Election results: Primary Election 2024

If you’re looking for election results for candidates who are local to Greater Oviedo and Winter Springs as well as state and federal candidates, this is the place.

Editor’s note: The OCN team pours hundreds of hours into the voter guide each year so we want to make sure we covered what you needed us to cover. And if we missed something, we want to fix it. Can you please take this brief survey and tell us how we did? 

The Primary Election is when some candidate races are decided completely, such as with the school board and judgeships, but it also serves as a qualifying round for some political races, where winners in the primary election then move on to the General Election for a final round of voting in November.

Oviedo Community News has partnered with the Associated Press to share the AP’s live-updated results for federal and statewide races. That data will update automatically as the AP receives information. The OCN team will source data from the Seminole County Supervisor of Elections site to update the county races as it’s available. Learn about the candidates, the races and helpful voter information on OCN’s dedicated page: Voter Guide 2024: Primary Election.

Seminole County election results: Election night sees decisive wins and nail biters 

Two hotly contested school board races saw differing outcomes in the primary election Tuesday, as one saw a decisive victory and another will be heading to a runoff in November. A judgeship came down to being nearly within the margin for a recount. 

Robin Dehlinger will be Seminole County’s newest School Board member after winning the race for the District 4 seat which was set to be vacant after the current term after board member Amy Pennock announced she was running for Seminole County Supervisor of Elections. 

Dehlinger said at a candidate forum July 24 that she wanted to get help for kids struggling with mental health issues. “We have a mental health crisis,” she said. “We need qualified people with advanced degrees mentoring and working with our children.” She also said she wanted to see a community-led process for deciding whether, or how, to ban students from using electronic devices such as cellphones on campus. 

Dehlinger, a former teacher and principal, won her race over teacher, coach and school resource deputy Carl Tipton. With 100% of precincts reporting, she was leading with 32,794 votes, or 57%, to Tipton’s 25,243 and 43%. 

School Board seat 3 goes to runoff 

A three-way race for the School Board’s Seat 3 will now head for a run-off election in November after the top vote-getter, incumbent Abby Sanchez, won the most votes but failed to clear the 50% bar to avoid that run-off against one of her opponents. 

Sanchez had found some distance between herself and her fellow school board candidates during the July 24 candidate forum when she vocally opposed a law passed by Gov. Ron DeSantis allowing school boards to create a school chaplain program for counseling in schools. 

“I believe in the separation of church and state,” Sanchez said. “There are so many loopholes in that bill to begin with, and if we start doing that it’s going to create havoc and be an absolute disaster. It was pushed through pretty quickly. I’m Jewish. Are you going to be upset if I have a rabbi come in? I don’t think it needs to be in our schools.”

Sanchez, who had billed herself as the Board’s only veteran teacher, will face Stephanie Arguello in the Nov. 5 general election. With 100% reporting, Sanchez had received 24,248 votes, or 42% of the vote, making her the top vote-getter but well short of the threshold of just over 50% to avoid a runoff election. 

Arguello, who holds a master’s degree in public health, and former gymnastics coach Kelly Critz, who was endorsed by the controversial political group Moms For Liberty, were in a tight race that remained narrow as the votes came in. With 100% reporting, Arguello had 17,846 votes or 31%, and Critz had 16,035 votes or 28%. That narrow edge puts Arguello through to a run-off in the general election in November.

Other local results

Federal and state election results (courtesy of the Associated Press)