Voters in Osceola County brought a number of surprises in the 2020 primary election in Osceola County Tuesday night.. most notably the Osceola County Clerk of Court and Osceola County Sheriff’s races. Attorney and School Board Chairman Kelvin Soto will take over as Clerk of Court in Osceola, replacing Armanda Ramirez — while in the sheriff’s race, Navy veteran Marco Lopez will go on to the general election in November against Tony Fernandez (NPA) – the winner will replace the one-term Sheriff Russ Gibson. Mike Fisher, who many thought would place better in the race, came in 3rd behind Lopez and Gibson.
Osceola County Commissioner Fred Hawkins Jr. was victorious as the Republican candidate for State House District 42 and will go on to face Democrat Barbara Cady and Leroy Sanchez(NPA) in the general election in November, while newcomer to political elections, Kristen Arrington, won the State House in District 43 in a field of democrats, a race where republicans were able to v0te in the primary election.
Ricky Booth will move from school board member to republican candidate for Osceola County Commissioner in District 5 after defeating 2nd place finisher Wayne Liebnitzky, and will face democrat candidate Tahitiana Chaffin (DEM) in November.
In the City of Kissimmee Commission races, Angela Eady took first place in the race for Seat 5, which is the mayoral seat, over fellow commissioner Olga Gonzalez. The two will battle for the seat in November, pending confirmation on Friday that Commissioner Gonzalez’ win exceeds .50% over 3rd place finisher Jackie Espinoza. Currently Gonzalez’ lead is .79%. After mail-in and absentee voting is confirmed in the race, if the lead in the race is less than .50% an auto recount will take place.
In other Kissimmee Commission races, City Commission Seat 1, Olga Castano, with 39% of the vote, and Noel Ortiz, with 35% of the vote, will battle it out in November for the seat, while
in seat 3, Carlos Alvarez III finished in first with 41.5 percent and Reginald Hardee came in 2nd with 34.52%. The two will face each other again in November.
In the Osceola County School District Board races , Jon Arguello took the win in the District 3 race with 51.8 percent over opponent, Casmore Shaw. Mr. Arguello will replace Tim Weisheyer on the board.
First time candidate for office, Robert Bass, will represent District 5 on the Osceola County School Board with 67.2 percent of the vote, easily beating Jeffery Rivera. Bass will take over for Ricky Booth.
The remainder of the races are shown below:
