{"id":368660,"date":"2026-08-11T19:26:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368660\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T19:26:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:26:26","slug":"new-poll-shows-kevin-steele-with-10-point-lead-over-next-closest-gop-candidate-in-cd-14","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/368660\/","title":{"rendered":"New poll shows Kevin Steele with 10-point lead over next-closest GOP candidate in CD 14"},"content":{"rendered":"

New polling<\/a> from Victory Insights shows now-former state Rep. Kevin Steele leading the pack in an eight-candidate GOP Primary for Florida\u2019s 14th Congressional District, where Republicans hope to flip longtime U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor\u2019s Tampa-area seat.<\/p>\n

Steele has the backing of 32% of respondents. He\u2019s followed by former state Rep. Mike Beltran at 22.5% and Bea Valenti, a former adviser to U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody, at 8%. All other candidates register less than 2% support.<\/p>\n

Nearly a third of voters remain undecided.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those findings tell a different story than the St. Pete Polls survey<\/a> conducted in mid-July showing Beltran leading with 30% and Steele in second with 18%.<\/p>\n

Steele, a businessman and CEO who lives in Dade City, has spent two terms representing House District 55, which covers central Pasco County. This week, he abruptly resigned<\/a> from the Legislature after posting a photo of himself voting early in Hillsborough County.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Beltran<\/a> represented House District 70, which includes parts of Hillsborough and Manatee counties, for three terms before deciding to step aside in 2024.<\/p>\n

Both Beltran and Steele have loaned massive sums to their respective campaigns. Steele, a retired CEO with a personal net worth of $152 million, has invested $2.5 million of his own funds and spent more than $2.1 million through July 29.<\/p>\n

Beltran, a lawyer from Riverview, loaned himself more than $2 million but had spent less than $177,000.<\/p>\n

The GOP nominee will face Castor, a 10-term Democratic incumbent. Recent redistricting means the new district boundaries voted 55% for Donald Trump in 2024, but the same July St. Pete Polls found Castor leading<\/a> both Beltran and Steele by healthy margins.<\/p>\n

The survey of 1,200 likely Republican Primary voters was taken across six congressional districts between Aug. 4 and Aug. 6.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Primary is Aug. 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New polling from Victory Insights shows now-former state Rep. Kevin Steele leading the pack in an eight-candidate GOP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[149303,107429,409,8874,8189,118287,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-368660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-bea-valenti","tag-cd-14","tag-donald-trump","tag-kathy-castor","tag-kevin-steele","tag-mike-beltran","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}