Apopka voters will decide Mayor’s race in a contest that has turned ugly

Apopka voters will decide Tuesday who will lead the city as Mayor after an ugly race that has been overshadowed by a pending lawsuit over one candidate’s residency. 

Apopka Mayor Bryan Nelson is running for re-election against Orange County Commissioner Christine Moore and Apopka Commissioner Nick Nesta.

Nelson is suing Moore and accusing her of living in unincorporated Orange County instead of Apopka, according to his circuit court complaint. 

His pending lawsuit filed Jan. 6 sought to get Moore’s name thrown off the ballot or to be decertified off the ballot — which hasn’t happened ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Nelson also asked the court to “grant such other equitable or legal relief as this Court determines is needed to resolve the issues raised in this action for Declaratory Judgment.”

In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Moore argued the residency requirements enforce “eligibility to hold office, not eligibility to run for office.” Nelson’s side called her defense “absurd.”

“This action is nothing more than an attempt to circumvent the will of the voters by weaponizing the judicial process,” Moore said in a court filing to dismiss the lawsuit last month. “Rather than trust in the people of Apopka to decide, Nelson has elected to pursue an eleventh-hour litigation strategy designed to eliminate his strongest opponent from the ballot altogether.”

Moore, Nelson and Nesta are all Republicans running for the nonpartisan job in Apopka, a city of around 55,000 people.

Nelson was a Representative from 2006-2014 and then served on the Orange County Commission until 2018. He has been elected for two terms as Apopka Mayor.

Moore, an Orange County School Board member from 2008-2018, was elected to two terms on the Orange County Commission.

Nesta won a seat on the Apopka City Council in a Special Election in 2022 and was re-elected in 2024.

City voters will also decide whether they want to change the structure of their city government and move from a strong Mayor to hiring a City Manager.

An Orlando Sentinel editorial, which endorsed the ballot question, called it perhaps “the most significant referendum in Apopka’s history.”

“Apopka has had a strong mayor for all 143 years of its existence, and the system worked well at a time when the city was really too small to need a full-sized professional staff,” the Sentinel’s editorial said. “But it’s also outgrown the one-man show era.”

The Apopka Mayor’s race potentially carries bigger implications that could affect the rest of Orange County.

Moore previously told Florida Politics she plans to resign from her role as Orange County Commissioner effective April 27 — the day before the new Mayor is sworn in — whether she wins or loses. 

That could give Gov. Ron DeSantis the chance to appoint a member to the Orange County Commission to finish Moore’s term, which ends in December. It could be an interesting appointment if DeSantis takes action because he has clashed with Orange County government in recent months.

Election Day polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.