In a tight race for the legislative seat representing District 93, incumbent Katherine Waldron narrowly lost to Republican opponent Anne Gerwig.
After the close results triggered an automatic recount last week, Waldron lost by 356 votes and received 49.81% of the 91,520 votes, compared to Gerwig’s 50.19%.
Waldron is no stranger to close elections. In the 2022 race, she won by a narrow margin of 864 votes out of 66,790.
“We obviously would have preferred to have a substantial win, which we did not get,” Waldron told OutSFL. “I ran a solid, clean campaign on my accomplishments, in my vision, in my platform. I cannot say the same for my opponent.”
Gerwig didn’t respond to OutSFL’s request for comment.
The race drew local attention after Gerwig ran attack ads against Waldron, even though she pledged in July that she would refrain from negative campaigning.
The ads dubbed Waldron “wacky” and said she “voted for sexually explicit books in grade schools and taxpayer-funded sex change operations for minors.”
The Palm Beach County Human Rights Council (PBCHRC) said the claims, which referred to Waldron’s votes on SB 254 and HB 1069, were mischaracterized.
HB 1069 doesn’t require placing or keeping sexually explicit books in grade schools, and SB 254 doesn’t mandate taxpayer-funded sex change operations for minors, according to PBCHRC.
Waldron said the attack ads promoted negativity and misled voters.
“I think the voters deserve to be told what a person's platform is, what they think they want to do, what they want to accomplish,” Waldron said. “So when you just attack a person without offering any solutions, I don't think you're helping the community.”
PBCHRC president Rand Hoch said he was disappointed to see Gerwig’s tactics prevail. He said the results show that there’s more work to be done in the community.
“While LGBTQ and allied voters came out in droves and voted solidly for Waldron, we now must strengthen our commitment to work with other civil rights organizations and women’s organizations to achieve common goals,” Hoch said.
Waldron called Gerwig’s decision to run the ads after pledging a civil campaign “hypocritical.”
“It's unfortunate that people feel that they need to go negative as much as they do,” Waldron said. “I think it just creates divisiveness.”
