LAKELAND, Fla. -- Kristen Carlson won the Democratic Primary for Florida's 15th Congressional District, with 53 percent of the vote, surpassing Navy veteran Andrew Learned, who garnered 31.5 percent of the vote and retired police detective Ray Pena, who had 15 percent of the vote.
- Kristen Carlson wins Democratic Primary for 15th District race
- Carlson will face GOP nomination Ross Spano in November
- Carlson's campaign focusing on:
- Pro-choice
- Ban on assault weapons
- Immigration reform
She received the news while surrounded by a relatively small gathering of friends and family at her home in Lakeland.
Unlike the other candidates who'd been campaigning for a year, she entered the race in May and surpassed candidates from both parties with fundraising.
She ran a campaign that vowed to protect Medicare and Social security, make healthcare more affordable and accessible and bring higher paying jobs to District 15. The Tampa attorney touted her experience as former general counsel for the Florida Department of Citrus, and former prosecutor. She believes her extensive work experience led her to winning the primary.
"It validates some of the things that I felt in my heart that if we could run a positive campaign and a campaign that promised to work on bipartisan solutions to some of the nations biggest problems," said Kristen Carlson during her election party.
During her victory speech, she ended by reading a passage from John McCain's farewell message that read, "we weaken our greatness when we confuse our patriotism with tribal rivalries that have sown resentment and hatred and violence in all the corners of the globe. We weaken it when we hide behind walls, rather than tear them down, when we doubt the power of our ideals, rather than trust them to be the great force for change they have always been."
Andrew Learned, 32, sent the following concession statement:
“I could not be more proud of the campaign that we ran. Over the last year, our movement helped push Dennis Ross into an early retirement, giving us the opportunity to flip this seat and have a true representative in Congress. We made our case and steered the conversation towards our progressive values: feed the hungry, care for the sick, and treat people fairly. Now, I look forward to ensuring that we continue the progressive momentum of the last year and a half so that we have a Democrat in this seat next January."
Carlson will compete in the general election against Republican Ross Spano. She believes she has what it takes to flip the district blue. It's historically been a Republican stronghold.
"Ross Spano and I are both lawyers but I’ve been a lawyer in the agricultural sector for most of my life. I’ve been a prosecutor. I've worked for the Florida Department of Transportation, and even though he’s been in the legislature, I’ve had lots of experience both in Tallahassee and in Washington. So I think I’d be a good competitor against him," said Kristen Carlson.
The two have stark differences. Carlson is pro-choice, she's pushing for universal background checks, and ban on bump stocks and high capacity magazines and assault weapons. According to her website, she also supports comprehensive immigration reform including a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.
Spano, on the other hand, wants to protect the unborn and vows to eliminate government funding of Planned Parenthood. According to his website, he vows to protect gun owners constitutional right to bear arms and will "strive to make life easier for law abiding gun owners."He also says he would vote to fully repeal Obamacare if elected.