Trump-supporting Palm Beach, Florida, town council candidate Candace Rojas lost her election Tuesday to Democratic candidate Ted Cooney.
Rojas is a small business owner and mother of four who rejected efforts by some city residents to prevent former President Donald Trump from making Mar-a-Lago his permanent post-presidency residence.
“One of my goals is to protect private property rights from government overreach. I believe Mar-a-Lago is a prime example that should alarm all residents, regardless of political affiliation,” Rojas said in late February.
Rojas added that “using the power and influence of the town council for political grudges against residents is wrong. I will not use taxpayer resident’s money for this reason.”
FLORIDA EXCEPTION? TRUMP REQUESTS MAIL-IN BALLOT, AGAIN, DESPITE RAILING AGAINST PRACTICE
During a Palm Beach council meeting Feb. 9, a lawyer for the former president argued for his right to stay at Mar-a-Lago despite calls from some residents for Trump to opt out of moving back to his Florida estate.
Though calls for Trump to find a different permanent residency have largely fizzled out in Palm Beach, Rojas’s loss shows that Democratic turnout in the city outnumbered Republican support.
Cooney, who is a realtor, won with 2,302 votes to Rojas’s 511 votes. Voter turnout was 32% of the town’s 8,764 registered voters, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.
Over half of the town’s voters cast their ballots by mail for Tuesday’s election, with 1,725 choosing the mail-in option compared to 1,088 who voted in-person. Among those mail-in voters was potentially Trump, who requested a mail-in ballot prior to the election.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Despite his criticism of mail-in ballots in Georgia and Pennsylvania during the 2020 general election, Trump has praised Florida’s vote-by-mail system, tweeting in August 2020 that it was safer and more secure than other states.
