With state Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried not running for a second term, the major parties picked their candidates to run for the open position in Tuesday’s primaries.
With 90.6 percent of the votes counted, state Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Tribly, won the Republican primary, taking 64.9 percent of the vote. Farmer and businessman James Shaw took 35.1 percent of the vote against Simpson.
Accountant Naomi Esther Blemur, who holds a leadership post with the Miami-Dade Democrats, won her party’s nomination, taking 50.5 percent of the vote with 77.1 percent of votes counted. Businessman Ryan Morales, who made two previous bids for the Florida House, stood in second with 30.3 percent of the vote. J.R. Gaillot, who made previous bids for the U.S. House and the Florida House, took 19.2 percent of the vote.
Simpson is the favorite to flip this seat in November. Fried, who lost the Democratic gubernatorial primary on Tuesday to U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., is the only member of her party to currently hold statewide office in Florida.
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