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When the qualifying period ended Wednesday at noon, four candidates qualified for the June 24 Democratic primary for the Senate District 15 special election, and there was a Republican nominee.
The special election is being held Sept. 2 to fill the nearly complete term of the late Sen. Geraldine Thompson who died Feb. 13 following complications from knee surgery. Senate District 15 encompasses Parramore, Pine Hills, Winter Garden, Ocoee, the Dr. Phillips area, Eatonville, Apopka, and Washington Shores
The Democratic candidates include State Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis of House District 40; her brother, former Sen. Randolph Bracy III; former U. S. Congressman Alan Grayson; and Ocoee attorney Coretta Anthony-Smith.
The winner will square off against Willie Montague, founder of the House of Timothy, a Christian center for troubled adolescent boys. No other Republicans qualified so Montague is the automatic nominee. This will be Montague’s third election attempt. He ran to unseat Congresswoman Val Demings in 2020 but lost in the Republican primary. He ran again in 2022 but ultimately lost to Congressman Maxwell Frost.
Bracy was the first to throw his proverbial hat in the ring, announcing on Instagram the day after Thompson’s death that he would seek her seat, a move that angered many of Thompson’s colleagues and prompted comments even from supporters that it was “too soon.”
Bracy, who served eight years in the Florida Legislature (four in the House; four in the Senate) before mounting an unsuccessful run for Congress in 2022, attempted to wrest the District 15 seat from Thompson during a rancorous 2024 campaign. He even tried to force her out of the race with a (never filed) lawsuit, accusing her of not living in the district while he was likewise accused of living in Lake County. Bracy posted such frequent free-association videos about Thompson on Instagram and Facebook that were so vitriolic, an uncle left a Facebook comment that his posts were causing his mother distress.
Bracy attempted to build a movement around the New Agey slogan “A better you, a better me, a better us,” but it lacked tangible ideas, and Democrats on the Orange County Legislative Delegation, including his sister, threw their support solidly behind Thompson and she won in a landslide — 61 percent to 39 percent.
Bracy told the Orlando Sentinel that his sister running against him “dishonors our father’s legacy in every way possible.” Bracy's father, the late Randolph Bracy, founded the New Covenant Baptist Church of Orlando with his wife, the civil rights advocate Dr. LaVon Wright Bracy. Dr. Wright Bracy has endorsed her daughter for state senator.
Bracy Davis announced her entry into the State Senate race last month outside of Thompson’s beloved Wells’Built Museum of African American History and Culture, with the late senator's endorsement, that of Thompson’s family and a crowd of Democratic elected officials and political power players behind her.
“I will continue to fight with every ounce of my being to ensure that Florida works for us all,” Bracy David said during her intent-to-run announcement. “Because that is what Sen. Geraldine F. Thompson taught us. She showed us that progress is not promise, it is fought for. She showed us that justice is not given, it is demanded. She showed us that leadership is not about personal gain, it is about service, sacrifice and an unshakable commitment to the people.”
An attorney who worked in both in the Department of Children and Families and at the Dr. Phillips Performing Arts Center, Bracy Davis was elected to the Florida House in 2022 and then re-elected in 2024. A moderate to progressive Democrat, she has championed juvenile justice, a pilot program to reduce gun violence among teens, reproductive healthcare, fully funding public schools and the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Florida Voting Rights Act to make voting more accessible for all Floridians.
She was instrumental in helping Thompson pass the Tyre Sampson Act, which aims to improve amusement park safety, following the tragic death of a teen who was improperly buckled into a ride at Orlando’s ICON Park.
Bracy Davis also expanded access to the Randolph Bracy Ocoee Massacre Scholarship, which awards 50 $6,100 secondary-education scholarships annually to descendants of survivors of the 1920 Election Day violence and Black high school graduates in Ocoee. In addition to Florida’s public universities, the scholarship can now be used at Florida’s three private historically Black colleges and universities: Bethune-Cookman, Florida Memorial and Edward Waters.
In reference to her brother’s comments, Bracy Davis has said she is not running “against” anything but is running for the people of Senate District 15.
Bracy Davis had to resign her seat to run for State Senate, effective Sept. 1. On Friday, her longtime aide RaShon Young filed to run in the special election to represent House District 40, which includes Ocoee, Pine Hills and College Park. The House District 40 special election will run concurrently with the Senate District race.
During her own announcement, Bracy Davis hinted that Young might run and said at the time that if he did, he’d have her endorsement. She said that he’d worked closely with her during her time in the House and knew the policy and the terrain well.
“He knows House District 40, and House District 40 knows him," she said.
Political newcomer, Coretta Anthony-Smith is a private practice personal injury attorney in Ocoee. She was raised by her grandmother after losing both parents at a young age, and attended Georgetown University and University of Florida Levin College of Law. She worked defending insurance companies until 2004 when she switched gears and began defending clients in their claims against insurance companies, according to her law firm’s website.
Writing in an essay in the Florida Sun, Anthony-Smith said her campaign is “about creating safer communities, lowering homeowners insurance rates, and ensuring that affordable housing is not just a slogan but a reality.”
She urged Senate District 15 voters to “tune out the drama and distractions and center the conversation on the issues that matter most to our neighbors.”
Progressive Democrat Alan Grayson, elected to Congress during the Obama years, is a Phi Beta Kappa who has four degrees from Harvard University, including a law degree and a PhD, and clerked for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. Grayson served three terms in Congress and has been trying to get back into office ever since he left in 2017 for mount an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate.
Grayson has made three runs since for the U.S. House (2018, 2020, 2022) and two runs for the U.S. Senate (2022 and 2024). He also ran for State Senate in District 25, which was ultimately won by Sen. Kristen Arrington. As the Orlando Sentinel reported, Grayson faced Bracy once before in the 2022 race for Deming’s seat that was eventually won by Frost.
