Mitch Perry
Presumably, Lawrence McClure will vote for himself in next month’s Republican primary election in House District 58.
If so, it would be the first primary election in which the 30-year-old Dover native has voted.
An inspection of McClure’s voting record shows that since 2005 when he was first eligible to vote in Florida, he has never participated in a primary election.
In 2006, the first election year in which he could cast a ballot, McClure declined to do so, neither in the August primary nor the November election for Florida governor and U.S. Senate.
McClure didn’t cast a ballot in the 2008 presidential preference primary in which John McCain won the Sunshine State, effectively clinching the Republican nomination with his victory over Mitt Romney. Nor did he vote in the presidential primary in January 2012.
McClure also didn’t vote in primary elections in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014 or 2016.
He did vote in the Florida presidential primary election in March 2016, and he says he did so because he was inspired by Donald Trump.
“I’ve been a conservative my whole life,” McClure said Friday afternoon. “I’m one of those voters that Donald Trump spoke to.”
McClure says he was wary of having party leaders telling him who to vote for, and considers himself one of the “silent majority” of Republicans who backed Trump.
McClure’s opponent, Yvonne Fry, has voted in nearly every primary and general election in Hillsborough County going back to 1996.
“The candidates voting records speak for themselves,” said Brock Mikosky, Fry’s campaign manager.
The special election in HD 58 is being held after Republican Dan Raulerson stepped down from the seat last month.
The winner of the McClure-Fry battle will face Democrat Jose Vazquez, Libertarian Bryan Zemina and non-party-affiliated Ahmad Saadaldin December 19.
