Jacob Ogles
State Rep. Kristen Arrington has earned a promotion to the Senate. The sitting Democratic Representative narrowly defeated Republican Jose Martinez in Senate District 25, ensuring the district stays blue.
With all precincts reporting, Arrington was winning 51.2% support in the Orange-Osceola district. Of note, some 38,000 vote-by-mail ballots remain uncounted.
She is now set to succeed retiring state Sen. Victor Torres, an Orlando Democrat.
The General Election win came after Arrington also had a competitive Democratic Primary in August, where she defeated former U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson and community leader Carmen Torres, the wife of the outgoing Senator. Despite facing serious competition, she won 51% of the vote in the three-person race.
Martinez for the last 20 years has been the co-owner of Elite Metro Corp., a Metro by T-Mobile dealer headquartered in St. Cloud. He won a Republican Primary in August, taking more than 59% of the GOP vote over Osceola County School Board member Jon Arguello.
In August, Martinez received just a little more than 10,000 votes to win the Republican nomination, while more than 11,000 voted for Arrington.
The Democratic lawmaker listed affordable housing as a top issue, and said she had a record to prove she can address the matter. During her time in the House, the Kissimmee Democrat secured funding for hotel-to-housing conversions in the region, and she also supported bipartisan measures like the Live Local Act aimed at increasing affordable housing supply.
“During my time in the Florida House, I have passed bipartisan legislation to assist our students, veterans, first responders, HOA residents, and downtown Kissimmee small businesses,” Arrington posted on Facebook.
“Additionally, I have brought home funding for affordable housing (three motel/hotel conversions), firefighter protection, flood mitigation, and housing for houseless veterans and those battling addiction.”
She’s married to Osceola County Commissioner Brandon Arrington, and is daughter-in-law to Supervisor of Elections Mary Anne Arrington. The fact all three appear on the ballot has prompted general anti-Arrington signs to crop up in the district.
Voter data showed Democrats with a fundamental advantage. Registration numbers showed the 117,000 registered Democrats outnumber the more than 81,000 Republicans substantially, as do the more than 105,000 voters with no party affiliation.
But the fact Torres won his last term in 2022 with less than 53% over Republican Peter Vivaldi gave Republicans hope to flip the seat.
Martinez also hoped voters would look at more than party identification when deciding if a candidate represents the community. Almost 1 million who voted in the district in 2022 are Hispanic, according to MCI Maps. That includes Martinez, who notes he’s the only candidate in the race who even speaks Spanish.
“I think we deserve a representative who can at least speak the language,” he said.
But Arrington’s prominent name, House incumbency and her own work as a political consultant before her election gave her a number of advantages at the polls. Not least of those, she had a significant advantage in resources to Martinez.
She raised more than $279,000 over the course of the race, and still had almost $30,000 left as of Oct. 28. Martinez raised just over $34,000, but largely self-funded his race courtesy of a $150,000 candidate loan. He closed the last period with more than $85,000 cash.
Meanwhile, a Friends of Arringtons political committee had another more than $27,000 available for Arrington to use. A Positive Solutions PC formed by Martinez did not raise any money.
