Escambia County experienced a political earthquake in the Republican primary Tuesday night, with Steven Stroberger defeating Escambia County Commissioner Jeff Bergosh in the District 1 contest.

Bergosh, along with Republican Commissioner Steven Barry and Democratic Commissioner Lumon May , has been the dominant voting block on the five-member board for the last several years. Party identification is rarely the deciding factor in controversial commission votes.

Stroberger's victory has broken that three-vote majority and made the winner of the District 4 general election contest between Republican Ashlee Hofberger and Democrat Ron Helms the key swing vote of the board.

Stroberger won a clear majority from District 1 Republicans with a 54.17% share of the vote in the three-way race between him, Bergosh, and Jesse Casey. Bergosh won 36.84% of the vote, his lowest performance in the three primaries he’s ran in for County Commission. His highest was his first run in 2016, where he won with 40.79% of the vote, also in a three-way race.

Who is Steve Stroberger? Escambia County Commissioner, District 1 | Candidate Q&A

Unseating an incumbent on the Escambia County Commission is rare. The last time it happened was the 2014 District 2 race between Doug Underhill and incumbent Gene Valentino.

While in District 4, Hofberger overcame her two GOP opponents with a lead of 5 points . She had 37.67% of the vote, while Walker Wilson had 32.67%, and Buck Mitchel had 29.66%. Helms had no opponents, so he was automatically the Democratic nominee for the seat when he qualified in June.

Rule of three

There’s a saying about getting something approved by the county commission: “You have to be able to count to three.”

The vast majority of votes on the board are unanimous, but when controversial subjects are before the commission, it has tended to split in 4-1 or 3-2 votes. Since 2020, nearly every 3-2 vote (and with the appointment of Robert Bender to the Supervisor of Elections office in January a 3-1 vote split) has been the same three commissioners voting together — Bergosh, Barry and May.

From rural broadband contracts , beach renourishment funding , $9 million in legal settlements or decisions to pick more legal fights have come down to the three-vote majority.

The three-vote majority led to the decision to refuse to compromise with Escambia County Clerk Pam Childers in June 2021 to lower the contribution rates on the local retirement program for commissioners . The board refused to lower the rate in a 3-2 vote. Bergosh voted with the majority despite not being enrolled in the local retirement plan, while Bender voted with the minority to lower the rate while he was enrolled in the local retirement plan.

That decision resulted in a legal battle, with a judge ruling the local retirement plan amounted to illegal pay for commissioners.

The three-vote block is a political reality Bergosh recognized in his effort to add Perdido to his district in 2021 as his request was for Barry and May to see his proposal before their redistricting meeting.

The 2021 redistricting change put Stroberger, who had filed to run for District 2, out of that earlier race.

A new dynamic

District 2 Commissioner Mike Kohler entered office in 2022 to try to work with the majority but increasingly was finding himself on the losing side of the votes that were getting the county into more legal woes.

Storberger helped run Kohler’s campaign in 2022 that pulled off an upset win against a much better-funded opponent. Stroberger was working as Kohler’s aide in his District 2 office when the News Journal published a story on Bergosh’s leaked text messages and his machinations behind the redistricting that ended Stroberger’s first run for office. Stroberger has said reading those messages was a big part of why he felt like he had to challenge Bergosh for the District 1 seat.

It’s a safe bet that Kohler and Stroberger will be political allies moving forward.

Kohler told the News Journal that he thought the change would bring much-needed humility to the board.

“I look forward to working with them, and I think they'll bring a sense of demeanor and professionalism that sadly has been lacking a little bit,” Kohler said. “And I think the people deserve that. They deserve more of a statesman and just good governance.”

Kohler said he thought Bergosh was an effective commissioner who got positive things done for his district, but he had “bullied too many people” during his time as commissioner.

“Jeff had done some good things for District 1, as far as projects and execution,” Kohler said. “I won't take that away from him. He had, but at the same time, he just treated too many people bad, and it caught up with him finally.”

Stroberger told the News Journal he thinks it's time for the community to move forward and called on his supporters to stop making negative comments about Bergosh on social media.

“It was very shortly after the polls closed that Mr. Bergosh called me up to congratulate me, and he was very gracious,” Stroberger said. “And I promise to be the same way. I know some things are being said on social media and in person, and I want that to stop because I want our board to take a different direction and knock the nonsense off. It's got to stop now. He's being respectful. I'm going to be respectful to him.”

He said he wants to work with all the commissioners on the board to move the county forward.

“We need to get to five votes,” Stroberger said. “We need to have discussions to talk about what the issues are, so that we can come to a good decision. And it's going to take us talking about things (publicly). It's amazing to me that we can get to the point where we get three votes without the discussion. It's not enough. It's not enough to have the county administrator and the county attorney talking to all the commissioners to get us to work together. We need to get together to work together, and that's what I'm going to be pushing for.”

What wins local races in Escambia County?

Republicans dominate Escambia County politics, which means that a small number of voters usually decide who holds partisan local offices in the August primary.

In the District 1 race, 24,565 registered Republican voters cast 8,848 votes, a turnout of 36% — higher than the 23.4% turnout county-wide.

In the District 4 race, 21,256 registered Republican voters cast 8,371 votes, a turnout of 39%.

Stroberger won his race with 1,533 votes while Hofberger won her race with 418 votes.

Kohler said he learned in his 2022 race that what matters in local races is a candidate's personal connections to the voters.

“Endorsements in these local elections, they don't have a lot of weight,” Kohler said. “It's about connection with people.”

Knocking on doors and having one-on-one conversations is what matters.

“It matters that they believe that you're going to do what you say,” Kohler said.

A new majority

Stroberger and Kohler called Hofberger on election night to congratulate her on her win in the District 4 GOP primary.

Hofberger told the News Journal that she thinks Stroberger and Kohler share her priorities to improve the county’s support for its first responders especially Emergency Medical Services.

“From what they have said and just from their background, I believe that that's also a top priority for them,” Hofberger said. “So looking forward to making that happen for our community.”

When asked about the legal issues the county has faced in recent years, Hofberger said she believes $9 million spent in legal settlements could’ve been much better spent on other priorities.

“I feel like Pam Childers has done a wonderful job of protecting the taxpayer dollars, and that's got to be a hard position for her,” Hofberger said. “You're getting pressure from the people who elected you, but then you're also getting pressure from the people that you work with every day being the Board of County Commissioners. So I feel like she has done what she thought has been best for the community and the taxpayers, and I really respect that.”

Helms told the News Journal that results Tuesday make the race for District 4 even more important.

“It matters,” Helms said. “The seat has been empty since January, and none of the commissioners that I'm aware of has done anything in support of District 4.”

Helms said if he wins, he will approach the position as a fiscal conservative and focus on restoring ethics to county government.

“Some people are always nervous when there's change, but change is a good thing,” Helms said. “And I do believe that the board will be a lot more balanced relative to the fairness and decisions that are made.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Tuesday's primary was a political earthquake for the Escambia County Commission