2017 Florida State Senate 40th district special election

A special election for Florida's 40th Senate district took place on September 26, 2017, to fill a vacancy. Democrat Annette Taddeo defeated Republican Jose Felix Diaz, with approximately 23,000 votes to 21,000.^[1]^[2]^[3]

The vacancy had been caused by Republican Senator Frank Artiles's resignation on April 21, 2017, after he unleashed a tirade of racist and sexist remarks to two African-American senators.^[4]

Primaries

Primary elections took place on July 25, 2017.

Republican primary

127 of 138 Precincts Reporting

Republican Primary^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Jose Felix Diaz	7,528	57.60%
	Republican	Alex Diaz de la Portilla	3,371	25.79%
	Republican	Lorenzo J. Palomares	2,171	16.61%
Total votes			13,070	100.00

Democratic primary

127 of 138 Precincts Reporting

Democratic Primary^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Annette Taddeo	6,955	70.59%
	Democratic	Ana Rivas Logan	2,897	29.41%
Total votes			9,852	100.00

General Special Election

Results

General election results^[6]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	Annette Taddeo	22,649	50.9%
	Republican	Jose Felix Diaz	20,985	47.2%
	Independent	Christian Schlareth	820	1.8%
Majority			1,664	3.7%
Turnout			44,454
	Democratic gain from Republican		Swing