County election reveals fruit-basket turnover | Martin County

MARTIN COUNTY – The Aug. 18 Primary Election here saw voters return a handful of former elected officials to their previous respective boards while potentially swinging the County Commission itself toward the slow-growth conservative side with the election of former Stuart Commissioner Christopher Collins to the District 2 Commission seat.

Florida voters’ reputation of bucking the national trend of automatically reelecting incumbents proved particularly true in Indiantown, with three incumbents swept off the Board by voters yesterday, and the county as a whole reflected a desire to restore formerly elected officials to power. That was also evident in the Primary races for three of the seats on the Stuart City Commission, an election cycle made more transformational by the April 30 resignation of Collins as then mayor of Stuart to seek the District 2 Martin County Commission vacated by Commissioner Stacey Hetherington who chose not to seek re-election.

In Collins’ bid for the latter, he received 48.99 percent, or 14,657 votes, of the total 29, 916 votes cast in that race. The two other candidates, Susan O’Rourke and Althea Wiley, got 40.33 percent and 10.68 percent, respectively.

In the District 2 County Commission race, Current Chairwoman and Incumbent Sarah Heard won her seventh term on the Board, with 47.53 percent, or 14,219 votes, out of a total of 29,914 cast in that race. Her challengers John Dial and John “Kaz” Kanzanjian, got 44.93 percent and 7.53 percent, respectively.

The City Commission races saw a lot of intense campaigning this year, partly due to the fact that Collins’ departure left a power vacuum on that Board resulting in a series of 2-2 failed votes due to the lack of his swing slower-growth vote. His Group 3 seat, however, was claimed by former City Commissioner Merritt Matheson, who several times over the last year railed against the restrictive policies implemented by the slow-growth majority led by Collins.

Matheson particularly lamented that majority’s opposition to any funding or support of a Brightline train station downtown. The chances of that possibility got slimmer this month, when Martin County did not get its desired grant funding from the state to pursue the station without the city’s help. Matheson received 58.20 percent or 2,084 votes, of the total 3,581 cast in that race. The other candidate, Derreck Ogden ran on a strictly slow-growth platform and got 41.80 percent.

The Group 1 Seat Race was a lot closer, however, with Incumbent Campbell Rich getting 50.25 percent, or 1780 of the total 3,542 votes cast. His challenger, Will Laughlin, received 49.75 percent. Because the difference was just under the state-mandated 0.5 percent, a formal recount is mandatory. While Rich consistently opposed much of Collins’ and the slow-growth majority’s actions over the past few years, Laughlin ran on a platform dedicated to slowing or stopping the growth and resisting the state’s efforts at eroding home rule. If the recount affirms Rich’s victory and with Matheson’s comeback to the Board, the remaining slow-growth commissioners may find themselves in the minority in the future.

As far as the Stuart Commission’s Group 5 Seat Race, incumbent Eula R. Clarke – who’s served on the Board since 2011 – received 52.12 percent or 1,867 of the total 3,582 votes cast. Her challengers Dayne Oldenborg and Kylie Micciche got 32.08 percent and 15.80 percent respectively. Both of them had run on slower-growth platforms and the preservation of local waterways.

The 2026 Primary Election in the Village of Indiantown basically routed the Council of incumbents, beginning with current Mayor Carmine Dipaolo who lost Seat 3 to Challenger Christa Miley, who received 59.38 percent of the total 832 votes cast. Dipaolo himself received 32.09 percent, while Candidate Octavius Thompson got 8.53 percent.

That trend continued onto the Seat 4 Race, where former Village Councilman Anthony D. Dowling received 51.59 percent or 437 of the total 847 votes cast. Incumbent Angelina Perez got 32.11 percent, while Challenger Ana Farias received 16.29 percent.

Current Seat 5 Councilwoman and Incumbent Karen Onsager fared no better, losing her reelection bid to former Village Councilwoman Janet Hernandez. While Hernandez got 63.68 percent of the total 837 votes cast, Onsager got 36.32 percent.

On the other hand, the three incumbents up for reelection on the Martin County School Board successfully fended off challenges to their seats. Because the elections are non-partisan, the winners must follow the state’s 50-percent-plus-one-vote rule in order to claim victory in the Primary Election.

In the District 1 Race, Incumbent Cristia Li Roberts got 49.69 percent with 14,061 votes out of a total 28,296 cast. Her challengers, Cherie White and Charles J. “Chuck” Winn, received 26.98 percent and 23.33 percent of the votes, respectively. Because Roberts fell just under the statutory minimum requirements, She will once again face White on Nov. 3.

School Board District 3 Incumbent Jen Russell fared much better, receiving 63.70 percent or 18,210 votes out of a total 28,588 cast. Her Challenger Jackie Gary Clarke got 36.30 percent.

The District 4 Seat will also go to a runoff after Incumbent Amy B. Pritchett got 42.76 percent with 12,228 votes out of a total 28,599 cast. Her primary challenger was former School Board Member Anthony “Tony” Anderson who got 41.37 percent, while Challenger Milly Blanco got 15.87 percent. Pritchett will now face Anderson again in the November General Election.

The Martin County incorporated towns of Jupiter Island and Sewall’s Point did not hold primary elections this year.

For the Florida governor and lieutenant governor races, Byron Donalds and Jay Collins topped the crowded field of 11 candidates in the Republican Primary, with Donalds getting 48.37 percent of the local votes cast and Collins receiving 22.04 percent.

In the Democratic Primary, David Jolly topped the field of six Democratic candidates, getting 69.03 percent of the total votes. His closest challenger, Dayna Marie Foster, received 11.74 percent of the vote. Donalds will will now face Jolly on Nov 3.

In the Democratic Primary race for the U.S. Senator Seat vacated by Marco Rubio when he was appointed by President Donald Trump to be secretary of state, Angie Nixon defeated Alexander Vindman statewide, although the latter got 58.73 percent of the total 8,714 local votes cast. In the Republican Primary for that seat, Ashley Moody got 79 percent of the local votes cast for the four candidates, while Chris Gleason got 14.48 percent of the remaining votes. Ashley will now face Nixon in November for the final two years of Rubio’s term.

As far as the Florida District 21 Democratic Primary Race, James T. Martin got 52.98 percent of the total 8,529 votes cast, with Bernard Taylor getting 47.2 percent. Martin will now face Incumbent Republican Candidate Brian Mast on Nov. 3.

According to the Ballotpedia Website that has analyzed statewide races nationally for the last three years, the incumbency reelection rate remained at 90 percent or higher in all but the 11 states of Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia and Washington. The State of Florida, however, had the lowest victory rate of incumbents nationally, with only 63 percent of incumbents successfully being reelected during the same time period.