Incumbents, women fare well in straw poll at African American Chamber of Commerce Hob Nob

The African-American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida Thursday held its Hob Nob and Straw Poll at the Inter & Co Stadium, drawing 32 candidates of all political stripes. A total of 237 attendees cast 142 ballots — even at a hob nob, "get out the vote" is a challenge — and the 2024 Orange County elections began to come into slightly more focus.  Of course, one straw poll does not an election make, but it was a good night to be an incumbent, a Democrat and a woman. 

Here are the results, along with the candidates’ one-minute pitches.  

Orange County Commission, District 1

Although not in attendance, District 1 incumbent Commissioner Nicole Wilson won the straw poll with 69 votes to first-time candidate Austin Arthur’s 50. 

Arthur, a Winter Garden entrepreneur, spoke of the work being done to revitalize Winter Garden's historically Black neighborhood, Historic East Winter Garden, as well as community efforts to block Orange County Public Schools from building a school bus depot in the heart of that neighborhood and to stop the county from allowing a plastics recycler to open a plant there. 

State Senate District 15 

Democratic incumbent State Sen. Geraldine Thompson, who has served twice in the State House and twice in the State Senate, held off a challenge from former colleague Randolph Bracy III, netting 99 votes in the straw poll to his 25. She said she was running to ensure property insurance was addressed and that subsidiaries of large companies couldn't set up shop in Florida, send profits out of state, declare bankruptcy and leave.

Bracy served in the State House and then the State Senate before making a failed bid for Congress in 2022. Hob Nob organizers said Bracy — who has often says he is “starting a movement” but provides no details — did not respond to multiple requests to attend. With no Republicans in the race, the Aug. 20 primary is open to all voters.

State House District 40

Democratic incumbent State Rep. LaVon Bracy Davis, who urged voters to send a "pro" back to Tallahassee, won the poll with 113 votes against Republican challenger Belinda Ford, who received 17. Ford, who did not attend, is the founder and director of two pregnancy centers in Pine Hills and Winter Garden. The two will face each other in November.

State House District 41

Democratic incumbent State Rep. Bruce Antone is asking voters to return him to Tallahassee for what will be his eighth term because he has “work that he needs to finish,” including Florida’s Black History Museum, scholarships for minority students to attend medical school and securing funding to lower the rate of Black women’s maternal mortality. He won the straw poll with 64 votes to Democratic first-time candidate Janét Buford-Johnson’s 53.

Buford-Johnson got into the race because she believes Antone has not adequately represented the district, particularly after Hurricane Ian when her Orlo Vista neighborhood suffered heavy damage from flooding, displacing many residents, including herself and her daughter. There are no Republican candidates, so the Aug. 20 primary is open to all voters. 

State House District 45 

Amazon executive and Democratic nominee Leonard Spencer won the straw poll with 102 votes to 20 for incumbent Republican State Rep. Carolina Amesty. The two will square off in the general Nov. 5 election. Spencer pledged to address housing affordability and to “get the legislators out of the doctors’ offices so women can dictate what they do to their own bodies.” He also said he would work for salary increases for teachers “so our children can get educated for the jobs of the future.” 

Amesty did not attend the Hob Nob. Her first term in office brought legislation to allow all women who’ve recently given birth the opportunity to be excused from jury duty, regardless of employment status. Her term also saw an attempt to funnel $3 million to a Hispanic chamber of commerce in Wellington that contributed to her campaign; multiple investigations into unpaid taxes and her role at her family’s private unaccredited Christian university and her conduct as a notary. She has since resigned as a notary.

Congressional District 11

Democratic nominee Barbie Harden Hall, a paralegal and mom of four from Mount Dora, was the only candidate in this race to make an appearance. She swept 100 votes to win the straw poll. A one-time pro-life Republican, Harden Hall switched parties and decided to challenge incumbent Republican Rep. Daniel Webster after the Congressman refused to meet with her on Lobby Day to discuss the rare disease that claimed her two-year-old's life. Webster netted 20 votes while GOP first-time candidate veteran and geophysicist John McCloy cleared 3. 

Supervisor of Elections 

This race saw a virtual tie. Democratic candidate Karen Castor Dentel, who has served in the Florida House and now sits on the Orange County School Board earned 46 votes while Wes Hodge, former chair of the Orange County Democratic Party, received 45. 

Although not in attendance, independent candidate Cynthia Harris, earned 16 votes; realtor Sunshine Linda-Marie Grund received 10; Attorney Dan Helm received 8.

Dentel said she wants to “make sure everyone’s voice is heard as supervisor of elections.” 

Hodge has a plan for appointment voting to reduce long lines, similar to the Department of Motor Vehicles. And he advocates using the technology that makes voting accessible to those with disabilities to create ballots in Haitian/Creole, Vietnamese and Portuguese in addition to Spanish and English so that people are able to vote in their native languages.

