Democrats won both contests for legislative seats in a special election Tuesday in the western part of Orange County.
State Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, D-Apopka, won the race for State Senate District 15 with more than 72% of the vote. She replaces Geraldine Thompson, who died in February.
Bracy Davis’s former chief of staff, RaShon Young, won his race, too, to fill the Florida House District 40 seat that she held.
Bracy Davis defeated Republican Willie Montague. Young drew 75% of the vote to defeat his Republican opponent Tuan Lee.
Overall voter turnout was 8.9%.
For Bracy Davis, claiming the seat formerly held by Thompson, her mentor, life-long friend and colleague, has special meaning.
“It's beyond special to me,” she said in a telephone interview. “It's overwhelming. I'm humbled. I'm honored. I'm grateful, thankful. I'm ready to work. Senator Thompson led with wisdom and clarity, and I'm going to do the same.”
She says she'll refile the Florida Voting Rights Act that Thompson championed.
“That's the very first bill that I'm going to file,” Bracy Davis said.”It will undo some of the horrific voting laws that we've seen here in the state of Florida. Senator Thompson and I have filed this together for the last two years, and I'm going to file it again in her honor, and I'll continue to file it until it's passed.”
At the end of her victory speech Tuesday night, Bracy Davis recognized her former chief of staff.
"You listened, you learned, you led and now you are the representative for District 40," she said, and then she pinned her Florida House pin to Young’s lapel.
