Winter Springs election to be heavily contested as candidates line up

More candidates are filing to run for office in Seminole County and Winter Springs, heralding a potentially busy election season.

The primary election will be held Aug. 18, 2026, and the general election will be held Nov. 3, 2026. And the qualifying period for federal and state candidates is later this month. 

“There’s a lot of interest in a lot of the races,” Seminole County Supervisor of Elections Amy Pennock said. “The more serious candidates are already in when you’re talking about countywide.”

Both incumbent Republican county commissioners have drawn Democratic opposition candidates. All the school board races are contested, and two of the three Winter Springs offices up for election have challengers. 

Pennock said for the county-wide races, most candidates are going to have filed by now.

“Sometimes at the municipal level, you see people file and qualify in the same week,” Pennock said. “But that doesn’t happen as much at the county level.” 

In total, there are 37 offices up for potential election in Seminole County, from Circuit Court judges to community development district members to Soil and Water Conservation District supervisor. So far, candidates have filed for 16 of those races. Of those 16, nine are competitive, with more than one candidate running. 

Oviedo, though, as of yet does not have any challengers who have filed to run against the three incumbent city council members up for reelection. 

Seminole County had 73 percent voter turnout in 2024, during a highly-contested presidential election. In 2022, the last year the governor was on the ballot, turnout was lower, at about 54%.

Turnout during the 2023 city elections for Oviedo and Lake Mary was a meager 22%.

Qualifying for state offices, which also includes public defender and judicial offices, begins April 20 at noon and ends April 24 at noon. Qualifying for federal offices, the governor, cabinet, county offices and special districts runs from June 8 at noon and ends June 12 at noon.

See below for a breakdown of new entrants into the political races in Seminole County for 2026. And check here for Oviedo Community News’ candidate guide for the 2026 election. 

Editor’s note: A story analyzing candidates for the 2026 school board race will publish next week. 

Both county commissioners get a challenger for 2026

Both county commission seats have drawn challengers for the 2026 election. 

Seminole County Commissioners are in charge of a $1.2 billion budget, and earn one of the highest salary of any elected official in the county: projected to be over $100,000 in 2026. All five current commissioners are Republicans.

County Commissioner Amy Lockhart was first elected to the County Commission in 2018 and reelected in 2022. Charline Santos has filed as a Democrat to run against Lockhart for the District 4 seat. 

Santos said she currently works as a strategist for an advertising firm, and has worked as a realtor previously, according to her campaign site. She was also chair of the diversity committee for the Seminole County Democratic Party. 

“Let me tell you the reason why I’m running, and the biggest thing for me is that what I’m seeing is the stability that Seminole County is known for isn’t reaching every corner of the community,” Santos said. 

Santos pointed toward increasing numbers of homeless children in Seminole County Public Schools, and increasing costs for people living in the county. She said people can’t afford the $2,500 rent that’s considered affordable housing. 

“People can’t afford that, and families are really paying the price,” Santos said. “They’re getting priced out of Seminole County, and at the same time, we’re seeing residents are being asked to carry more of the burden. So the last few months, we had increases on … property taxes. This is the first time in 16 years that we received higher property taxes.” 

Lockhart said she would encourage people to run for office. But, she added, the county is dealing with more issues from Tallahassee lawmakers, including an attempt to gut Seminole County’s rural boundary. 

“I think we’re at a critical time in our county’s future,” Lockhart said. “We’re constantly dealing with challenges at the state level. I think it’s critical that we have leadership in place who understands that, and can protect and be the voice of citizens on issues, particularly the rural boundary.”

County Commissioner Jay Zembower was first elected in 2018, and reelected in 2022. Nakicha Dunn has filed to run against Zembower. 

Dunn is registered as a Democrat living in Sanford. You can see her Instagram post announcing her candidacy here. 

“I am the community. I’ve been through community programs,” Dunn told Oviedo Community News in an interview. “I just feel like there are people out here to have voices about different things, and it’s not being heard. And I’m one of those people.”

Dunn also said affordability is an issue in Seminole County. She said she hopes an effort to eliminate property taxes in Florida is successful.

“But taxes [are] a main thing for me,” Dunn said. “I’m definitely hoping (Gov. Ron) DeSantis gets these property taxes off of us. I think that would definitely help everybody in the community, especially with even having extra money.” 

Zembower also said he encourages people to run.

“Both of us have to qualify in June, and I’m sure we’ll interact and have some debates. Until then, there’s not really a whole lot to do,” Zembower said. “I encourage anybody that wants to run for office, if they think they can make a difference, certainly they should do that.”

Zembower has come under fire with allegations that he doesn’t live in Winter Springs, or District 2. Zembower has a farm in Chuluota as well that, he said, he uses as an office. He also is registered to vote and the address on his driver’s license is in Winter Springs.

Zembower sent a photo of his driver’s license and voter registration card showing a Winter Springs address as proof that he’s in the correct district. 

“My district is the proper district,” Zembower said. “My homesteaded residence is Winter Springs.” 

Zembower added that he also owns a home in Palm Beach, a farm in Alabama and a residence in Ontario, Canada.

The week to qualify for governor, cabinet, county and special districts is June 8, 2026 at noon to June 12, 2026 at noon. That includes the County Commission seats.

