Trabulsy reelected to second term representing St. Lucie County in Florida House

Florida Rep. Dana Trabulsy won a second term representing District 84 in the Florida House Tuesday, beating Forest Blanton in the Nov. 8 election.

Trabulsy, a Fort Pierce Republican, will be sworn in Jan. 3 for a two-year term that pays $29,697 a year to represent St. Lucie County.

Trabulsy spent $223,257 of the $294,271 she collected for her reelection campaign, including $38,182 in in-kind donations. Blanton, a Fort Pierce Democrat, spent $21,838 of his $24,353, which included $15,000 of his own money.

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Trabulsy, a Tampa native who grew up near Atlanta and moved to Fort Pierce in 1991, was a political newcomer when she was elected in 2020.

She since has helped pass a bill for the New Worlds Reading Initiative, a free book and reading program for eligible kids in grades K-5. Over 110,000 students have participated since it launched in December 2021.

She still wants to require adults who work with children, including summer camp counselors, to pass a Level 2 background check, which uses a national registry. After a bill aimed at doing that stalled in the Legislature in 2021, she said she continued to work on it by building relationships through meetings and getting appointed to committees.

In addition to her voting record, community involvement and being in the majority GOP, her name recognition from her long-standing presence in the area likely helped her win.

In 2018, Blanton retired from Memorial Healthcare System in Broward County after 35 years and moved to Fort Pierce, where he’d been visiting on weekends since buying his Indian River Drive home in 2007.

He ran for District 84 in 2018, but lost the Democratic primary to Delores Hogan-Johnson, who endorsed him in this election against Trabulsy.

Laurie K. Blandford is TCPalm's entertainment reporter and columnist dedicated to finding the best things to do on the Treasure Coast. Follow her on Twitter @TCPalmLaurie and Facebook @TCPalmLaurie. Email her at laurie.blandford@tcpalm.com. Sign up for her What To Do in 772 weekly newsletter at profile.tcpalm.com/newsletters/manage.