Dance Wins Re-Election, Richardson and Carney Win Commission, Ramirez and Ruddy Win School Board, Norris and Manfre in Runoff | FlaglerLive (2024)

Last Updated: 8:24 p.m.

Andy Dance won his second term on the Flagler County Commission, trouncing Fernando Melendez in the only clear runaway victory of the evening as the Supervisor of Elections announced results of the primary.

David Alfin will no longer be the mayor of Palm Coast after November. That role will be filled either by Mike Norris or Cornelia Manfre.

With all votes counted, Lauren Ramirez won the District 5 School Board seat against Vincent Sullivan, posting a 20-point-margin victory, while Janie Ruddy beat Derek Barrs by a handful of votes in District 3. “She’s definitely put on a good campaign, and I’m proud of us for both keeping it clean,” Sullivan had said of Ramirez this afternoon. “There’s been no mudslinging. So for that, I thank her.”

Ruddy won on a shoestring budget against Barr’s heavily financed operation, overcoming Barr’s Republican advantage as well, while Barr could not overcome the sense that he was newly arrived and running against an educator of long standing locally. Ruddy was celebrating this evening at the Village Pub and Deli at European Village, a business owned by a teacher where she’d kicked off her campaign months ago. But she was celebrating with some measure: “I’m going to be a little cautious. I know there’s some provisional ballots and signature checks to compare against, which will happen on Aug. 23,” she said, her eyes on a margin of less than 300 votes. “In this race its going to be quite close and I’ll feel more secure come Friday.”

In Palm Coast, Norris was the leading vote-getter by a comfortable margin, taking 32 percent of the vote in a five-way race, to Cornelia Manfre’s 22 percent. Alfin received just 19 percent, with Peter Johnson and Alan Lowe almost tied at just under 14 percent each. That sets up a run-off between Manfre and Norris, ending Alfin’s tenure. Just as arrestingly: the Palm Coast City Council will have four new members when they are sworn in the first week of December, with Theresa Pontieri its lone holdover–if not survivor–and with just two years on the council.

In the race for state House, Sam Greco beat Darryl Boyer by well over 20 points even in Flagler, Boyer’s turf, and Tom Leek beating David Shoar and Gerry James: Leek was handily beating Shoar even in St. Johns County, Shoar’s turf.

Only two incumbents were running among the local county, school board or Palm Coast races or even the races for the state Legislature, where Sen. Travis Hutson and Rep. Paul Renner are term-limited. But it was not quite a clean-slate election. All five constitutional officers in Flagler County were re-elected without opposition, and several of the candidates have either held office before or run for local office before, some of them several times. Still, there will be two new members on the School Board, two new members on the County Commission, and at least two new members on the City Council.

In this election, just over 16,000 registered Republicans cast a ballot, compared to barely 8,000 Democrats and a little over 3,000 independents.

Correction: An earlier update briefly had Derek Barrs and Ed Danko ahead of Janie Ruddy and Pam Richardson, respectively, when we misinterpreted results as final results.

Primary Election 2024 Results: Flagler County's Local Races and State Races

Note: For statewide and multi-county results, as in the races for Congress or the State Legislature, the total tally appears first, followed by the Flagler-only tally in parenthesis.