A late filing could cost Republicans a seat in the Florida House.
House District 47 Rep. Paula Stark has been representing St. Cloud, eastern Kissimmee and a slice of south Orange County since 2022.
She has been running for a third term shortly since winning reelection in 2024, filing preliminary paperwork on Feb. 5, 2025. And she raised money through that period: more than $28,000 when including a $10,000 loan she made to her own campaign.
But at the close of the qualifying period at noon on Friday, the state had not received the paperwork from Stark necessary to qualify, according to Gretl Plessinger, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of State, which includes the Division of Elections.
As of Monday evening, Stark’s status is listed as “Did Not Qualify” in the state’s candidate database.
Unless that changes, that would leave the Republican-held district without a qualified member of the GOP on the ballot.
Reviewing options
Stark affirmed on Monday that she and her team are “carefully reviewing the facts, procedures, and all legal options available under Florida law” to appear on the ballot.
“We believe the facts support the outcome that we in fact did everything required by law and have the proof of that,” she wrote in a statement issued on Monday afternoon.
Stark said the document at issue is her financial disclosure form, also called Form 6 with the state Commission on Ethics, which lists net worth, assets and liabilities for candidates.
She said she filed it electronically the day before the deadline, but she also suggested that the submission was delayed due to a security disruption at the state Division of Elections office in Tallahassee that “had backed up close to a dozen other candidates who were in line, to also submit their paperwork.”
According to the state candidate database, the state received her oath of office and a check at that office less than half an hour before the filing deadline.
As of Monday evening, the database did not list a financial disclosure form for Stark.
The Department of State did not respond to requests Monday to clarify if a process exists to appeal qualifying decisions, and, if so, if an inquiry has been opened to review the validity of Stark’s qualifying determination.
The remaining candidates
Unless the state changes Stark’s status, the only qualified candidates for the race will be two Democrats: Jorge Figueroa and Anthony Nieves.
Nieves, a former state investigator, is running for the seat a third time. He won the Democratic primary for the seat in 2022 but lost to Stark by less than two percentage points in the general election. Nieves ran again in 2024 but lost in the primary to Maria Revelles, who lost to Stark by about two percentage points.
Figueroa is the president of the Puerto Rican Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida. This will be his first time running for the District 47 seat.
In a phone call on Monday, Figueroa said Stark’s development came as “a pleasant surprise, but it also puts a lot of pressure to work extra hard these next two months, because now it’s a two-man race.”
Figueroa said he feels good about the matchup with Nieves.
“Anthony, this is the third time that he runs, so he knows how this works, and the ins and outs, whereas I'm a rookie, you know, it's my first run,” Figueroa said. “But I feel comfortable, because what I bring to the table is completely different than what Mr. Nieves has to offer.”
In a phone interview Monday evening, Nieves said he called Stark after hearing the news as “a welfare check … to find out if everything was okay with her safety and well-being.”
Her failure to qualify “absolutely” changes his outlook on the race, Nieves said.
If Democrats remain the only candidates on the ballot, the Aug. 18 primary will be open to all voters, regardless of party.
“We pretty much wasted no time, as soon as we received information that Representative Stark did not appear to qualify, we immediately started reaching across the aisle, because this is an open primary,” Nieves said. “And, you know, like anyone, I have friends and family members that are both Democrats, Republicans, and NPA (no party affiliation), so I want to make sure that I have the entire district fully involved in the electoral process for this open primary.”
