Former Broward County Commissioner Barbara Sharief will run in the general election for the soon-to-be-vacant seat in the 35th Senate District after defeating two Democratic opponents in the primary on Tuesday.
All wanted to succeed the Democratic Senate leader, whose term is limited Lauren Bookwhich Sharief had unsuccessfully challenged two years ago.
At 8:40 p.m., results from 96 of 97 precincts were in, and Sharief had 46.5% of the vote, securing a place on the November 5 ballot. Second Chad Klitzmana lawyer, received 35% of the votes. Third place Rodney Jacobs captured the remaining share.
Sharief will now run with a Republican candidate without opposition Vincent Parlatore ahead of the General Assembly, and it is her race that she can lose; Democrats have the advantage in the SD 35 district, where the party’s candidates for the U.S. Senate and governorship will run in 2022, Val Demings And Charlie Cristwon there with 55% and 53% of the votes respectively.
Sharief, a doctor of nursing, ran on a platform that prioritized health care, including restoring funding for HIV and AIDS assistance programs and improving access to health services. She also promised to work to increase voting access, strengthen education, protect Florida’s water quality, create jobs, support affordable housing programs and protect the state’s environmental resources.
Sharief served as Broward County Commissioner from 2010 to 2021 and as mayor from 2013 to 2014 and 2016 to 2017. During her primary election challenge against Book in 2022, she sued the incumbent for falsehood, libel and slander. The case is still pending, court documents show.
She behaved similarly in this cycle, File a lawsuit against Jacobs last month for campaign texts that suggested she and her health insurance company had defrauded Medicaid.
But Sharief has also been the target of criticism recently after photos of a campaign worker surfaced last week Distributing SD 35 voter handbooks She was the only Democratic candidate in the race.
Klitzman, a lawyer and the youngest candidate, ran in October with the goal of “causing unrest in Tallahassee.”
He brought a wealth of experience as a government intern to the election campaign, including stints during the term of the former president Barack Obama’s Administration with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, and the White House Office of Management and Administration.
In the run-up to the primaries, Klitzman was the Target of attack emails can be traced back to Jacobs claiming in his election campaign that he was responsible for donations of over a million dollars that his former law firm made to Republicans, including Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis And Marco Rubio.
He argued he had no control over where the firm’s lawyers donated money. Klitzman, who is Jewish, also said one of the letters used an anti-Semitic stereotype by portraying him as a puppeteer looming over the three men, as Behind him, 100 dollar bills rained down.
Jacobs entered the race for SD 35 in September 2023. He is the executive director of Miami’s Civilian Commission of Inquirya police watchdog organization that investigates complaints about police officers. With a win this year, he hoped to expand his public engagements, which include his command as captain of a battalion in the U.S. Army Reserve.
His campaign this year was his first attempt at public office, but he made significant Collect donations Progress as Tuesday approached.
As of August 15, Jacobs had raised more than $99,000 through his campaign account and another $426,500 through his political committee. A new hope for tomorrowHe spent almost everything on the competition.
This put him just behind Sharief, who spent just under $547,000. During the campaign, she raised less than $81,000 in external donations, but she invested almost $450,000 of her own money in her campaign, $89,000 of which came in the final weeks of the primaries.
Klitzman was no slouch either. He collected more than $157,000 in external donations through his campaign account and an additional $103,000 of his own money (although he spent very little of it). His PC, Future of Broward Inc.raised nearly $214,000 more.
In total, he spent nearly $349,000 by August 15.
In total, the three candidates spent nearly $1.34 million on the primaries.
SD 35 covers a large area of Broward, including Cooper City, Pembroke Pines, Davie, Hollywood, Southwest Ranches and Miramar.
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Robert Haughn And Jesse Scheckner of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
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