Buddy Dyer has been re-elected as Orlando’s mayor. Unofficial results show Dyer winning with 62.6 percent of the vote, his main challenger Paul Paulson gleaned 33.2 percent.
The election gives Dyer his fourth full term in the mayor’s office. Dyer reveled in what he calls the largest margin of his political career.
“Well I think it just validates what we’ve been doing for the past twelve years. And people like to see things working,” said Dyer. “In Tallahassee and in Washington there’s gridlock, but here in central Florida we work together across partisan lines, across jurisdiction lines and we get things done.”
Paulson poured hundreds of thousands of his own money into his campaign. And he says this may be his last race. “You never say never,” he said, “but I don’t have any political ambitions.”
Sheehan & Ings Reelected To City Commission
Orlando’s 4th and 6th district commissioners will stay in office four more years. Unofficial results show District 4 councilwoman Patty Sheehan won 69 percent of the vote over her two challengers.
Sheehan said the win felt the same as when she was first elected in 2000. “Because, you know, I was the first openly gay city commissioner and a lot of people said, ‘Oh, it’s a fluke. It’ll never last.’ And the fact that now I’m the longest serving female, it’s pretty cool.”
District 6 Commissioner Samuel Ings took home 52 percent of the vote defeating his four challengers.
The Orange County Supervisor of Elections office show more than 22,000 voters cast their ballots this election. That’s 14 percent of voters, down from the last municipal election in 2012.