{"id":375346,"date":"2026-08-19T05:58:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T05:58:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375346\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T05:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T05:58:14","slug":"amanda-marie-green-wins-democratic-nomination-in-cd-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375346\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanda Marie Green wins Democratic nomination in CD 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic voters just elected Amanda Marie Green\u00a0to try and flip Florida\u2019s 2nd Congressional District blue.<\/p>\n

Green, a former foreign aid worker, led a four-Democrat field with more than 33% of the vote, besting lawyer Yen Bailey\u2019s\u00a028%, community advocate Brice Barnes\u2019 27% and tech entrepreneur\u00a0Nic Zateslo\u2019s\u00a012% of the vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery vote, every conversation, every volunteer shift, and every mile traveled across our 16 counties brought us to this moment and I could not be more grateful and humbled to be the Democrat nominee. Your support is something I will never take for granted and I promise to work hard every day on behalf of North Florida, always putting the people first,\u201d Green posted on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we celebrate tonight, the hardest part of this race is yet to come. We get back to work tomorrow, reenergized and building the broad coalitions of support we need to win in November. We hope you\u2019ll join us. Together, we will build a brighter, more affordable, future for North Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n

The newly minted Democratic nominee advances to the General Election. Republicans are also holding a Primary to pick who will try and keep retiring U.S. Rep. Neal Dunn\u2019s seat in Republican hands.<\/p>\n

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

Green, who previously worked at an organization dispensing foreign aid overseas, had filed initially to challenge Dunn, as had Bailey and Zateslo. Shortly after Dunn said he wouldn\u2019t seek re-election, Barnes, a Tallahassee community leader who helped develop Independence Landing, also jumped into the race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Green quickly secured endorsements from longtime Democratic institutions like the AFL-CIO<\/a> and local political giants like former U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, who held the seat from 1996 until 2010. She endeared many voters early as she campaigned while pregnant. Now a new mother, she said she has more reason than ever to care about the district\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cNorth Florida deserves representation that shows up to answer our questions. We need a Congress that doesn\u2019t sell our future to the highest bidder. As your next representative, I promise I\u2019ll fight for you and your family\u2019s interests,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n

Barnes, despite being the last entry, made a splash quickly, with some of the state\u2019s most prominent Democratic leaders rallying behind the Tallahassee advocate\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Former Miami-Dade School Board Member Anna Hochkammer\u00a0of the Florida Women\u2019s Freedom Coalition,\u00a0Sara Latshaw, Chair of Floridians Protecting Freedom, and\u00a0Barbara Zdravecky, the retired President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida were a few of the prominent women backing her<\/a> on the trail.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI\u2019m a mom of three, and I see firsthand that life simply isn\u2019t working for families in North Florida right now,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether I\u2019m at my kids\u2019 practices or on a parent text chain, the conversation is always the same. Our dollars aren\u2019t stretching as far as they once did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zateslo, for his part, made the loudest financial statement, outraising most Republicans also running for the seat. He reported nearly $450,000 raised as of July 29, about $104,500 out of pocket. By comparison, Green raised more than $348,000, Barnes raised $318,000 and Bailey reported about $178,000.<\/p>\n

The Chief Operating Officer of Votivate brought knowledge of campaign infrastructure and how to make a profit into the conversation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t plan on running for Congress, but after watching career politicians and party insiders fail North Florida families year after year, I decided someone had to do something about it,\u201d Zateslo posted on social media. \u201cI\u2019m running because every family in this district deserves a fair shot at a better future \u2014 and that starts with what we do today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey appeared on the ballot before. She won 154,000 votes in her race against Dunn last cycle, more than 38% of the vote, and has effectively been running ever since. She also stressed being the only candidate to make the ballot by petition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile other candidates wrote a check to get on the ballot, we took a different path. We knocked on doors, stood in front of grocery stores, attended community events, and most importantly, for nearly two years, we listened to what families in North Florida face every day,\u201d Bailey said in a campaign video.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe costs of groceries keep rising. Housing is harder to afford. Healthcare costs too much if you can find it at all. But we\u2019ve also heard something else. People haven\u2019t given up. They still believe we can build an economy that works for working families.\u201d<\/p>\n

Consultants in Tallahassee say in the current anti-Trump political climate, there\u2019s a chance to elect a Democrat in the Panhandle again. Former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham held the seat less than 10 years ago, and will be on the ballot this year as gubernatorial candidate David Jolly\u2019s running mate.<\/p>\n

That said, national Democrats have yet to show enthusiasm about CD 2 becoming open, so November could still be an uphill climb. This is a district where more than 58% of voters supported Trump for President in 2024, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, already playing in eight other battlegrounds in Florida, has shown no interest in the seat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic voters just elected Amanda Marie Green\u00a0to try and flip Florida\u2019s 2nd Congressional District blue. Green, a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[102576,101501,73265,73266,446,12821,232,234,233,12820],"class_list":["post-375346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-amanda-marie-green","tag-brice-barnes","tag-cd-2","tag-floridas-2nd-congressional-district","tag-neal-dunn","tag-nic-zateslo","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-yen-bailey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375346","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=375346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}