The new State Representative for District 82 will be Liesa Priddy. She is a Republican who won 61 percent of the votes on Tuesday night.

District 82 covers large parts of Collier and Hendry counties, which includes rural towns like Immokalee, Ave Maria, LaBelle, and Clewiston, but also the large wetland areas of the Everglades.

Priddy is a third-generation rancher born and raised in Immokalee. Based on her experiences in banking and ranching, she is a proponent of smaller government and fiscal responsibility. She seeks to trim costs in government and to transfer the savings to the people.

Priddy defeated Democratic candidate Arthur Boyer whose professional background as a professor led him to seek higher pay and affordable housing for teachers.

District 82 has a large immigrant population due to agricultural production, so recent ICE impacts was a hot topic for both candidates. Priddy acknowledged immigrants as the backbone for agriculture, but she stated that decisions by the Department of Homeland Security is a federal mandate that falls outside of state and district jurisdiction. On the other hand, since Boyer is an immigrant who has lived in Immokalee for three decades, he identified closely with the farmworker residents and said he sought to work on getting ICE agents out of communities.

Lisa Priddy succeeds Republican Lauren Melo who represented District 82 for the past four years and has now been elected to the Senate.

The Republican win in this District aligns with the historical trend of this area being strongly Republican. According to Ballotpedia, the last time a Democrat was elected to House District 82 was more than four decades ago in the 1980s and early 90s.

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