Kat Cammack, R-Gainesville, was reelected for a third term to represent Florida’s 3rd Congressional District by a landslide win over Democrat Tom Wells.
With three quarters of the votes counted, Cammack received over 60% of votes. This margin is larger than Cammack’s 2022 win, when 62.5% of voters elected Cammack over her Democratic opponent, Danielle Hawk.
Cammack declared her win on X 19 minutes after her district’s polls closed, publishing on her personal account in response to a @DecisionDeskHQ election result post: “Thank you, #FL03! I’m so proud to represent this amazing district and to keep up our continued momentum. It’s time to keep fighting!”
This election continues the 11-year streak of this seat being won by Republicans. The seat had historically been a Democratic stronghold from 1903 until former Republican representative Ted Yoho was elected in 2013.
Florida’s 3rd Congressional District uniquely covers north central and northwest Florida, consisting of counties Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Levy, Suwannee, Union and most of Lafayette and Marion counties.
Besides its more populated areas, Ocala and Gainesville, the district is mainly made of rural small towns with 45.78% of registered voters being Republican.
Last year Cammack, 36, was recognized by the American Farm Bureau Federation for being “the outstanding new member of Congress.”
“Now more than ever, we need strong advocates for agriculture in Congress, and I’m grateful we have her in our corner,” said AMFB president Zippy Duvall when he presented the award to Cammack.
Cammack has used her campaign to appeal to working class and blue-collar demographics, as she herself grew up on a Colorado cattle ranch and is a third-generation sandblaster.
On a more national scale, Cammack and her campaign have focused on taking a conservative approach to hot button issues like abortion, the border crisis and national debt.
Cammack is openly anti-abortion. She shared during a 2021 Congressional hearing that she herself was supposed to be aborted. Earlier that week, Cammack voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2021, a bill passed in the House of Representatives that “prohibits governmental restrictions on the provision of, and access to, abortion services.”
Her campaign website states that she has a “formidable record of fighting to secure our borders and ensure our patrol agents have what they need to enforce our laws.”
Cammack has visited the southern border eight times during her two terms and has introduced three border security acts in the span of two years; the JASON Act, Human Trafficking Awareness Training Act and Department of Homeland Security Border Support Services Contracts Review Act.
Her campaign website also states that she voted against increasing the debt ceiling, introduced the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act of 2023 and currently sits on the fiscally conservative Republican Study Committee.
Following his election loss, Wells said he won't run again if Donald Trump wins the 2024 presidential election “I'm afraid there might not be a next election cycle.”
Cammack has raised $2.5 million in campaign funding and has spent roughly half. One third of the funding comes from political action committees, including her own Leadership PAC, American Grit.
For scale, her opponent Wells raised $16,081 for his 2024 campaign, which is almost $12,000 less than what he raised last election.
Neither candidate hosted nor attended a watch party.