Lawanna Gelzer
Lawanna Gelzer ran for election to the Orlando City Council to represent District 5 in Florida. She lost in the general election on November 4, 2025.
Biography
Lawanna Gelzer's professional experience includes serving as president of the National Action Network Central Florida Chapter.[1]
Elections
2025
See also: City elections in Orlando, Florida (2025)
General election
General election for Orlando City Council District 5
Incumbent Shaniqua Rose defeated Regina Hill and Lawanna Gelzer in the general election for Orlando City Council District 5 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Shaniqua Rose (Nonpartisan) | 51.8 | 1,225 |
 | Regina Hill (Nonpartisan) | 32.7 | 773 | |
 | Lawanna Gelzer (Nonpartisan) | 15.4 | 365 | |
| Total votes: 2,363 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Gelzer in this election.
2024
City Council
See also: City elections in Orlando, Florida (2024)
General runoff election
Special general runoff election for Orlando City Council District 5
Shaniqua Rose defeated Travaris McCurdy in the special general runoff election for Orlando City Council District 5 on June 18, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Shaniqua Rose (Nonpartisan) | 54.5 | 1,025 |
 | Travaris McCurdy (Nonpartisan) | 45.5 | 857 | |
| Total votes: 1,882 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
General election
Special general election for Orlando City Council District 5
The following candidates ran in the special general election for Orlando City Council District 5 on May 21, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Shaniqua Rose (Nonpartisan) | 24.8 | 527 |
| ✔ | | Travaris McCurdy (Nonpartisan) | 23.3 | 495 |
 | Ericka Dunlap (Nonpartisan) | 21.6 | 459 | |
| Lawanna Gelzer (Nonpartisan) | 19.0 | 403 | |
| Miles Mulrain Jr. (Nonpartisan) | 5.7 | 121 | ||
| Cameron Hope (Nonpartisan) | 4.1 | 87 | ||
| TiaKeysha Ellison (Nonpartisan) | 1.6 | 33 | ||
| Total votes: 2,125 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Gelzer in this election.
Supervisor of Elections
See also: Municipal elections in Orange County, Florida (2024)
General election
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Cynthia Harris (No Party Affiliation)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for Orange County Supervisor of Elections
Karen Castor Dentel won election outright against Sunshine Grund, Dan Helm, and Wes Hodge in the Democratic primary for Orange County Supervisor of Elections on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Karen Castor Dentel | 40.2 | 190,202 |
 | Sunshine Grund | 21.6 | 102,125 | |
 | Dan Helm | 19.6 | 92,445 | |
 | Wes Hodge | 18.6 | 87,900 | |
| Total votes: 472,672 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Democratic primary election
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Republican primary election
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Joseph Davis (R)
Although Florida holds closed primaries, if all candidates in a race are from the same party, Florida law opens the primary to all voters—regardless of their party registration—in what is called a universal primary. Originally, the supervisor of elections race had four Democratic candidates in the primary and one No Party Affiliation (NPA) candidate in the general election, meaning it was not a universal primary. A circuit court order removed Cynthia Harris, the NPA candidate, from the general election ballot after early voting in the primary had begun. This decision meant that the Democratic primary became a universal primary. Because voting in the county had already begun, votes cast in the August Democratic primary were not counted and the primary was moved to the November general election date.[2]
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Gelzer in this election.
2022
See also: Municipal elections in Orange County, Florida (2022)
General election
General election for Orange County Board of County Commissioners District 6
Michael Scott defeated Lawanna Gelzer in the general election for Orange County Board of County Commissioners District 6 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Michael Scott (Nonpartisan) | 51.0 | 17,058 |
| Lawanna Gelzer (Nonpartisan) | 49.0 | 16,402 | |
| Total votes: 33,460 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Orange County Board of County Commissioners District 6
The following candidates ran in the primary for Orange County Board of County Commissioners District 6 on August 23, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Lawanna Gelzer (Nonpartisan) | 19.4 | 3,455 |
| ✔ | | Michael Scott (Nonpartisan) | 17.7 | 3,150 |
 | Cynthia Harris (Nonpartisan) | 17.6 | 3,144 | |
| Roberta Walton Johnson (Nonpartisan) | 16.7 | 2,982 | ||
| Nikki Mims McGee (Nonpartisan) | 16.3 | 2,908 | ||
| Rosemarie Diehl (Nonpartisan) | 7.4 | 1,326 | ||
| Hedder Pierre-Joseph (Nonpartisan) | 4.9 | 869 | ||
| Total votes: 17,834 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Man-Fred Albert (Nonpartisan)
- Charles Law Jr. (Nonpartisan)
2019
See also: City elections in Orlando, Florida (2019)
General runoff election
General runoff election for Orlando City Council District 6
Bakari Burns defeated Gary Siplin in the general runoff election for Orlando City Council District 6 on December 3, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Bakari Burns (Nonpartisan) | 68.0 | 1,981 | |
 | Gary Siplin (Nonpartisan) | 32.0 | 932 | |
| Total votes: 2,913 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
General election
General election for Orlando City Council District 6
Bakari Burns and Gary Siplin advanced to a runoff. They defeated Lawanna Gelzer in the general election for Orlando City Council District 6 on November 5, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Bakari Burns (Nonpartisan) | 45.9 | 1,532 | |
| ✔ | | Gary Siplin (Nonpartisan) | 39.5 | 1,317 |
| Lawanna Gelzer (Nonpartisan) | 14.6 | 489 | |
| Total votes: 3,338 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2015
The city of Orlando, Florida, held elections for mayor and city council on November 3, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was September 4, 2015. Three of the six city council seats were up for election.[3]
In District 6, incumbent Samuel B. Ings defeated Nathan Chambers, Lawanna Gelzer, Marcus Robinson and Ka'Juel Washington in the general election.[4]
| Orlando City Council District 6, General election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Samuel B. Ings Incumbent |
52.0% | 1,617 |
| Nathan Chambers | 17.3% | 537 |
| Marcus Robinson | 13.4% | 417 |
| Lawanna Gelzer | 12.5% | 389 |
| Ka'Juel Washington | 4.9% | 151 |
| Total Votes | 3,111 | |
| Source: Orlando Supervisor of Elections, "2015 Official General Election Results," accessed November 16, 2015 | ||
2010
Gelzer lost to incumbent Scott Randolph (D), Craig Alan McCarthy (R), and Larry Limbaugh (write-in) in the November 2 general election.[5]
| Florida House of Representatives, District 36 2010 General election results | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidates | Votes | Percent | ||
| Scott Randolph (D)
|
16,190 | 59.69% | ||
| Greg Reynolds (R) | 9,950 | 36.69% | ||
| Lawanna Gelzer (NPA) | 971 | 3.58% | ||
| Larry Limbaugh (Write-in) | 11 | 0.04% | ||
Campaign themes
2025
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Lawanna Gelzer did not complete Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey.
2024
City Council
Lawanna Gelzer did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
Supervisor of Elections
Lawanna Gelzer did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
Lawanna Gelzer did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2019
Lawanna Gelzer did not complete Ballotpedia's 2019 Candidate Connection survey.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Orlando Sentinel, "Orlando elections: Mayor, two commissioners face challengers," September 18, 2015
- ↑ Click Orlando, "Judge throws no-party-affiliate candidate off ballot in Orange County elections supervisor race," August 16, 2024
- ↑ City of Orlando, "2015 Election timeline," accessed August 10, 2015
- ↑ City of Orlando, "Announced City Candidates for the 2015 General Election," accessed September 8, 2015
- ↑ Florida Election Watch, "2010 Election results," accessed December 18, 2014
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