Special Elections Three House seats and one Senate seat in the Central and South Florida communities had openings this summer requiring special elections to fill the vacancies. On July 25th, primaries were held for both Senate District 40 and House District 116 in Miami. In Senate District 40, current state representative Jose Felix Diaz won the Republican special election with 57.8 percent of the vote, beating former state senator Alex Diaz de la Portilla and Lorenzo Palomares. Diaz will face Democrat Annette Taddeo, a former gubernatorial candidate, who won her primary with 70.7 percent of the vote over former state representative and Miami-Dade school board member Ana Rivas Logan. Diaz and Taddeo will face each other on September 26th in the special general election. In House District 116, Republican Daniel Anthony Perez beat Jose Mallea, winning 54.8 percent of the vote. He will face Democrat Gabriela Mayaudon in the general election on September 26th.
On August 15th, a Republican primary was held for House District 44 in Orlando. Bobby Olszewski won with 39.77 percent of the vote over John Newstreet, Bruno Portigliatti, and Usha Jain. The lone Democrat Paul Chandler, who was facing a lawsuit challenging his residency, withdrew from the race on August 22nd. The Orange County Democratic Party is permitted to name a replacement to put on the ballot for the October 10th special election against Olszeweski.
In House District 58, there will be a primary election on October 10th and a general election on December 19th to replace Representative Dan Raulerson (R-Plant City) who resigned this summer due to health issues. Five people have filed to replace him: two Republicans, Yvonne Fry and Lawrence McClure; one Democrat, Jose Vazquez; one NPA, Ahmad Hussam Saadaldin; and LPF Brayn Zemina.