Bob Sparks
Central Florida had several incumbents winning their races by big margins. Among those was St. Augustine Republican Michael Waltz, who soundly defeated Orlando lawyer Clint Curtis in Florida’s 6th Congressional District.
Waltz, who has become a regular commentator on Fox News programs, won a second term by winning 60% of the vote. Curtis survived a primary challenge against educator Richard Thripp.
Also on the ballot as a write-in candidate was former Democrat U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, who did not receive a single vote. The district covers St. Johns, Volusia, Flagler and Lake County with a Republican registration edge of 50,000.
Waltz’s GOP colleague, U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, won a seventh term in Congress, defeating Kennedy Space Center engineer Jim Kennedy, a resident of Merritt Island. The Rockledge Republican garnered 61% of the vote in Florida’s 8th Congressional District.
Posey had to win a primary against former fighter pilot Scott Caine in August with 63% of the vote. Congressional District 8, which includes Cape Canaveral, has a Republican registration edge of nearly 80,000 voters.
The race for Florida’s 11th Congressional District featured a rematch from 2018 between Clermont Republican Dan Webster and Democrat Dana Cottrell of Spring Hill. Webster won a sixth term in Congress with a 67% to 33% victory for the North Central Florida seat.
This year, he improved from his victory two years ago when he won by a final count of 65% to 35% of the vote.
Webster is a former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, and in 2015 he ran for Speaker of the U.S. House after John Boehner. He was originally elected to Florida’s 10th Congressional District, a seat currently held by Val Demings, but switched to the 11th District in 2016 upon the retirement of Republican Richard Nugent.