Candidates would also need to pay the fee for office in Seminole County, which is 6% of the salary for a partisan race. For the County Commission, that equates to $6,779. Candidates can also qualify by getting 3,510 petitions signed and verified by end of the qualifying period. 

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In Winter Springs, Resnick draws two opponents, while Bruce is unopposed

For Winter Springs, three offices are up for election in 2026. 

Commissioner Cade Resnick has drawn two opponents this election season. Resnick first served as a commissioner from 2010 to 2018. Resnick was elected again in 2022, and is up for reelection this November.  

Resnick and other city commissioners had to repay the city for expenses at a Florida League of Cities conference in 2025, including spending on alcohol. 

“It’s gonna be a lot,” Resnick said. “This is going to be a very dirty, very nasty election season. There’s a lot going on.”

Resnick said that things in the city weren’t going well under previous administrations. But now things are better, he said, pointing to the city breaking ground soon on a new wastewater treatment plant. 

“We are now moving in the right direction,” Resnick said. 

Pastor Kyle Stewart is one of the two candidates who have filed against Resnick. Stewart is cofounder and pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church of Winter Springs. 

“I’ve lived in different parts of Florida,” Stewart said. “My desire is to be buried here in this city. Our infrastructure needs some serious planning – 50 to 100 years out.” 

Stewart said he has “nothing personally against” Resnick. He said his main focus is on how the city will grow. 

“How we do smart development – that’s very important to me,” Stewart said. 

Ronald Lee Bojilov is the other challenger for Resnick’s District 4 seat. Bojilov said he works in cyber security and IT, and is also a personal trainer and trivia and karaoke host. 

“I’m looking to be a candidate that can stand up and be transparent and solve problems,”  Bojilov said. 

Bojilov said he has never been to a City Commission meeting, but has been to HOA meetings. 

“When I’m looking at the people leading us right now, I see enough issues that I can step [in] and lead,” Bojilov said. 

Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann is running for reelection. His opponent is Jesse Phillips, the cofounder of the Winter Springs Community Association and a former vice chair of the Republican Party of Florida. 

Phillips lobbied state leaders to put a referendum on the ballot to give the mayor a vote and, potentially, the ability to hire and fire staff if the City Commission voted to add that authority. A Charter Review Commission will instead look at possible changes to the Winter Springs charter after the bill was defeated in the 2026 Florida Legislature. 

A third candidate entered the race this week as well: Joel Cooper. Cooper did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Commissioner Victoria Bruce was first elected in 2022. She doesn’t currently have a challenger. 

In Winter Springs, candidates must pay a $150 fee to run for office, or sign a form saying that would be a financial burden. Candidates also must have signatures from 15 Winter Springs voters. 

Qualifying week will be held from Monday, Aug. 24 at noon to Friday, Aug. 28 at noon.

“Anyone can file as long as they have it on noon that Friday,” Winter Springs City Clerk Christian Gowan said.  

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Oviedo elections uncontested – for now

There are three seats up for election in 2026 in Oviedo but, so far, no challengers have filed to challenge the incumbents.

The current seats up for reelection in 2026 are: 

• Council Member Group 2, currently held by 20-year incumbent Keith Britton, first elected in 2006.
• Council Member Group 3, currently held by incumbent Alan Ott, who was first elected in 2024. 
• Council Member Group 4, currently held by incumbent Jeff Boddiford, who was elected in 2020.

Incumbent Oviedo council member Alan Ott hasn’t filed to run for reelection yet, but expects to file “very soon.” He said challengers could still come out.

“It’s still kind of early,” Ott said. “I didn’t file until the last day of May in 2024. … It would be premature to call these uncontested.”

In 2024, an analysis of elections by Ballotpedia found that nationwide, 70% of elections went uncontested, with elected law enforcement officials running uncontested 78% of the time. Florida fared better than the national average, having about 30% of races uncontested. 

According to that analysis, the category with the highest rate of uncontested elections was local judges, where a stunning 93% of races were uncontested; out of 144 races statewide, only 10 were contested. County Commissioner races went uncontested a third of the time statewide. 

Aubrey Jewett, associate professor and associate school director at the University of Central Florida’s School of Politics, Security and International Affairs, said at the municipal level there often aren’t a lot of people vying to run for office.

That’s because it’s a difficult job that doesn’t usually pay well, Jewett said. And when researchers surveyed candidates about why they ran, the No. 1 reason is that those currently in office were not addressing an issue that was important to them. 

“There still may be challengers we don’t know about, but just the fact that a number of people jumped into Winter Springs early and no one has jumped into the race in Oviedo suggests there’s a higher level of satisfaction in Oviedo and there’s more controversy in Winter Springs,” Jewett said.  

In Oviedo, the 2026 Qualifying Period is Monday, Aug. 3 through noon on Friday, August 7, 2026 during normal business hours in the City Clerk’s Office.

Want to contact your elected leaders and weigh in on this topic? Find their contact information here. Have a news tip or opinion to share with OCN? Do that here.

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.

Correction: a previous version of this story misspelled Nakicha Dunn’s name. An earlier version also incorrectly characterized the salaries of county commissioners.