Longtime Republican state legislator Debbie Mayfield of Indialantic is leading in her bid to return to the Florida Senate in the June 10 special election.
Mayfield was leading her Democratic opponent, Vance Ahrens of Grant-Valkaria, by a 54.16% to 45.84% margin after early results were reported on the evening of June 10 in the race for the Florida Senate District 19 seat. That district includes all of Brevard County south of Titusville.
Mayfield has been state legislator since 2008
Debbie Mayfield, at right, was out at lunchtime on June 10, waving to voters and thanking them for voting at Wickham Park in Melbourne. With Mayfield were PK Kapur and Marisa Kahn.
Mayfield has served in the Florida Legislature since 2008, when she was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. She won reelection in 2012, but the state’s term limits prevented her from seeking a third four-year term in the House in 2016.
So Mayfield ran for and won a seat in the Florida Senate in 2016, and won reelection in 2020.
In 2024, term limits prevented her from running again for the Senate. So she ran for a House seat in District 32 in Central Brevard, and won.
The Senate District 19 seat became vacant when the incumbent, Randy Fine, resigned, effective March 31, to run for a seat in Congress in Florida’s 6th Congressional District, a six-county area that includes Daytona Beach. Fine won the congressional seat in an April 1 election.
Mayfield resigned her House District 32 seat, effective June 9, to run for this Senate seat. Because of the gap in tenure, Mayfield was allowed to seek the Senate seat again in this election, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ruled, overturning a decision by the Florida Division of Elections to keep her off the ballot.
Mayfield on April 1 won a four-candidate primary for the Senate seat, receiving 60.81% of the vote.
Ahrens worked in health care as a surgical technician for more than 20 years, and currently works as a retail manager. Ahrens previously sought this Senate seat in 2024, losing to Fine and getting 40.64% of the vote.
The winner of this election will serve the remainder of Fine’s four-year term, which runs until November 2028. Florida Senate members have a salary of $29,697 a year.
Campaign fundraising totals
Mayfield had a big fund-raising advantage in the District 19 race. She raised $169,986.25, and spent $169,055.32, with much of the spending coming during the Republican primary campaign.
Mayfield received most of her contributions in the form of $1,000 checks from political committees, many based in Tallahassee. Among the political committees donating to Mayfield are ones involved in agriculture, alcoholic beverages, banking, boating, campgrounds, energy, health care, insurance, real estate and tourism.
Under state election rules, as a sitting state legislator, Mayfield could not do fundraising while the Florida Legislature is in session. As a result, her last recorded contributions were on March 3.
Ahrens raised $16,238.29, and received a $2,500 in-kind contribution Florida Democratic Party for database information on registered voters in District 19. She spent $9,646.75.
Most of the money Ahrens raised was in small contributions, including from out-of-state contributors who contributed through the Democratic Party’s ActBlue fundraising platform to support Democrats running in special elections this year.
Light voter turnout
Voter turnout for this special election was light, with only about 17.2% of the 401,189 eligible voters casting ballots in this race.
Of the registered voters in District 19 who were eligible to vote in this election, 44.9% are Republicans; 25.9% are Democrats; 25.5% are no-party-affiliation voters; and 3.7% are members of a minor political party.
Of the voters who cast ballots in this election, about 51.1% are Republicans; 33.0% are Democrats; 14.2% are no-party-affiliation voters; and 1.7% are members of a minor political party.
Voter turnout for the Senate District 19 primary was 21.71% of eligible voters. Under state law, the Republican primary was open only to registered Republicans.
Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Berman at dberman@floridatoday.com, on X at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Mayfield leading in bid to return Florida Senate via special election