Webster Leads Loomer With 1 Precinct Out: Polk Co. Election Results

POLK COUNTY, FL — With an unprecedented four congressional seats up for grabs this year, one of the most closely watched races was still too close to call as of late Tuesday night.

With 10 of 11 precincts reporting as of 11 p.m., Republican and longtime politician U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster received 1,378 votes (47.29 percent) to Laura Loomer's 1,350 votes (46.33 percent) in the 11th District. A third candidate, Gavriel E. Soriano, received 186 votes.

Webster previously served as the speaker of the Florida House, the first Republican speaker in 122 years, and majority leader of the Senate during which he led Florida as the only state to pass a constitutional amendment protecting its citizens in the landmark Kelo Case (2005) dealing with property rights and the government’s ability to condemn property.

His main opponent, Laura Loomer, is a controversial white nationalist and anti-Muslim political activist who has worked as a journalist for several far-right organizations, including Project Veritas, a group known for secretly recording and editing undercover video of media and left-leaning groups.

With all 448 Polk County precincts reporting, Democrats overwhelmingly voted for U.S. Rep. Val Demings to go up against Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio on Nov. 8, giving her 82.63 percent of the vote.

Polk County Democrats also favored U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist over Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried, giving Crist 60.32 percent of the vote to Fried's 34.04 percent.

With nine out of nine precincts reporting, Republicans chose Scotty Moore for the GOP nominee for Congressional District 9 with 948 votes or 41.65 percent over Jose Castillo with 843 votes or 37.04 percent.

Adianis Morales with 304 votes and Sergio E. Ortiz with 177 votes.

Meanwhile the race between Laura Loomer and Daniel Webster for the Republican nomination for the District 11 seat is too close to call.

With 10 of the 11 precincts reporting, Webster is ahead with 1,349 votes to Loomer's 1,324 votes, with Gavriel E. Soriano 181 votes.

The Republican race in Congressional District 15 had a full field of five candidates vying. With all 27 precincts reporting, current U.S. Rep. Kelli Stargel of Polk County unoffically received the nomination with 4,313 votes. Laurel Lee, Gov. Ron DeSantis' former secretary of state, won Hillsborough County but only received 3,332 votes from Polk County Republicans. Demetries "Commander" Grimes has garnered 1,117 votes, Kevin "Mac" McGovern has 792 votes and state Rep. Jackie Toledo trailed with 540 votes.

And with 123 of 125 of precincts reporting in the Republican District 18 congressional race, current U.S. Rep. Scott Franklin handily defeated his three opponents with 76.86 percent of the vote.

Scroll down for real-time updates of election results. Refresh this page for updates.

Polk County has been red for as long as most residents can remember, and political prognosticators don't expect the county to suddenly turn blue this election year.

It's location, however, in the center of the state along the crucial Interstate 4 corridor, a pivotal area in Florida, makes it a county that's closely watched.

The I-4 corridor became a major political talking point in the early 2000s when the region appeared to mimic statewide results (a less than 0.5 percent of the statewide result). Political analysts believe this is because the corridor is a microcosm of the state — a mix of suburbs, urban cores and rural areas.

However, in recent years, rural counties along the corridor, such as Polk, have experienced unprecedented growth that could tip the scales, especially with the county's growing population of independent and Hispanic voters.

In the last presidential election in 2020, 56.6 percent of Polk County registered voters cast ballots for Republican candidates and 42.2 percent voted Democrat with just 1.3 percent voting independent.

Polk currently has 173,409 registered Republicans, 149,566 registered Democrats and 127,256 voters with no party affiliation for a total of 458,210 registered voters, up from 452,202 registered voters in the 2020 primary.

Voter turnout for primary elections in Polk County has averaged between 20 and 25 percent. The turnout for the 2020 primary was 22.86 percent. This year's primary turnout was 23.45 percent.

The majority of Polk voters prefer to make their votes count during the general election. In 2020, 345,580 of the 471,241 registered voters cast ballots in the general election for a 73.33 percent turnout.

Polk County: Primary Election 2022 Results For State Races

>> Real-time results for Polk County races are below, via the Florida Division of Elections. Use the scroll bar on the right to see more.

Be sure to refresh this page for updated results throughout the night.
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Polk County: School Board Primary Election 2022 Results

>> Real-time results for Polk County school board races are below, via the Polk County Supervisor of Elections. Be sure to refresh this page for updated results throughout the night.Can't see the widget? Click here to open in a new tab.