Jacob Ogles
The slate is set for a Special Election to replace former state Rep. Fred Hawkins in the Florida House.
Three Democrats and three Republicans will face off in November Primary contests before a January election determines the next Representative for House District 35.
On the Democratic side, Rishi Bagga, Marucci Guzmán and Tom Keen all qualified to run, with Keen and Guzman submitting petitions and Bagga paying the filing fee. Republican candidates Erika Booth, Ken Davenport and Scotty Moore all qualified as well, with Booth and Moore paying the fee and Davenport qualifying by petition.
The Primary Election for both parties will be held on Nov. 7, per an executive order by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Once party nominees are set, the two Primary victors face off in a Jan. 16 Special Election, with the winner taking office at midnight.
Bagga ran for the seat in 2022, winning the Democratic nomination by 57 votes out of more than 10,000 cast. The Orlando lawyer went on to lose to Hawkins. More recently, he was appointed to the Orange County Charter Review Commission.
Booth, an Osceola County School Board member, boasts the support of the Florida House Republican Campaign Committee and Republican Speaker-designate Daniel Perez. The St. Cloud pol won her current School Board seat with 54% of the vote in November.
Davenport challenged Hawkins last cycle in the Republican Primary. He notably came within 1,200 votes of unseating the incumbent. The real estate agent and flight attendant jumped at the chance to run again, this time with no sitting lawmaker seeking re-election.
Guzmán serves now as executive director of Latino Leadership. She was the last candidate to qualify. She’s also married to former Rep. Rene Plasencia, a Republican, and is sister-in-law to sitting state Rep. Susan Plasencia.
Keen ran in 2022 but lost the Democratic nomination by inches to Bagga. The Navy veteran has served on both the city of Orlando Citizens’ Police Review Board and the Mayor’s Veteran Advisory Council. He also has worked in the aerospace and simulation space.
Moore in 2022 challenged U.S. Rep. Darren Soto, a Kissimmee Democrat, and lost by just 7 percentage points. While he had positioned himself for another round with Soto next year, he jumped at the chance to run for an open GOP-held statehouse seat.
The Special Election is expected to be heated until a winner is decided in January. Republicans hold the seat now, but Democrats see a chance to flip it. In the 2020 Presidential Election, nearly 52% of the district’s voters supported Joe Biden over Donald Trump. As of book closing for the 2022 elections, the district served as home to 40,746 no-party voters, compared to 40,464 registered Democrats and 37,534 Republicans.
Hawkins vacated the seat earlier this year after he was hired as President of South Florida State College.
