Democrat Leonard Spencer apparently won one of the area’s most tightly contested races, narrowly defeating Republican Carolina Amesty with 50.1% of the vote and snagging a swing seat in the Florida House.
Spencer, a 53-year-old business executive, looked to unseat Amesty, a 30-year-old lawmaker completing her first term in office and facing felony charges related to her work as an administrator for her family’s small college.
Amesty seems to be the only Republican state House member in Central Florida to lose her seat. The race was among the most closely watched in Central Florida, as the GOP pulled back support for Amesty after her August indictment and Democrats sought to flip the swing district.
Spencer held a 217-vote lead with all precincts reported in Orange and Osceola counties and just over 38,000 mail ballots left to be counted in Orange late Tuesday.
Spencer, who spent more than 15 years at Disney and is now a senior manager of supplier engagement for Amazon, said during his campaign he’d like to tackle Florida’s insurance crisis, believing more transparency is needed. The state should have an elected insurance commissioner to regulate the industry and a bipartisan group tasked with rooting out waste, fraud and abuse, he said.