Choudhry and Arrington win re-election
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Ricky Booth
Ricky Booth will serve as Osceola County’s newest commissioner after winning about 60.65 percent of the vote, defeating his district 5 Democrat challenger, Tahitiana Chaffin, who captured 39.35 percent.
The district includes St. Cloud and a large swath of rural eastern Osceola County, an area Booth has represented as an Osceola County School Board member since 2014.
Booth ran unopposed by either party during his bid for School Board re-election in 2018.
He’s vacating his seat early to serve on the Board of County Commissioners, where he’ll replace fellow Republican Fred Hawkins Jr.
Robert Bass will replace Booth on the School Board after winning the seat outright during the August primaries.
Booth is a lifelong Osceola County resident. He currently works as a marketing specialist for Ludvigson Stock Farms, and owns Sunshine Ranch Management, a ranch-consulting firm.
Booth has served on the Board of Directors for the Osceola County Cattlemen's Association, Osceola County Farm Bureau and the Silver Spurs Rodeo Club.
Booth captured 25,714 votes to Chaffiin’s 16,683 votes.
In the August primaries, Booth cinched a landslide victory over his Republican challenger, Wayne Liebnitzky, with 71.7 percent of the vote.
Booth has maintained a robust and well-financed campaign. He wrangled just under $80,000 in donations, outpacing Chaffin by a margin of more than 8 to 1.
Big donors for Booth included prominent names in the cattle and agriculture industry, as well as major developers, construction firms and local politicians.
A lack of name recognition and political experience most likely made it difficult for Chaffin to gain traction in District 5, a Republican-stronghold amid an otherwise majority-Democrat and Hispanic county.
“I’m excited to continue serving the residents of District 5,” Booth told the News-Gazette on election night. “We didn’t run on Republican or Democrat issues. We ran on human issues, and that’s why we won.”
Booth said his first priority as commissioner is to sit down with the county manager and staff to solve infrastructure issues and control growth.
“That’s what is important to the residents in my district, so that’s what I’ll be working on,” he said.
Brandon Arrington wins fourth term on County Commission
Brandon Arrington was re-elected to the Osceola Board of County Commissioners for a fourth term, winning about 61.97 percent of the vote Tuesday night.
Republican Jeff Hawk placed second with 25.42 percent, no-party-affiliation candidate Ivan Rivera with 6.85 percent and Libertarian Marcos Marrero with 5.69 percent.
Arrington has represented District 3 — which covers Poinciana — since 2008.
The Arringtons are a powerful political family in Osceola. Arrington’s mother, Mary Jane, held his District 3 commission seat from 1994 to 2002. She was elected as Osceola County’s Supervisor of Elections in 2008 and won her own fourth-term re-election to office Tuesday night with 76.26 percent of the vote, defeating her no-party-affiliation challenger, Beulah Farquharson.
Brandon Arrington’s wife, Kristin, has also joined the political sphere and will soon represent Kissimmee in Tallahassee after she won the State House District 43 race outright during the August primaries. It was her first time running for public office.
Brandon Arrington ran a well-funded campaign, capturing about $80,385 in contributions.
For context, that’s more than twice as much money as the other three candidates combined.
Major donors to Arrington's campaign included HOAs, property management and construction companies, real estate firms, attorneys and local politicians. He also received at least $7,000 from Disney and its related companies.
Arrington is a Kissimmee native and serves as the executive director of Osceola Arts.
Peggy Choudhry wins in a landslide
Democrat incumbent Peggy Choudhry won her general election race for District 1 in a landslide against Janette Martinez, a write in candidate.
Choudhry defeated Jose Alvarez and Mike Hardford in the August primaries.
This will be Choudhry’s second term as commissioner of District 1.
