A.G. Gancarski
A former Democratic candidate for Congress is mounting another run in the wake of U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz’s resignation.
George “Ges” Selmont, a businessman from Elkton, is thus far the sole Democrat to qualify in next year’s Special Election in Florida’s 6th Congressional District. He has graduate degrees from Yale University and Harvard University’s Extension School, after undergraduate work at Bard College and a law degree from Northeastern University.
The race will be a challenge for any Democratic candidate. Waltz won CD 6 with 66% of the vote this year, and in 2022 did even better, winning with more than 75% of the vote. Nearly 46% of the electorate is registered to the Republican Party. Meanwhile, less than 27% of voters are Democrats, according to the most recent L2 voter data.
But Selmont has been willing to run in GOP-leaning districts before. In 2018, he got 32% support in a challenge to U.S. Rep. John Rutherford in what was then Florida’s 4th Congressional District.
A second Democrat, Purvi Bangdiwala of Daytona Beach, is also active as of Friday morning. Bangdiwala has a credential in business leadership from Bellevue University, per LinkedIn.
Multiple Republicans are in the mix also.
Brevard County’s Randy Fine, a four-term state legislator who was elected to the Florida Senate in November, has already qualified. Fine is endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump, who calls him an “America First Patriot.”
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott and House Speaker Mike Johnson have also endorsed Fine.
Former Marion County School Board member Don Browning has filed to face Fine in the Republican Primary, along with Joshua Vasquez of Ocala and Ehsan Joarder of Brooksville. As of Friday morning, they have yet to qualify for the ballot.
