Drew Wilson
The House District 92 race got a little more crowded Wednesday after a South Florida attorney filed as the third Democrat for the seat held by outgoing state Rep. Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed.
Paulette Armstead, an FSU law school alumna who runs her own practice in West Palm Beach, joins Sajan Kurian and Whitney Rawls in what’s sure to be a contentious Democratic Primary.
The other two candidates share ties to District 101 Rep. Shevrin Jones: Rawls is a childhood friend of Jones and Kurian worked as the Hollywood Democrat’s district secretary. The connections put Jones in an awkward situation in July when Kurian left his job to enter the race. Jones ended up putting his support behind Rawls rather than his former employee.
District 92 will be decided in the primary election as Democrats have a 3-to-1 voter registration advantage in the district. That advantage was tested in 2014, when Clarke-Reed faced Republican Kenny Brighton on Election Day and beat him by 46 points.
Armstead doesn’t have a lot of ground to make up, though. Since filing, Rawls has taken in $5,700 while Kurian’s campaign account had about $7,600 on-hand heading into September, almost all of it from loans.
