Mike Norris defeated Cornelia Downing Manfre in the Palm Coast mayoral election on Tuesday, officially becoming Mayor-elect of the City of Palm Coast. He’ll take over for the outgoing Mayor David Alfin, who lost in the five-way primary election in August. Norris won with a 63.37% majority, good for 14,157 more votes than Manfre. His term will last until the 2028 election cycle.
Norris won the mayorship in his first campaign for elected office, having advanced out of the August primary with a commanding lead over Manfre. As no candidate eclipsed 50.0% of the vote, the top two finishers advanced to a runoff election. The two campaigned vigorously, at times trading personal jabs in the buildup to Tuesday.
Prior to this year, Manfre has waged two other campaigns to be elected to the Palm Coast City Council. She was beaten by then-incumbent Councilman Nick Klufas for the District 3 seat in 2020, and then placed third of six candidates in the 2021 special mayoral election. Though Palm Coast races are nonpartisan, Manfre is one of the small handful of registered Democrats in Flagler County who’ve waged competitive campaigns in recent election cycles.
Cornelia Manfre hours before the results came in on Tuesday. ⓒ Eryn Harris
“I’m disappointed of course, but I wish him well,” Manfre said after her loss became apparent. “I hope that he leads us in the next four years of his term into an efficient city and gets our infrastructure to the place it needs to be.”
Before being elected mayor, Norris spent multiple decades serving in the United States Army, and now owns Palm Coast Pressure Washing and Paint & Aloha Critter of Palm Coast. He was the earliest candidate to file for the 2024 mayoral election, and spent well over a year campaigning toward his eventual victory.
The two ran against three other candidates in the August primary election: incumbent Mayor David Alfin, plus fellow challengers Peter Johnson and Alan Lowe. Those three failed to advance out of the primary, a stark turnaround from the 2021 election in which Alfin and Lowe were the top-two finishers. Johnson’s campaign was his first for public office.
With the imminent departures of Mayor Alfin and Council members Nick Klufas and Ed Danko, the City Council will have only one member with more than a year of experience: Theresa Carli Pontieri, who was elected in 2022. Klufas was elected in 2016 and re-elected in 2020, losing his bid for the County Commission in August after term-limited off the Council. Danko was elected in 2020, but chose to run for a county seat instead of re-election. He lost his race as well. The other member, Charles Gambaro, was appointed to the City Council on October 1st after the resignation of Cathy Heighter.
- Cornelia Downing Manfre – 36.63% – 19,398
- Mike Norris – 63.37% – 33,555 (WINNER)
TR
November 5, 2024 at 9:40 pm
Congrats Mr. Norris. Glad we didn’t get another realtor as mayor. Your hands are full so good luck and hopefully you can fix the mess the last buffoon of a Mayor left.