve had a lot of people come to my door.”

She said she supported Moore Russell for mayor but declined to say which of the dozen people running for District 7 commissioner got her vote.

Voters in Orange also were deciding the next chair of the Orange County School Board, selecting between two current board members, Alicia Farrant and Angie Gallo. Though the race is nonpartisan, Farrant, who joined the board four years ago as member of the conservative Moms for Liberty group, had support from local Republicans and got backing from an out-of-state conservative group. Gallo, who has been on the board since 2018 and is a long-time Florida PTA member, won support from Democrats and the local teachers union.

Carl Hensley and Charlie Jicaj, who regularly vote in Orlando elections, said the school board race was a key one for them, as they do not support Farrant.

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“I want someone who doesn’t censor what books to read, and creates an inclusive environment for kids in schools,” Hensley said. “That’s an important issue for me.”

The couple were among the first to cast ballots at the Colonialtown Neighborhood Center, a polling station a short walk from their home. There was no line when they arrived shortly after 7 a.m., and they were in and out in minutes.

In Hunter’s Creek, the local races, however, weren’t what brought Justin Digiacomo and his fiance, Alyssa Diaz, to town hall midmorning to cast ballots.

“It was important to vote for who was going to be the governor, for sure,” Digiacomo said.

The couple were voting for James Fishback in the Republican primary, they said, but not casting ballots in local races because they weren’t familiar enough with the candidates. Fishback was one of four candidates who’d made a name in the GOP gubernatorial primary but was also among the three likely to trail far behind frontrunner Byron Donalds, a congressman from Naples with the endorsement of President Donald Trump.

In Apopka, part of District 2 in northwest Orange, Loretta Forlaw said she was voting for the lone Republican in the commission race, Mike Crabb, and for Messina for mayor, the lone Republican seeking the county’s top job.

“I don’t really think of myself as Republican or Democrat, so much as a civic-minded citizen,” Forlaw said.

August primary elections typically attract limited numbers of voters, despite the money candidates spend on advertising on TV, radio, flyers and signs. In 2024, just over 22% of Florida’s registered voters cast ballots, state data shows.

Orlando Democrats state Rep. Anna Eskamani, a 2027 candidate for Orlando mayor, Congressman Maxwell Frost and state Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith — none on the ballot this year — hosted an election day rally in east Orange Tuesday morning to encourage voter turnout and champion candidates they’ve endorsed.

“August primary election turn out is always a topic of concern,” Eskamani said.

She said her team visited 3,000 Central Florida apartment complexes in the last 24 hours in an effort to get the word out.

“It’s always very humbling to knock on doors and meet folks that, despite signage and advertising, don’t know there’s an election,” Eskamani said.

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