Champion wins District 5 school board seat with 54% of vote

Kara Champion will serve as the next member of the Hernando County School Board for District 5. Unofficial results from the Supervisor of Elections Office show Champion received 54 percent of the vote, defeating incumbent Susan Duval.

Champion is the daughter of Hernando County Commissioner Steve Champion. On her Facebook page, she stated her commitment to restoring traditional core values to the county while maintaining a focus on strong academics and student success.

Other school board seats were settled in the August primary. Dana Lynn Pearce secured the District 1 seat by defeating Mark Johnson. Business owner Kathryn Birren won the District 2 seat after former County Commissioner Brian Hawkins resigned to run for the state House. Shannon Lean Rodriguez retained the District 3 seat, and Jeff Holcomb won the District 4 seat with 57,919 votes, or 88.23 percent, against write-in candidate Donald Bigelow.

In Brooksville, Robert Don Watson defeated incumbent Betty Erhard for City Council Seat 1 with 1,635 votes. Noah Hodges won Seat 4 with 1,780 votes, defeating Jennifer McCoskrie. Mayor Christa Tanner did not seek re-election, and Council Member Thomas Bronson faced no opponent.

Voters rejected a one-half cent surtax for law enforcement and public safety. The measure failed with 42,731 votes against it and 34,610 votes in favor.

Supervisor of Elections Denise LaVancher reported that long lines formed at some polling locations. At 7 p.m., 211 people were waiting to vote at the Christian Church of the Wildwood. Turnout in Hernando County reached 80,357 of 138,085 registered voters, a rate of 58.19 percent.

Voting methods broke down as follows: 32,930 voters cast ballots on Election Day, 26,833 voted early, and 20,933 voted by mail. There were 90 provisional ballots. By party affiliation, 43,990 Republicans, 20,224 Democrats, 14,097 unaffiliated voters, and 2,475 other voters cast ballots.