Kat Cammack wins election to U.S. House of Representatives but loses home county

Florida voters reelected Republican Kat Cammack to the U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday evening.

Cammack held a commanding lead over her Democratic challenger and local advocate, Danielle Hawk, early Tuesday as results poured in.

Results show that Cammack won by more than 74,000 votes, with approximately 62.5% of the total votes. While Cammack had a decisive victory, she still lost her home county of Alachua County by a considerable amount. Hawk carried Alachua County with 58.3% of the vote, a lead of almost 17,000, though the lead was insurmountable.

In her victory speech, Cammack said Republicans in 2024 will take back the U.S. House, Senate and “take back the damn White House.”

“What we've seen has been nothing but Democrat-controlled policies with no Republican input for the last two years,” she told the crowd at Granville Plantation in Newberry. “And you're seeing across the country, people are rejecting that, they want balance, and they want common sense, and they want sanity.”

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Cammack, 34, was first elected to Congress in 2020 after being endorsed by then-president Donald Trump. She previously served as the chief of staff for Ted Yoho, who held the seat for four terms before stepping down.

She has been an outspoken firebrand for the GOP, attacking abortion rights policies protecting the 2nd Amendment. She did, however, vote to preserve same-sex marriage in May.

“As a Republican, I believe that we are the party of freedom for all, not freedom for some, and I think that is a cornerstone of who we are as Americans,'' Cammack said. “There are no second-class citizens in this country, and I will fight to my dying day to ensure equal protection under the law for every single citizen in this country, and I don't care what box you check, but that is a core value that I will continue to uphold no matter what.”

Hawk concedes, vows to keep fighting

The seat, which includes Alachua, Clay, Putnam and Bradford counties and most of Marion County, is a conservative stronghold, encompassing smaller rural cities, though Gainesville is in the heart of the district.

“We all saw the writing on the wall before today,” Hawk said. “There are little wins that we've had along the way that we are really excited about and there's a lot to be grateful for in this election, regardless of the outcome.

Hawk, 28, said she is going to keep fighting for Florida residents as an advocate but understands Florida has become more conservative through the years.

“I think, overall, we as Democrats are just really disappointed with the way that Florida turned out tonight,” she said. “We are not seeing the numbers that we need to keep this state purple, if not flip it blue.”

Hawk said her opponent is “still one of the most extreme members of Congress, who continuously votes against bipartisan common-sense legislation,” and doesn’t foresee that changing.

Victory celebration in Newberry

White drapes and American flags hung in the barnyard as about 200 attendees poured into Kat Cammack’s victory party until about 10 p.m.. Country music blasted throughout the venue as people sported Cammack and DeSantis attire.

Mark Kaye, host of the radio talk show “The Mark Kaye Show” got up on stage a few times to update attendees on polling and when the congresswoman would appear to make a victory speech.

At one point, he told people not to worry if they heard loud booms because they expected that liberal heads would be exploding all over Gainesville.

Alachua County resident Pam Sanchez was in attendance and said she supports Cammack because she fights for it all, including immigration issues, human trafficking awareness and a "free country."

“I really love to see the breath of freshness in women that have that kind of love for our country, that have the gut, you know, to stand up for what, as Americans, we deserve in a free country,” she said. “She's just, she's very authentic, she's very real, she's very American.”

Rhonda Tomlinson, a retiree and attendee who was with Sanchez, said she also appreciates what Cammack stands for.

“I know she’s fighting, she’s fighting for not just certain counties, she's fighting for the entire state of Florida and for the United States,” Tomilson said.

Before the results came out, both said there was absolutely no way that Cammack would lose.

“On the floor of Congress, she's turned heads up there,” Sanchez said. “She's demanded to be heard, and you don’t get that in a lot of politicians. They just silently do whatever they do, but she’s not silent.”

During her victory speech, Cammack said she held her event out in Newberry, far away from the other election parties so attendees could be together and "unashamedly American."

“This is really cool because the road to taking back the House didn't just happen overnight,” she said. “There was a lot of hard work and so many stories I could tell, but I'll sum it up; it started right here in Florida's Third Congressional District.”

Following the selection of Republican Sen. Ben Sasse at the University of Florida, Cammack said she hopes to see a restored balance of tenured professors on university campuses soon, as well as equal protection for conservative students.

Cammack also added that she hoped to soon see a more civil, healthy dialogue between Republicans and Democrats, rather than shouting matches.

“All that work, all that time, that effort, is going to result in not just draining the swamp, but firing Nancy Pelosi once and for all,” Cammack said.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Kat Cammack wins reelection for U.S. Congress seat over Danielle Hawk