Gabrielle Russon
Karen Castor Dentel was elected Tuesday to become the next Orange County Supervisor of Elections.
Castor Dentel, the former Orange County School Board member, won with 40% of the vote in a crowded field.
Castor Dentel raised nearly $200,000 to beat her fellow Democratic opponents: former Orange County Democratic Party Chair Wes Hodge, former Pinellas Supervisor of Elections candidate Dan Helm and Realtor Sunshine Linda-Marie Grund.
Grund was the second highest vote-getter with nearly 22% of the vote.
Helm and Hodge got nearly 20% and 19% of the vote, respectively.
The race has been full of political intrigue this year after Orange County’s longest-serving Supervisor of Elections, Bill Cowles, retired in the middle of his term.
In March, Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed Glen Gilzean — who at the time, was in charge of overseeing the DeSantis-run Disney World governing district — to replace Cowles. Gilzean waited until the last minute to confirm he was not planning to run Elections Supervisor for a full term.
There were more twists in the race.
The August Primary among the Democrats got upended after a Judge tossed the only no-party candidate, Cynthia Harris, from the race because she didn’t pay her candidate filing fee. Her candidacy had closed the Primary. But once she dropped out, the Judge ruled the Primary should have been open to all voters.
That meant the candidates had to adjust to instead compete in the November election. Even though the Primary was canceled, ballots had already been printed. Florida Politics requested the nullified results, which showed Castor Dentel as the winner by more than double over the next runner-up, Hodge.
“This is an important race, arguably the most important one on the ballot,” Castor Dentel said during a League of Women Voters (LWV) of Orange County forum this Summer.
She touted her experience on the School Board and knowing how to be accountable to voters as to why she should be elected as Elections Supervisor.
