Incumbent school board member defeats challenger James Reilly with more than 70% of the vote in Tuesday’s nonpartisan contest.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Marcus Nicolas has won the Leon County School Board District 5 election, defeating challenger James Reilly by a wide margin Tuesday night.
Unofficial results from the Leon County Supervisor of Elections showed Nicolas receiving 4,380 votes, or 71.58%, compared with 1,739 votes, or 28.42%, for Reilly as of shortly after 9 p.m.
At that point, 16 of 19 participating precincts in the District 5 contest had reported. Early voting results were complete, while Election Day and vote-by-mail results were still partially reported, meaning the totals remained unofficial.
SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 5 ELECTION RESULTS
Nicolas builds commanding lead
Nicolas held a substantial advantage across all three major voting methods reported Tuesday night.
He received 2,107 Election Day votes, 1,116 early votes and 1,157 vote-by-mail ballots.
Reilly received 966 Election Day votes, 384 early votes and 389 vote-by-mail ballots.
The nearly three-to-one margin put Nicolas well above the threshold needed to win the two-candidate race outright.
Two candidates competed for District 5
The District 5 contest was a nonpartisan school board election, meaning voters participated regardless of political party affiliation.
Leon County election officials listed Nicolas and James G. Reilly Jr. as the two qualified candidates for the seat.
Nicolas entered Tuesday’s election as the incumbent. Ballotpedia’s 2026 Leon County Schools election overview also identifies Nicolas as the sitting District 5 board member.
Three Leon school board seats up in 2026
District 5 is one of three Leon County School Board seats in the 2026 election cycle.
Districts 1, 3 and 5 were scheduled for election this year, although District 3 incumbent Darryl Jones won without opposition after no challenger qualified.
The school board oversees policies affecting Leon County Schools, a district serving more than 31,000 students, according to Ballotpedia’s district election profile.
Results remain unofficial
Leon County reported overall voter turnout of 37.58% Tuesday night, with 68,700 ballots cast countywide out of 182,806 registered voters as of the 9:04 p.m. update.
Because several precincts and some mail ballots remained outstanding at that update, election-night numbers could still change.
However, Nicolas’ commanding lead in the District 5 contest put him more than 2,600 votes ahead of Reilly in the unofficial count.
Results will become official following the canvassing and certification process.