There will be no automatic machine recount in the Senate District 14 race between Democrat Brian Nathan and Republican Josie Tomkow, the Florida Division of Elections said Friday.
That’s because Nathan’s margin of victory — 405 votes — did not meet the statutory threshold to trigger a machine recount.
Florida law says that a machine recount must be ordered if the first set of unofficial returns, which were certified Friday, indicates a candidate was defeated by 0.5% or fewer of the total votes cast for the office.
Nathan led Tomkow after all votes were counted Tuesday night by 408 votes. After the first unofficial count was completed on Friday morning, his lead was reduced to 405 votes.
The Division of Elections said that the total number of votes in the election was 80,069, meaning that 0.5% equaled 400 votes. Therefore, no recount was triggered.
Nathan himself said Friday on WMNF Radio in Tampa that he was informed there could be a recount next week, but expressed no concern that it would affect the outcome.
He has already spoken with Senate President Ben Albritton, he said, and his name and photo were posted on the Florida Senate’s website Wednesday
Nathan’s victory represented a stunning upset, leading both Democrats and Republicans to debate whether it means a true “blue wave” is coming to Florida this fall or represents an aberration, because it was a special election in which Democrats have previously overperformed. Tomkow has already vowed that she will run again for the seat in November.
Florida Republican Lt. Gov. Jay Collins won the seat by nearly 10 points in 2022, and Tomkow spent approximately 10 times more money than Nathan did to win the seat.
Democrats also narrowly flipped a House seat in Palm Beach County Tuesday night in a district in which the previous incumbent Republican had won by 19 points in 2024.
The Republicans did take the House District 51 seat in Polk County on Tuesday that was vacated by Tomkow when she resigned to run in the SD 14 race. Republican Hilary Holley defeated Democrat Edwin Pérez by eight percentage points, 54%-46%. That district went for Donald Trump in 2024 by more than 13 percentage points.
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