Former Rep. Aaron Bean and Rep. Jeff Brandes easily won their bids for GOP Senate nominations Tuesday in a pair of victories that could alter the dynamics of a leadership fight in the chamber.
Bean, who won a seat in Duval and Nassau counties in northeast Florida, and Brandes, who won a Tampa Bay-area seat, are aligned with Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart. Negron is running against Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, for Senate president in 2016-18.
Rep. Kelli Stargel, R-Lakeland, won a central Florida seat against two other candidates. Latvala had supported one of the candidates in the past, but also gave money to Stargell in recent weeks.
Both Bean and Brandes’ races were blowouts, despite concerns that they could be close. In the northeast Florida race, Bean waltzed by Rep. Mike Weinstein, R-Jacksonville, with 64.4 percent of the vote to 35.6 percent for Weinstein. Bean won in both counties, including carrying more than 58 percent of the vote in Duval County, thought to be a Weinstein stronghold.
“I fully expected it to be a barn-burner of a race,” an elated Bean said after the race.
Incoming Senate President Don Gaetz, a Niceville Republican who supported Bean, said polls at one point showed Weinstein ahead in the district by 19 points.
“Aaron came from behind in this race,” Gaetz said. “It’s a story of a candidate who outworked the opposition, who knocked on multiples more doors, who had and has a fresh message.”
Gaetz also sought to play down the significance of the Negron-Latvala showdown in the race.
“Tonight is Aaron Bean’s victory,” he said. “It’s not a proxy fight for future candidates for Senate president.”
Brandes also won handily, carrying 56.7 percent of the vote to 43.3 for Rep. Jim Frishe, a Latvala ally.
Other primaries around the state might have carried less urgency for the presidency race.
Former Senate president Tom Lee, R-Brandon, won 59.3 percent of the vote against 40.7 percent for Rep. Rachel Burgin, R-Riverview, in the eastern Hillsborough County seat vacated by Sen. Ronda Storms, R-Valrico. Lee received campaign contributions from both sides of the leadership fight.
Bean and Lee face token Democratic opposition in November, while no other candidate will appear on the ballot against Brandes in the general election.
Rep. John Legg, R-Port Richey, trounced former Rep. Rob Wallace and John Korsak, in another Tampa Bay-area GOP Senate primary. Legg’s win means he heads to the Senate after Democrats failed to come up with a replacement candidate for Wes Johnson, who dropped out of the race.
On the Democratic side, Rep. Geraldine Thompson of Orlando defeated Victoria Siplin with almost 56 percent of the vote. Siplin is the wife of Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando.
And Rep. Dwight Bullard, D-Miami, defeated House Minority Leader Ron Saunders, D-Key West, and former Rep. James Bush in the primary for a South Florida Senate seat.
Both Thompson and Bullard face token Republican opposition in heavily Democratic districts.
Rep. Jeff Clemens of Lake Worth initially appeared to have narrowly defeated Rep. Mack Bernard of West Palm Beach in the race for a Palm Beach County Senate seat, but it later looked like that race could be headed to a recount.
By Brandon Larrabee
