Laurie Cox wins School Board District 4 seat, joins board as only Republican
Laurie Cox thanked her friends and family gathered in her home Tuesday night for helping her win the Leon County School Board's District 4 seat.
With all precincts reporting, Cox steamed ahead with 54.16% of the vote.
Alex Stemle, her opponent, trailed behind with 45.84%, according to the Leon County Supervisor of Elections Office.
Election Day live updates: Follow along for the latest from Tallahassee, Leon County
ELECTION RESULTS: See results from local and statewide races
About 40 people standing in Cox's kitchen and living room took a break from watching the rest of the Election Day results roll in on CBS when Cox hushed the room to thank her supporters.
"You just try to make an impact wherever God places you, whether you're at work, at the grocery store or at the Circle K," she said.
"It has been a most incredible experience. I am most thankful to you, and thankful to God, first of all, who called me to do this," she added.
In Leon County, 27,751 people voted in the District 4 race.
Stemle posted a statement on Facebook with a "feeling frustrated," emoji:
"Tonight did not end the way we had hoped and our #KIDSFIRST pro public school message did not win the day. Proud of our clean campaign and the positive example we set for our community – we refused to go dirty. I wish our new school board the best."
Sle
As polls closed at 7 p.m., Stemle led Cox by less than 1 percentage point, but lost the lead as Election Day votes began rolling in.
In the August primary, Stemle won the most votes with 46.4%, only 2.4 percentage points ahead of Cox, who fell closely behind with 44% of the vote.
Cox, who was a PE teacher for 33 years with the district, outraised Stemle in campaign contributions almost three-fold as of late October.
Cox will take the District 4 seat Nov. 22.
Candidate background: Leon County School Board, District 4
District 4 covers part of the poorest ZIP code in the state and one of the most affluent ZIP codes in the county.
While the district is made up of predominantly Democrat voters, Cox is a registered Republican. Stemle switched his party affiliation from Republican to Independent in 2021.
The District 4 seat came up for grabs when Dee Dee Rasmussen, a registered Democrat, resigned in May after 14 years on the school board.
Throughout the campaign, partisan state politics snuck their way into the nonpartisan race.
Mailers sponsored by the local Republican Party with attacks on Stemle's relationship with the teachers union sparked both candidates to come out and speak against the partisan rhetoric.
"Neither me nor my campaign had anything to do with that flyer," wrote Cox in a text message.
“Our best solutions for our kids will come from the middle, not the extremes,” wrote Stemle in a text message.
With her election, Cox becomes the first Republican to join the Leon County School Board. She is also the first Republican to hold elected office since the ouster of Bryan Desloge in 2020 from the Leon County Commission.
School Board District 3
Darryl Jones, who faced a write-in candidate, won with more than 96% of the vote for Leon County School Board District 3.
Jones, deputy director of the joint city and county office of economic vitality, is currently the board chair. This will be his second term on the school board.
CORRECTION: An earlier headline on this story referred to Laurie Cox as the first Republican on the School Board rather than the only Republican on the School Board.
Contact Ana Goñi-Lessan at AGoniLessan@tallahassee.com and follow her on Twitter @goni_lessan.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Leon County School Board District 4 race: Cox wins
