CITRUS COUNTY, Fla. — The primary election for Citrus County sheriff ended in an upset on Tuesday night.
Based on preliminary election results, incumbent Sheriff Mike Prendergast was defeated by newcomer David Vincent.
As of this writing, results show Vincent capturing 63% of the votes (24,800 votes) and Prendergast just 37% (14,343 votes.)
Prendergast was elected as Citrus County's 12th sheriff in November 2016. Prior to that, Prendergast served in the Florida Department of Veteran’s Affairs under former Gov. Rick Scott and as an active-duty military police officer for 31 years.
According to his bio on the sheriff's office's website, Prendergast is "known for his aggressive stance on illegal drugs and drug trafficking." The sheriff also says he "was first in the state to have a sworn law enforcement officer on every public school campus," following the deadly 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School.
However, Prendergast's most recent campaign for re-election was fraught with controversy.
In May, the wife of Citrus County Deputy Andy Lahera, who was critically injured in the line of duty, told 10 Tampa Bay she received a letter from Prendergast saying the sheriff's office would reassess Deputy Lahera's employment in August.
It led to a back-and-forth between Prendergast and Michelle Lahera over her husband's continued employment and family insurance plan — one that generated a lot of backlash for Prendergast online.
Prendergast then had a heated debate with county commissioners at a meeting in May in which he criticized them for failing to fund his department, the Citrus County Chronicle reports.
Vincent, who defeated Prendergast, ran a campaign focused on transparency, community policing and relationships with county commissioners.
Vincent was with the Citrus County Sheriff's Office from 1993 to 2020, when he took over as chief of the Citrus County School Board Police Department.