{"id":77856,"date":"2025-12-10T02:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T02:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/77856\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T02:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T02:28:09","slug":"voters-send-ralph-massullo-to-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/77856\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters send Ralph Massullo to Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a triumphant return for Ralph Massullo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Lecanto Republican is heading back to Tallahassee with strong voter support following Tuesday\u2019s Special Election in Senate District 11.<\/p>\n

Massullo won with 59% of the vote, buoyed particularly in Citrus and Sumter counties, over Democrat Ash Marwah<\/a>, a civil engineer from The Villages.<\/p>\n

The low-key election brought an 18% voter turnout.<\/p>\n

Massullo topped 60% in Citrus and Sumter counties. Marwah and Massullo were neck-and-neck in Hernando County\u2019s early votes, but Massullo pulled ahead with Election Day voting.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cI am humbled and honored to have earned the trust and support of the people of SD 11 to serve them in the State Senate,\u201d Massullo said. \u201cWe ran our campaign focused on servant leadership and addressing our state\u2019s issues and needs. Florida has been leading our nation in economic development, education, and protecting our environment. It\u2019s a privilege to be a public servant and I\u2019m grateful to God for His mercy and grace for allowing me to have this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Massullo, a dermatologist, served eight years in House District 23 before term limits forced him from office in 2024. Gov. Ron DeSantis thwarted Massullo\u2019s planned Senate campaign in 2022 by backing eventual winner Blaise Ingoglia; DeSantis supported Massullo\u2019s Special Election bid this year.<\/p>\n

When the SD 11 seat opened up with Ingoglia\u2019s appointment<\/a> as Chief Financial Officer, Massullo jumped in<\/a>, and a host of big-name endorsements followed, including from Ingoglia, Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson<\/a>, U.S. Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott, four GOP Congressmen, county Sheriffs in the district, and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n

The Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus<\/a> endorsed Marwah.<\/p>\n

Marwah ran for HD 52 in 2024, garnering just 24% of the vote against Republican John Temple.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

Massullo raised $249,950, compared with Marwah\u2019s $12,125. Massullo\u2019s $108,000 in spending includes consulting, events and mail pieces. One of those mail pieces reminded voters of the odd-year election.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a district Trump won by 40 points in 2024, Democrats swung this district by nearly 22 points by getting organized early and fighting for every vote,\u201d Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said.<\/p>\n

The two opponents had few opportunities for a head-to-head debate. The League of Women Voters of Citrus County<\/a> conducted an SD 11 forum on Zoom in late October, when the two candidates clashed over the state\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n

Marwah said DeSantis and Republicans are \u201cplaying games\u201d in their attempts to redraw congressional district boundaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo need to go through this expense,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will really ruin decades of progress in civil rights. We should honor the rule of law that we agreed on that it\u2019ll be done every 10 years. I\u2019m not sure why the game is being played at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Massullo said congressional districts should reflect population shifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe people of our state deserve to be adequately represented based on population,\u201d he said. \u201cI personally do not believe we should use race as a means to justify particular areas. I believe we should be blind to race, blind to creed, blind to sex, in everything that we do, particularly looking at population.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senate District 11 covers all of Citrus, Hernando and Sumter counties, plus a portion of northern Pasco County. It is safely Republican \u2014 Ingoglia won 69% of the vote<\/a> there in November, and Donald Trump carried the district by the same margin in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a triumphant return for Ralph Massullo. The Lecanto Republican is heading back to Tallahassee with strong voter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[43749,3853,43750,28,30,29,7289,43751,3856,9962],"class_list":{"0":"post-77856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-ash-marwah","9":"tag-ashley-moody","10":"tag-cfo-blaise-ingoglia","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-gov-ron-desantis","15":"tag-ralph-massullo","16":"tag-rick-scott","17":"tag-wilton-simpson"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77856","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=77856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}