Republican candidate Stan McClain won the Florida State Senate District 9 seat after earning a majority in Levy County and his home county, Marion.
District 9, newly drawn in 2022, includes all of Levy and Marion and part of Alachua. Although Democratic candidate Sylvain Doré won the majority of votes in Alachua, the margin was not enough to make up for his loss elsewhere.
Doré’s campaign manager said they had no statement to make until every vote was counted when The Alligator called them Tuesday night. The New York Times called the race in McClain’s favor after he received a 63% majority with 91% of votes counted at about 9:30 p.m.
McClain has spent the past eight years as a Florida House Representative for District 27, which encompasses parts of Lake County, Marion County and Volusia County. The 63-year-old residential contractor lives in Summerfield, an unincorporated area south of Ocala.
Prior to his time in the House, he served as a Marion County Commissioner beginning in 2004.
During his time in the House, he championed conservative legislation such as the bill allowing chaplains, or members of the clergy, to volunteer in Florida schools, which he co-sponsored in the 2024 session.
McClain also co-sponsored the Florida bill banning abortions after 15 weeks and then voted to pass the subsequent six-week abortion ban in 2023.
McClain did not respond to a questionnaire from The Alligator about legislative priorities. Issues listed on his campaign website include limiting federal overreach, broadening education choice through voucher and charter schools and protecting faith and family by building a culture that “respects life and honors values like traditional marriage.”
Sylvain Doré, a former UF neuroscience professor who has lived in Gainesville for 13 years, ran against McClain. This marked Doré’s first venture into public elections after he served as UF Faculty Senate President and as a member of the Board of Trustees.
Doré told The Alligator in a questionnaire he decided to run after his experience as a doctor and educator showed him the “heartbreaking” issues, such as high cost of living and lack of protection for reproductive rights, preventing Floridians from achieving their dreams.
“The current Republican supermajority seems to be ignoring these needs and makes no effort to reach out and listen to what we really want,” he wrote.
Doré’s loss came at the end of a financially outstrapped campaign. McClain’s expenditures totalled about $145,000, a sum over two times larger than Doré’s $54,000, according to the Division of Elections campaign finance database.
McClain’s donations, about 40% of which came from political action committees, also far exceeded Doré’s. Just 23% of the total amount donated to his campaign came from within District 9. By comparison, Doré received no donations from PACs and 84% of his donations came from within his district.
McClain received more donations from Tallahassee than from any other city. His largest political action committee contributors were Duke Energy and Florida’s Electric Cooperatives, both of which donated $2,000.
This election marked the second-ever for the District 9 seat since legislators redrew Senate boundaries in 2022. Formerly, Gainesville was part of District 8, which included counties Alachua and Putman, as well as part of Marion.
District 9 now spans three counties in North Central Florida. It includes all of Levy and Marion and the southern part of Alachua.
The district division line splits Gainesville itself. Most of the city south of University Avenue falls in District 9, except a small triangle south of University containing the UF main campus. The northern part of the city, including the university, falls in District 6.
Republican Keith Perry served three terms as senator for the former District 8. In 2022, he was elected to serve as senator of the newly drawn District 9. After representing Alachua County for eight years, he did not run for reelection this cycle due to term limits.
In 2022, the first election held for the seat after District 9 was redrawn to its current form, Keith Perry defeated Democratic candidate Rodney Long after securing 65.5% of the slightly over 200,000 total votes cast.
Without an incumbent, the race began wide open before narrowing to Doré and McClain, both of whom won their primary elections unopposed.
Contact Zoey Thomas at zthomas@alligator.org. Follow her on X @zoeythomas39
Zoey Thomas is a media production junior and the Fall 2024 Enterprise Health Reporter for The Alligator. She previously worked on the University and Metro desks. Her most prized assets include her espresso machine, Regal Unlimited movie pass and HOKA running shoes.
