Our picks for the August primary election
The Orlando Sentinel’s Editorial Board has made endorsements in 49 congressional, judicial, state and local races ahead of the Aug. 18 primary.
Here’s a running list of our endorsements, which are based on the candidates’ backgrounds, qualifications and on our interviews with them.
These endorsements are the opinion of the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board, which operates separately from the newsroom. The Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Mike Lafferty, Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio, Jay Reddick, David Whitley and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Sentinel Columnist Scott Maxwell participates in interviews and deliberations.
To help readers make an informed choice, we’ve recorded our interviews and put them on our website. You can watch them at OrlandoSentinel.com/interviews.
U.S. House
District 6 (D): Clint Curtis District 7 (R): Yukong Zhao District 8 (R): Scott Caine District 9 (R): Jose Castillo District 10 (R): No endorsement
Orange-Osceola State Attorney (D)
Deborah Barra
Florida Senate
District 9 (D): Patricia Sigman
Florida House of Representatives
District 28 (D): Lee Mangold District 29 (R): Scott Plakon District 31 (R): Keith Truenow District 31 (D): Crissy Stile District 32 (D): Ryan Morales District 42 (R): No endorsement
District 43 (D): Alex Barrio District 44 (R): Frank Blanco District 44 (D): Geraldine Thompson
District 47 (R): Jeremy Sisson
District 48 (D): Samuel Vilchez Santiago
Orange County Commission District 1: Nicole Wilson District 3: Mayra Uribe District 5: Emily Bonilla
Orange County Sheriff (D) John Mina
Orange County Property Appraiser (D) Amy Mercado
Orange County School Board District 4: Pam Gould District 5: Michael “Mike” Scott District 6: Karen Castor Dentel District 7: Melissa Byrd
Osceola County Clerk of Courts (D)
Kelvin Soto
Osceola County Sheriff (D) Marco López
Osceola County Tax Collector
(D)
Bruce Vickers
Osceola County Supervisor of Elections (D)
Mary Jane Arrington
Osceola County Commission District 1 (D): José Álvarez District 5 (R): No endorsement
Osceola County School Board District 2: Julius Meléndez District 3: Jon Arguello District 5: Jeffrey Rivera
Orange-Osceola Circuit Court Judges (9th Circuit) Group 1: Mikaela Nix Group 21: Alan Apte Group 34: Mike Kraynick Group 39: Vincent Falcone
Seminole County Commission District 1 (R): Bob Dallari District 3 (R): Lee Constantine District 5 (D): Pernell Bush
Seminole County Tax Collector (R)
J.R. Kroll
Seminole-Brevard Circuit Court Judges (18th Circuit) Group 15: Tesha Scolaro Ballou Group 18: Steve Henderson Group 21: Donna Goerner Group 25: Sam Bookhardt
Seminole County Judge Group 6: Wayne Culver