Joy Goff-Marcil ousts Bob Cortes in HD 30

Joy Goff-Marcil

Democratic Maitland City Councilwoman Joy Goff-Marcil pulled off one of the big upsets of the night, soundly defeating Republican state Rep. Bob Cortes in Florida’s House District 30.

Goff-Marcil topped Cortes 55-45 in her Orange County portion of the district, and also defeated in in his Seminole County portion, 51-49 Tuesday night. Overall she won 53-47.

The victory topples a conservative Republican who had established himself as a leader in Tallahassee both on fiscal issues and in support for Seminole County’s rapidly-growing Puerto Rican population. Cortes was on the shortlist for Ron DeSantis’s running mate, and also made a name for himself countering the anti-capital punishment position of State Attorney Aramis Ayala in Orlando.

But Goff-Marcil pushed hard on her commitments to public education and local control for cities and counties, and knocked on thousands of doors throughout the district.

The district, covering inner-Orlando suburbs of Winter Park, Maitland, and Altamonte Springs, has been trending Democrat for years and she enjoyed a five-point Democratic voter advantage in registration.

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].



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