Darren Soto, Bill Posey easily re-elected in Central Florida congressional contests
Darren Soto and Bill Posey.

soto posey
Soto won over Scotty Moore. Posey defeated JoAnne Terry.

Two Central Florida members of Congress have handily won re-election. U.S. Reps. Bill Posey, a Rockledge Republican, and Darren Soto, a Kissimmee Democrat, both easily won their respective races Tuesday night.

Posey won another term representing Florida’s 8th Congressional District, defeating Democratic challenger JoAnne Terry.

In all three CD 8 counties, Posey held a dominating lead with a majority of precincts reporting. He had about 65% of the vote to Terry’s 35%.

The incumbent expended more than $529,000 on his re-election effort, but still closed a federal reporting period on Oct. 19 with more than $580,000 in cash on hand. By comparison, Terry only ever raised $85,019 for the longshot bid.

Meanwhile, Soto won another term in Washington after spending upward of $1.1 million on his race. He fended off Scotty Moore, who managed to raise a handsome sum on the longshot bid and spent more than $490,000 in his attempt to unseat the three-term House incumbent.

Soto was also leading in all three counties in CD 9, with about a 54% majority to Moore’s 46%.

Soto briefly came into the sights of the National Republican Congressional Committee earlier in the cycle. But attention dimmed after a redistricting process ultimately left Soto in a heavily Democratic, majority Hispanic seat.

Under the new lines, about 58.1% of voters in Soto’s CD 9 voted for Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 Presidential Election, while just 40.71% supported Republican Donald Trump.

Posey’s district turned out almost exactly as red as Soto’s is blue. About 58.12% of voters under the new lines voted for Trump in 2020, and 40.52% backed Biden.

In that sense, a comparison of results in the region offers an indication of the mood of the electorate. In a politically neutral year, a Republican candidate in CD 8 should win by the same margin as a Democrat in CD 9, based on voter behavior in 2020.

Jacob Ogles

Jacob Ogles has covered politics in Florida since 2000 for regional outlets including SRQ Magazine in Sarasota, The News-Press in Fort Myers and The Daily Commercial in Leesburg. His work has appeared nationally in The Advocate, Wired and other publications. Events like SRQ’s Where The Votes Are workshops made Ogles one of Southwest Florida’s most respected political analysts, and outlets like WWSB ABC 7 and WSRQ Sarasota have featured his insights. He can be reached at [email protected].



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