In a special election Tuesday, Brevard County voters chose two Republican candidates to fill vacant seats in the Florida Legislature.
Longtime Florida Republican lawmaker Debbie Mayfield will now serve as Florida District 19’s Senator. She takes the seat after Randy Fine, who resigned the position to run for Florida’s 6th Congressional District – a seat he won in April. Mayfield defeated Democrat Vance Ahrens with 54% of the vote.
"I’m thankful for the trust and confidence the voters of Senate District 19 have placed in me. From qualifying, to the Supreme Court, through a four-way primary, and tonight, we proved that Team Mayfield and our Space Coast community doesn’t back down from a fight. With the support of our district, I’ll fight for property tax relief, lower insurance premiums, and to protect the traditional family values that make America great,” Mayfield said in a statement.
Ahrens ran for the state senate District 19 seat back in November, too, but lost to Fine, who resigned the position to run for Florida’s 6th Congressional District – a seat he won in April. She is a former Hospital Corpsman and Surgical Technologist in the U-S Navy who advocates for environmental protections, access to healthcare, and common-sense gun laws.
Replacing Mayfield in the Florida House for Brevard’s Florida House District 32, which officially became vacant as of Monday, is Republican Brian Hodgers, who defeated Democrat Juan Hinojosa with 55% of the vote. Hinojosa is also former military and focused his campaign on fighting Florida’s increases in insurance rates.
The single-digit margins of victory show Democratic voters in Brevard County are showing up to the polls in larger numbers than in previous elections.
Legislative Musical Chairs
Gov. Ron DeSantis called for the special election in January.
Mayfield served as state senator for two terms. The first for Florida Senate District 17, in Orange County, from 2016 through 2022, and then for Brevard’s District 19 through 2024.
Due to term limits, Mayfield then ran last year for a seat in the Florida House of Representatives – Brevard’s District 32 – which she won in November.
But when Fine resigned from his Florida Senate seat to run for U.S. Congress when Mike Waltz vacated the seat to serve as President Trump’s National Security Advisor, Mayfield decided to run for the seat. She officially resigned her Florida House position Monday.
Although Mayfield had filed in January to be a candidate for her previous senate seat in the special election, DeSantis barred her from running.
Mayfield said it was a political move in retaliation for her endorsement of then-presidential candidate Pres. Donald Trump, as DeSantis was running against him in the Republican primary. The governor said Mayfield was disqualified from the race because she was termed out, which would violate Florida statute.
In February, the Florida Supreme Court ruled Mayfield could run due to the interruption in her service for the state senate.
Her victory Tuesday night puts her back in her old seat to serve the remainder of Fine’s term until November 2028.
Lillian Hernández Caraballo is a Report for America corps member.