Whether this election is held Aug. 20 or Nov. 5 is currently uncertain. The Orlando Sentinel reported that Helm filed a lawsuit against Harris, alleging she paid her qualifying fee with a check from a personal account and requested she be removed from the ballot. Harris has denied that. Thursday, Ninth Judicial Circuit Court Chief Judge Lisa Munyon allowed Harris to remain in the race for now, saying Helm presented no evidence that she had paid improperly. But Munyon set a trial for the week of Aug. 12 or Aug. 19. If Harris stays on the ballot, the winner of the primary will face her in the general election. If Harris is removed from the ballot, the primary will be open to all voters, but the election may also move to November because there won’t be time to have ballots reprinted.  

Public Defender, Ninth Judicial Circuit Court

Melissa Vickers, who spent 18 years in the office she hopes to lead and worked her way up to the number two spot — chief assistant public defender — won the straw poll with 73 votes to the 58 for her opponent Lenora Easter. Easter works for Partners for Justice, supplying public defenders' offices across the country with the education, resources and trained staff to allow them to transform their offices to take a holistic/collaborative approach to public defense. With no Republicans in the race, the Aug. 20 primary is open to all voters. 

After the Orlando Sentinel's Sunday article, which quoted Vickers' former boss, retiring Public Defender Robert Wesley, claiming Vickers was forced to resign because she vented privately to a fellow attorney about him and other colleagues, using profane language through intra-office messaging, area attorneys have rallied to her defense. (Vickers said she was already set to leave to run for office before the messages were sent.) Many attorneys, who worked in the Public Defenders' Office over the years, blamed Wesley for a "toxic" workplace, according to other emails VoxPopuli viewed. At least one email, referred to a "history of making inappropriate jokes, even rape jokes, and at least once pulled his boxers out at another female attorney."

VoxPopuli has reached out to Wesley for comment.

State Attorney, Ninth Judicial Circuit

Former State Attorney Monique Worrell, who has been working to get her job back since Gov. Ron DeSantis fired her last August, claiming she wasn’t “faithfully prosecuting crime in her jurisdiction,” earned 99 votes to win the straw poll. A distant second with 27 votes was current State Attorney Andrew Bain, an independent, who DeSantis appointed to Worrell’s position. In third and fourth places respectively were Attorney Thomas “Fighter” Feiter (9) and Attorney Seth Hyman (3) who will duke it out in the Republican primary on Aug. 20 for the opportunity to face Worrell and Bain on Nov. 5. Hyman did not attend the event.

Circuit Judge, Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, Group 5

Twenty-two-year veteran attorney LaShawnda K. Jackson, the first Black president of the Orange County Bar Association, told Hob Nob attendees that she would make it easy for them to remember to vote for her: “Jackson for Judge. And to make it even easier, think of the Jackson 5 for Group 5, and ABC, it’ll be easy as 1,2, 3. Jackson for Judge.”  The mnemonic paid off because Jackson earned 101 votes over opponent, 26-year assistant public defender Joy Goodyear, who received 20. 

Circuit Judge, Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, Group 15

Attorney Alicia L. Peyton had a surrogate deliver her message and still managed to win the straw poll with 90 votes, beating the incumbent Judge Jeffrey Ashton who received 20 and challenger Chris Mack with 11. Neither Ashton nor Mack attended. 

Circuit Judge, Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, Group 37

Incumbent Judge Tanya Davis Wilson, who has served on the bench for 10 years and said she believed "everyone should have a fair shot at justice, no matter your background or circumstances," won 110 votes over challenger Jason Willis who received 12. Willis did not attend. 

Circuit Judge, Ninth Judicial Circuit Court, Group 43

Attorney Stephen Brown, who said he was running to have a “fair and politically neutral court,” beat out incumbent Judge Craig McCarthy, winning 68 votes to McCarthy’s 50. 

Orange County Court Judge, Group 11 

First-time candidate Lisa Gong Guerrero, an assistant state attorney, won 68 votes to the incumbent Judge Adam McGinnis’s 57. Guerrero said she wanted to bring her immigrant’s perspective to the bench to serve the Orange County community. 

McGinnis, who said he’s served on the bench in every county court division — civil and criminal — since his election in 2012, said he had a “special announcement”: “We are almost done with the candidate speeches, and then we can party.” 

Constitutional Amendments

Amendment 1: Should school board elections be partisan? 

Yes: 43 No: 60

Amendment 2: Right to Fish and Hunt 

Yes: 54  No: 45 

Amendment 3: Recreational Marijuana

Yes: 89 No: 23 

Amendment 4: Limiting government interference with abortion 

Yes: 93  No: 18

Amendment 5: Adjusting homestead exemption values to inflation

Yes: 60 No: 35 

Amendment 6: Repealing public campaign financing for candidates for statewide office

Yes: 50 No: 50