GAINESVILLE -- Kat Cammack won her party’s 10-person Republican primary in Florida’s 3rd Congressional District on Tuesday, advancing to the general election in the race to replace retiring Rep. Ted Yoho.
Cammack lead the crowded primary field with 25 percent of GOP voters. Businessman Judson Sapp pulled 15 percent, Clay County Commissioner Gavin Rollins 14 percent, physician James St. George 13 percent, and former Gainesville City Commissioner Todd Chase 10 percent.
Democrat Adam Cristensen narrowly defeated Tom Wells by fewer than 1,000 votes in the primary to face Cammack in November. CD-3 is considered a safe Republican district. Yoho won reelection in 2018 by more than 15 points.
Cammack trailed in the fundraising race, raising $492,000 as of July. St. George brought in $921,000 between donors and loans, while Sapp raked in $777,000. St. George aired a significantly campaign of negative ads, targeting Cammack, Sapp, Rollins and Chase.
Cammack, 32, previously served as deputy chief of staff and campaign manager for Yoho. She was 24 years old with one Capitol Hill internship under her belt when she became the congressman’s campaign manager.
She has since founded the Grit Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to generating support for local first responders.
Cammack has frequently spoken about the need to amplify the voices of conservative millennial women.
“I think that our campaign and our candidacy really represents an opportunity for conservative women, particularly conservative women in the South,” Cammack told The Hill in May.
Yoho, who was elected to the House in 2012, honored a campaign promise to serve no more than four terms in the district that leans heavily Republican.