08/20/2026
67,038 VOTES AND A BIGGER MESSAGE FROM LEE COUNTY
Tuesday night’s results told a bigger story than any one candidate.
Amanda Cochran’s 67,038 votes, or 54.76%, in the Republican primary for Lee County Commission District 5 were certainly part of it. She defeated appointed Commissioner Trish Petrosky by 11,646 votes in a countywide election.
But look beyond that race and a pattern begins to emerge.
Lee County voters did not simply vote against incumbents, automatically favor challengers, or follow one political slate from the top of the ballot to the bottom. The results point to something more encouraging: the informed voters of Lee County were making decisions race by race.
On the School Board, voters returned Sam Fisher in District 1 and Jada Langford Fleming in the countywide District 6 race, showing they were willing to keep incumbents when they wanted them.
Elsewhere, they wanted another look. In School Board District 4, incumbent Debbie Jordan did not secure the majority needed to end the race and will face Tony Beougher in November. In District 5, incumbent Armor Persons received about 43.5% of the vote, also sending that race forward to November.
Cape Coral voters made another distinct choice. Six candidates competed for mayor, including incumbent John Gunter, but Gunter did not make the final two. Whatever happens in November, Cape Coral will have a new mayor.
Put those results beside the County Commission race, and the picture becomes clear. An appointed county commissioner lost. Some School Board incumbents won outright. Others were pushed into runoffs. An incumbent mayor was eliminated.
That is not one political wave moving through Lee County. It looks much more like informed voters making individual decisions about individual races.
Modern campaigns surround voters with mailers, digital advertising, PAC spending, endorsements, political organizations, and carefully targeted messages. Those things matter, but they do not own the electorate. No appointment guarantees an election, no incumbency guarantees another term, and no endorsement settles a race before voters have their say.
Tuesday night was another reminder that the informed voters of Lee County are fully capable of sorting through all of it and making their own choices.
But the opportunity now is bigger than the people who voted Tuesday.
There are thousands of concerned citizens across Lee County who did not vote, could not vote, or simply have not believed local government had much to do with them. They matter too. The goal should be to bring more of them into the conversation, help them understand what is happening in their county, and give them reasons to participate.
Voting matters, but citizenship does not begin and end at the ballot box. It means following what government is doing, asking questions, attending meetings when something matters, speaking up for your community, and helping the people around you become informed too. And for those who are eligible but have not been voting, we should be working to turn more concerned citizens into informed voters.
Perhaps the best expression of that came immediately after the election was called.
Caught on film by East Lee County News, when Darius Cochran embraced his wife for the first time after learning she had won, the tears began to roll. He held her and gave her one final piece of advice, speaking an emotional message into her ear. It was simple:
“You tell everyone… it’s about them… it’s about them.”
He was right. It is about them—referring to the supporters in the room and those who would later see her acceptance speech on film.
And it is about you.
The 67,038 informed voters who chose Amanda Cochran demonstrated what can happen when citizens pay attention and participate. The very different results in races across Lee County demonstrated something larger: informed voters can make distinctions, reject assumptions, and make their own decisions.
Now we need more of them.
To the concerned citizens of Lee County who have been watching from the sidelines, come with us. Ask questions. Learn what is happening. Get involved where you can. If you are eligible to vote, become an informed voter and use that vote.
You do not have to agree with everyone to participate. In fact, you shouldn’t. A stronger Lee County will come from more informed citizens engaged in the decisions that affect all of us.
67,038 votes settled one race. What happens next belongs to all of us.
