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Esposito won the Republican primary nomination Tuesday with 71 percent of the vote, according to Lee County Elections. Her opponent, Ford O\u2019Connell<\/a>, got 29 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrat Engelhart ran unopposed in his party and therefore wasn\u2019t on Tuesday\u2019s ballot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her Republican opponent, O\u2019Connell, congratulated Esposito in a text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n O\u2019Connell blamed his loss on \u201can insurmountable spend of over $150k+ in a misleading negative ad buy by dark money groups that we just couldn\u2019t counter.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Now\u00a0Esposito and Engelhart will be competing in November to be the first state representative for the new Florida House District 77. The district was redrawn this year as part of Florida\u2019s once-a-decade redistricting process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n District 77 now contains\u00a0Lehigh Acres (which used to be in District 79 with North Fort Myers), Three Oaks, San Carlos Park, Alva, Buckingham, and some other parts of unincorporated Lee County (including\u00a0Southwest Florida International Airport). The district previously included\u00a0Cape Coral and didn\u2019t contain\u00a0Lehigh Acres at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Both candidates have said District 77 gives the fast-growing region \u2014 and especially Lehigh Acres \u2014 a stronger voice in Tallahassee. And each candidate wants to be that voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eric Engelhart<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Engelhart, 58, of Lehigh Acres is a registered Democrat, but he calls himself more of an \u201cindependent thinker\u201d and an \u201cindependent Democrat.\u201d He says he only chose to run as a Democrat because he had to choose either Democrat or Republican to run in the closed primary system.<\/p>\n\n\n The longtime political activist works as a chauffeur for Washington, D.C.-based Company Carey International. Most of his clients are in Naples. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His key campaign issues include the environment, public safety, and getting Lehigh Acres students out of trailers and back into the main school buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Engelhart said he feels good about his chances of winning the November election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI feel very comfortable,\u201d he said in a text, \u201cand believe I can get the votes to go to Tallahassee. Very confident. \u2026 Don’t underestimate the voters in District Florida 77 House of Representatives. They will choose the candidate to represent them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked what sets him apart from Esposito, Engelhart said he\u2019s taken zero endorsements and no PAC money. Esposito declined to comment on that.<\/p>\n\n\n Tiffany Esposito<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Esposito, 35, of San Carlos Park is president and CEO of the regional chamber of commerce SWFL Inc. (formerly the Bonita Springs Chamber of Commerce). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Her key campaign issues are mostly related to businesses and the Southwest Florida economy. That includes building or repairing roads, ports, and other infrastructure; ensuring that\u00a0students are getting trained for careers that exist in Southwest Florida, and building more affordable housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Facts. Not frenzy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Esposito\u2019s homesteaded property is not in House District 77.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Cut through the clutter with comprehensive election coverage.<\/p>\n\n\n She also opposes sex education and the teaching of critical race theory in public schools. On Tuesday, she added that she believes in protecting the second amendment and \u201cmaking sure we are protecting life at all stages. So a pro-life campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Esposito said she also feels confident going into the general election. \u201cLike I said, we have a really strong grassroots campaign, and meeting the voters and hearing what they have to say \u2014 that all makes a difference in getting your name out there and building a following.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Esposito said she doesn\u2019t know enough about Engelhart\u2019s platform to comment on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For more information about both candidates, visit voteforericengelhart.com<\/a> or tiffanyforfl.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Editorial Who will be the voice of the new Florida House District 77? Voters will decide in November when\u00a0Republican Tiffany Esposito\u00a0and\u00a0Democrat Eric Engelhart\u00a0face off. Esposito won the Republican primary nomination Tuesday… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":54568,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[1569],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54569,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54563\/revisions\/54569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/13379189-650f-4499-9550-23c642b9cec1-ERIC_ENGELHART_2.webp\")
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