Florida Senate District 5: Tracie Davis tops Binod Kumar to take bigger seat in Legislature

Steve Patterson, Florida Times-Union
·2 min read
Democrat Tracie Davis, a three-term state representative, is the Democratic candidate for the District 5 seat in the Florida Senate.
Democrat Tracie Davis, a three-term state representative, is the Democratic candidate for the District 5 seat in the Florida Senate.
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State lawmaker Tracie Davis advanced to a seat in the Florida Senate Tuesday, extending her reach in Jacksonville-area politics by outpolling a rival who hadn’t held office before.

With only a relative few ballots still uncounted for, Davis had garnered support from 57.1% of people casting votes while opponent Binod Kumar received 42.6% of the roughly 149,000 votes counted.

Binod Kumar, a professional engineer, is the Republican candidate for the District 5 seat in the Florida Senate.
Binod Kumar, a professional engineer, is the Republican candidate for the District 5 seat in the Florida Senate.

Davis, a three-term Democratic member of Florida’s House of Representatives, held advantages in name-recognition and campaign organization when she was challenged for the Senate’s District 5 seat by the Republican Kumar, an engineer who self-financed his campaign.

Democrats outnumber Republicans almost two to one in the district, making Davis’s election seem close to automatic after she prevailed in a party primary race against City Council member Reggie Gaffney in August.

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She appeared with other Democrats at events that promoted the party’s full tickets of candidates and gave her endorsement to others, such as Congressional candidate LaShonda "L.J." Holloway, whose paths looked harder.

State Rep. Tracie Davis, shown talking to a crowd outside the Duval County Courthouse during a May demonstration regarding abortion rights, is running to represent District 5 in the Florida Senate.
State Rep. Tracie Davis, shown talking to a crowd outside the Duval County Courthouse during a May demonstration regarding abortion rights, is running to represent District 5 in the Florida Senate.

Davis, 52, began her Legislature career representing House District 13 after the previous officeholder, Reggie Fullwood, was indicted on fraud charges.

A one-time elections official and city compliance officer, she developed supporters who helped her raise more than $1 million for the campaign for the larger 335,000-voter Senate district, which covers most of Jacksonville inside Interstate 295 as well as Westside neighborhoods east of the First Coast Expressway.

Kumar, 75, had run unsuccessfully for seats on the Duval Soil and Water Conservation District, and readily admitted that the Senate run was an uphill battle. But he said there was a first time for everything and that he was happy to try for the seat, which was formerly held by Jacksonville mayoral candidate Audrey Gibson.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Florida Senate District 5: Tracie Davis defeats Binod Kumar