{"id":383109,"date":"2026-08-28T01:22:42","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T01:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/383109\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T01:22:42","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T01:22:42","slug":"james-martin-wins-democratic-primary-will-face-brian-mast-in-floridas-21st-district-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/383109\/","title":{"rendered":"James Martin wins Democratic primary, will face Brian Mast in Florida\u2019s 21st District"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Martin has won the Democratic nomination for Florida\u2019s 21st Congressional District, setting up a November matchup with Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Mast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/a> called the closely contested Democratic primary for Martin, who defeated firefighter Bernard Taylor. Mast was unopposed for the Republican nomination. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Associated Press called the closely contested Democratic primary for Martin, who defeated firefighter Bernard Taylor. Mast was unopposed for the Republican nomination. (Associated Press)<\/p>\n

Taylor conceded in a statement Thursday night, congratulating Martin and telling supporters that \u201cthe voters have spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo my opponent, James Martin, congratulations on your victory,\u201d Taylor wrote. \u201cI wish you well, and I hope you will always remember that the people of this district deserve to be heard, respected and served.\u201d<\/p>\n

FLORIDA PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTS<\/a><\/p>\n

Martin thanked Taylor for what he described as a hard-fought race and immediately turned his attention to Mast.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am honored to be the Democratic nominee for Florida\u2019s 21st Congressional District,\u201d Martin said in a statement. \u201cBut first, we need to unseat Brian Mast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martin, a Coast Guard veteran and reservist, previously served as chief of staff for national security affairs and executive secretary in the Office of the Vice President. He spent nearly a decade on active duty in the Coast Guard, including commanding cutters in Fort Pierce and serving on a cutter deployed to Bahrain.<\/p>\n

His campaign has focused on affordability, public service and national security. Martin has argued that voters need a change from what he calls \u201cpolitics as usual\u201d and has criticized Mast over his record in Washington.<\/p>\n

Taylor, a firefighter and EMT, had presented himself as a working-class alternative rooted in public service. The Democratic primary was extremely close, with unofficial results showing the candidates separated by only a few hundred votes. <\/p>\n

Martin now faces a much tougher test against Mast, a well-funded incumbent who has represented the area in Congress since 2017.<\/p>\n

See also: Boca Raton couple sentenced in $50M fraud scheme orchestrated from behind bars<\/a><\/p>\n

Mast, an Army veteran who lost both legs while serving in Afghanistan, launched his reelection campaign for the district earlier this year. He won reelection in 2024 with nearly 62% of the vote. <\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s 21st Congressional District includes all of Martin and St. Lucie counties and part of northern Palm Beach County. <\/p>\n

Mast will appear on CBS12 News at 6 p.m. Friday to discuss the race and his campaign for another term.<\/p>\n

The general election is Nov. 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Martin has won the Democratic nomination for Florida\u2019s 21st Congressional District, setting up a November matchup with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-383109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383109","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=383109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}