Tampa's Ashley Herrmann Wins District 69 House Seat

Ashley Herrmann will represent District 69 in the Florida House after defeating incumbent State Rep. Danny Alvarez, according to unofficial results from the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections. All precincts have reported, and Herrmann holds just under 52% of the vote.

Herrmann, a community organizer and the first in her family to attend college, campaigned against data centers and argued developers should cover the full cost of reviewing their projects. She criticized Alvarez's votes on bills including HB 399, which limits how much local governments like Hillsborough County can charge developers for project reviews and narrows the grounds for rejecting those projects.

Speaking last month on WMNF's public affairs program The Skinny, Herrmann said builders and the construction industry put about $233,000 into Alvarez's campaign and political committee, including a Riverview homebuilder. Alvarez appeared on the same program and said candidates do not necessarily know who is contributing to PACs supporting their campaigns.

Herrmann's victory was one of several Democratic pickups in Hillsborough County. First-time candidate Luis Salazar won 59% of the vote against Dan Weldon. Former Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera earned 66% against Republican Lisette Bonano.

Hillsborough Republicans held three state House seats. Karen Gonzalez Pittman narrowly defeated Ben Braver in District 65. Traci Koster won District 66, and Ryan Gill won District 68.