Florida Democrat Keen wins state House 35 special election over GOP's Booth

[In It to Win It]

Florida Democrat Keen wins state House 35 special election over GOP’s Booth

ORLANDO, Fla. — Democrat Tom Keen flipped what had been a Republican seat in Central Florida in a special election held Tuesday for state House District 35.

Keen, who works in the aerospace training and simulation industry, defeated Republican Erika Booth, a teacher and member of the Osceola School Board. Unofficial totals had Keen with 51.3% of the vote to Booth’s 48.7%.

The special election for the district in eastern Orange and Osceola counties was triggered when former Republican state Rep. Fred Hawkins resigned last year to become president of South Florida State College in Highlands County.

The district has an almost even split of Democrats, Republicans and independents.

The election was considered a bellwether of whether Florida Democrats will be more competitive in 2024 following their blowout loss to Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022, which swept in a GOP supermajority in both houses of the Legislature.

Keen canvassed with local Democratic stars U.S. Rep. Maxwell Frost and state Rep. Anna Eskamani and launched an ad targeting the GOP on abortion rights.

[applegrove]

1. All Democrats should run on this:

https://floridapolitics.com/archives/653319-tom-keen-flips-hd-35-from-red-to-blue-in-critical-special-election/


"SNIP..........

On the campaign trail, Keen argued that the Legislature has ignored issues like home insurance rates impacting Floridians day-to-day, instead focusing on Gov. Ron DeSantis’ culture wars agenda. He promised to bring real-world issues before the Florida Legislature.

“I fought for our country for 21 years as a Naval Flight Officer,” Keen said during the campaign. “I will fight for my fellow neighbors in District 35 when I get to Tallahassee. I filed to run in this race in May 2023 because the residents of District 35 deserve better representation in Tallahassee.”

..........SNIP"