The primary elections for the Palm Coast City Council were held on Tuesday, with two races being narrowed to a pair of candidates. In District 2 it’ll be Tony Amaral Jr. and Jeani Duarte on the November ballot, while Dee Galery and Darlene Shalley advanced in the District 4 race.
If any candidate in the two races had eclipsed 50% of the vote, they would’ve won the seat then and there. Since that didn’t happen, the candidates with the two highest vote totals moved on to the November general election.
“I’m just really excited and grateful. We’ve worked extremely hard for the last 10 months, so to see the support from Palm Coast tonight means a lot to me,” Galery said. “I want to thank everyone who voted for me, supported me, volunteered, and believed in this campaign. We made it through the first round, but the work isn’t done yet. Now we’re headed to November, and I’m ready to keep working, keep listening, and earn even more support along the way. I’m excited. Let’s keep going!”
Three candidates filed in the District 2 race: Amaral, Duarte, and Jimmy Hengy. Amaral easily paced the field with exactly 45.0% of the vote, but fell short of preventing a runoff. Duarte was next with 30.17%, followed by Hengy at 24.83%.
“It’s kind of where I was hoping to be,” Amaral said on Tuesday. “I’m getting a lot of support from people so I think I’m right where I kind of felt I was going to end up being. So now I’m just looking forward to some debates and going to November.”
“I’m thankful for everybody who’s participated, let’s make the general election a bigger and better turnout,” Duarte said. “I was hoping better, between me and [Jimmy] Hengy it was close to 60%. I felt like we were going to beat Amaral by at least 60%. So the tally between the two of us is right about what I was expecting.”
District 2:
- Tony Amaral Jr. – 45.00% – 8,903 – ADVANCES TO RUNOFF
- Jeani Duarte – 30.17% – 5,970 – ADVANCES TO RUNOFF
- Jimmy Hengy – 24.83% – 4,912
District 4:
- Dylana ‘Dee’ Galery – 26.94% – 5,262 – ADVANCES TO RUNOFF
- John Kvederis – 23.45% – 4,580
- Ramon Marrero – 17.55% – 3,428
- Darlene Shelley – 32.06% – 6,262 – ADVANCES TO RUNOFF
