More than one year from the November 2024 elections, Southwest Florida candidates already are campaigning to put their names on the ballot. Many aspiring officeholders are off and running, in part to rally supporters and raise money.
Lee County School District Superintendent candidate Denise Carlin, who filed earlier this month, cites the county’s size as a reason why early action is so important.
"This is a very large county where we have over 800,000 residents," she said. "It takes a lot of time and effort to get our message out to as many voters as we can."
For other political players, it’s all about raising money as early as possible. Some elected officials, like Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, actually declare their intent to run in the next election immediately after winning the previous one. But it's not just to take care of paperwork and save their spot for the next term.
Incumbents can fundraise only if they’re slated to run again. This push to immediately start thinking about re-election is especially strong in positions like state representative, which has a two-year term limit.
Political consultant Terry Miller, who often works with Southwest Florida candidates, said that filing for re-election early is just part of the state's political reality.
"If you go to the Florida Division of Elections and look at the candidates, you will see that almost every single incumbent member of the Florida House has already filed," Miller said.
Those include Spencer Roach, a Republican running for re-election in Florida House District 76, which covers Charlotte and the northern part of Lee Counties. Democrat Jim Blue has filed to run for that seat, and Blue would oppose Roach if nominated. Blue said Republican candidates already are raising lots of money for '24, and he had to file for office to start doing the same.
"They have hundreds of thousands of dollars for a local race," Blue said. "It would be surprising in years past to raise that much money."
This story was produced as part of Democracy Watch in the FGCU Journalism program, in collaboration with WGCU News.