Luis Salazar at C. Blythe Andrews Jr. Public Library in Tampa, Florida on July 9, 2026. Credit: Dave Decker / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay
The local election was a rejection of candidates who were trying to restart their political careers. Cindy Stuart, Mike Suarez, Wengay Newton and Sally Harris Williamson were all trying to come back after previous election losses. All failed.
Stuart, who lost the clerk of court race in 2024, lost to Aileen Rodriguez in a big way in the Democratic primary for County Commission District 7 — 62.35% to 37.65%. Rodriguez worked longer and harder than Stuart.
Former City Councilman Mike Suarez was the favorite in the Democratic primary for State House District 64. He had previously lost in a mayoral race in 2019 and a City Council race in 2023.
This time, despite having more name recognition, more money than his opponents and support from the insurance industry, he lost again. Luis Salazar was the upset winner. He walked every neighborhood in the district and got support from the Realtors, the Hillsborough Society, La Gaceta and maybe even the trial lawyers.
John Rodriguez placed third. This race got nasty. It was a good ole West Tampa brawl. Salazar — 44.75%, Suarez — 35.64%, Rodriguez — 19.60%.
Dan Weldon won the Republican primary over Angel Ramos and will face Salazar in November.
In the universal primary for State Representative District 62, it was Democrat Wengay “Newt” Newton against Democrat Kyandra Darling. Newton, who was a onetime state representative, had lost in four races before this one. It’s now five. Darling got to 65.3% and Newt received 34.62%. Darling won Pinellas and Hillsborough County, but she pulled 72.01% on this side of the bay.
Sally Harris Williamson was first elected to the School Board in 2014 and served one term. She tried three times to win a second term and failed.
This time, the race was between incumbent Karen Perez with 48.27% of the vote, Kenneth “Ken” Gay with 27.23% and Harris with 24.50%. Perez and Gay will go to a runoff. The race is nonpartisan, but Perez is a Democrat and Harrison Gay are Republicans. Perez won West Hillsborough County, Tampa and the West half of east Hillsborough County. Gay won the east edge of the county.
There was only one candidate who broke the losing trend of people trying to restart their political careers.
Kimberly Overman won the Democratic primary for Congress District 12 with 52.65% of the vote compared to 47.35% for Darren McAuley.
McAuley had more money than Overman and won the Pasco part of the district by a very narrow margin, but Overman’s name recognition gave her a larger margin of victory in Hillsborough County.
McAuley had a big payroll of consultants from out of town. They didn’t run a good race. Overman will face incumbent Congressman Gus Bilirakis in November.
This story first appeared in La Gaceta. Read more when you buy a paper.
This article appears in August 20 – 26, 2026.
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