Longtime Republican state legislator Debbie Mayfield of Indialantic is seeking to return to her former position as state senator, representing District 19. Mayfield currently is a member of the Florida House of Representatives. Standing in her way in the June 10 special election for the Senate seat is Democratic candidate Vance Ahrens of Grant-Valkaria. Ahrens also ran for this Florida Senate District 19 seat last November, but lost to Republican Randy Fine, while getting 40.64% of the vote. However, Fine resigned that seat, effective March 31, so he could run for Congress in Florida 6th Congressional District, a six-county area that includes Daytona Beach.
Fine was elected to Congress on April 1 , and the Senate District 19 seat now is vacant. Ahrens and Mayfield want to fill that vacancy, and are squaring off in the June 10 special election. The district includes most of Brevard County, except for mainland areas from Titusville north to the Volusia County line.
Mayfield currently is a member of the Florida House , representing District 32 in Central Brevard County. She is resigning her seat on June 9 to run for this Senate seat, which she previously held before having to give it up in 2024 because of term limits. Because of the gap in tenure, Mayfield is allowed to seek the Senate seat again in this election. Mayfield was a member of the Florida House from 2008 to 2016, then was a member of the Florida Senate from 2016 to 2024, before returning to the House after the November 2024 election.
Mayfield on April 1 won a four-candidate Republican primary for the Senate seat , receiving 60.81% of the vote. Ahrens was the only Democratic candidate in this special election, so she did not have to run in a primary. Ahrens worked in health care as a surgical technician for more than 20 years, and currently works as a retail manager. The election winner will serve the remainder of Fine's four-year term, which runs until November 2028. Florida Senate members have a salary of $29,697 a year. There also will be a special election on June 10 for Mayfield's current House District 32 seat. Facing off in that election are Republican Brian Hodgers of Viera and Democrat Juan Hinojosa of Rockledge. Until 2015, Ahrens was a registered Republican. "I grew up in a conservative household, and registered as a Republican, because that's what you did," Ahrens said. "I always voted independently, and have never voted for a Republican president." Ahrens said she switched to Democratic Party in 2015, at a time "the Republicans shifted further to the right."
TOP ISSUES
Although the candidates for Senate District 19 are far apart on the political spectrum, both Ahrens and Mayfield cite inflation and property insurance as among their top issues.
Vance Ahrens
The top priority is still the economy from rising costs from tariffs and inflation, and an insurance crisis that is still in peril. I want to address these issues from a consumer focus, and focus on the cause. If we can mitigate damage, the burden on insurance will decrease. We need politicians who will listen and answer to the people, instead of ignoring our issues in favor of power moves.
Debbie Mayfield
Affordability: As it pertains to housing, we need to continue to support full funding of the Sadowski program, which provides down-payment assistance to first-time homebuyers. We should also continue to look for public/private partnerships to assist in affordable-housing needs. More broadly, Floridians of all stripes continue to face an affordability crisis. The Legislature needs to embrace robust tax relief to put money back in the pockets of struggling Floridians. This includes evaluating our property-tax system, and working to ease the financial burden on our residents.
Insurance: The Legislature enacted policies over the last three years that have stabilized the insurance market by reining in lawsuit abuse. We need to protect those reforms, while holding insurance companies accountable to do right by their policyholders and bring down insurance premiums.
Infrastructure: Florida’s current infrastructure received a grade of “C” from the American Society of Civil Engineers. With the continued growth in Florida, we must continue to fund our five-year work program with the
Florida Department of Transportation . In addition, we need a five-year work plan for our underground utilities that would also include replacement and repair of our aging underground utilities, such as our water and sewer lines.
CAMPAIGN SPENDING
Ahrens: Raised $16,715.20 and spent $8,432,92 through May 1.
Mayfield: Raised $169,986.25 and spent $169,034.83 through May 1, with most of that during her Republican primary campaign.
MORE ON THE CANDIDATES
Vance Ahrens
Debbie Mayfield
Florida House of Representative: 2024 to present. Florida Senate: 2016 to 2024, representing Brevard County. Florida House of Representatives: 2008 to 2016, representing Indian River County.
MORE ON THE ELECTION
Election Day is June 10, with polls open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. There also will be eight days of early in-person voting, from May 31 through June 7. There are 401,333 registered voters in Senate District 19 eligible to vote in this election. Of those, 44.9% are Republicans; 25.9% are Democrats; 25.5% are no-party-affiliation voters; and 3.7% are members of a minor political party.
Dave Berman is business editor at FLORIDA TODAY.
Contact Berman at , on X at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54
