Election Day: Wesley Chapel's Pultorak Takes On Maggard in a Closed Primary That Likely Decides the House 54 Seat

Polls in Wesley Chapel close at 7 p.m. tonight, and the race most likely to change how Pasco's growth is argued in Tallahassee is the one at the bottom half of the Republican ballot: Florida House District 54, where Wesley Chapel resident and Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Captain Michael Pultorak is trying to unseat two-term incumbent Rep. Randy Maggard. District 54 takes in part of Wesley Chapel along with Zephyrhills, Dade City and San Antonio, and no Democrat qualified for the seat, so today's vote effectively fills it.

It is a closed primary. Registered Republicans only. That happened because Paul Bybee, a registered Republican who does not live in District 54, qualified as a write-in candidate on June 12, the last day to qualify. Bybee's name will not be printed on the Nov. 3 ballot, only a blank line for a write-in, but his paperwork was enough to shut everyone else out of today's contest. Bybee has reported raising no money. He also ran as a write-in for the Pasco County Commission District 4 seat in 2024 and withdrew once the closed Republican primary was over.

A first-time candidate against a well-funded incumbent

The money is not close. State campaign finance filings showed Maggard's campaign had raised $145,000 as of July 10. Pultorak had raised $3,900. Local news reports put the gap later in the month at roughly $152,000 for Maggard, plus about $91,000 on hand in an affiliated political committee, against roughly $11,000 for Pultorak, including $2,000 of his own money.

Candidate	Raised as of July 10
Randy Maggard	$145,000
Michael Pultorak	$3,900
Paul Bybee (write-in)	None reported

Maggard, a Zephyrhills businessman, first won the seat in a 2019 special election and has won every campaign since, taking 60 percent in 2024. Unseating a sitting Republican in a Pasco primary is something almost no local challenger has managed in recent cycles.

The argument is about growth

Pultorak moved to Florida in 1996 to attend USF, settled in the Wesley Chapel area and stayed. This is his 30th year in the fire service and his 14th as a captain. He is also a licensed Realtor, and plenty of families here know him from coaching youth sports. He has said flatly that he never planned to run for anything.

What pushed him in, he says, is the pattern residents complain about constantly: subdivisions and four-story apartment buildings approved ahead of the roads, parks and drainage that are supposed to come with them, with state and county leaders handing incentives to the developers building them. He argues that new rooftops and the businesses that follow them mostly serve people moving in, while the residents already here absorb the traffic and the rising cost of living. He has also campaigned hard against data center projects in the district, and says the incumbent voted repeatedly to hand tax dollars to data center developers and supported dozens of pro-developer bills in Tallahassee.

Maggard has said he opposes AI data centers and points to legislation passed this year, signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, that he says gives local governments more say and adds protections for consumers and natural resources. Asked about a third term, he listed individual rights and free-market affordability, safety, education and protecting natural resources as his priorities. Pultorak's campaign has picked up endorsements from Defending Rural Florida, the Florida League of Republican Voters and the Florida Republican Liberty Caucus.

What else is on your ballot

The House race is not the only reason to show up. Every registered Wesley Chapel voter, regardless of party, can vote in two nonpartisan Sixth Circuit judicial races and in the Pasco County School Board contests, where three seats are up and two incumbents are not running again, including District 1's Al Hernandez, whose district covers Wesley Chapel. Registered Republicans also decide the County Commission District 4 primary between incumbent Lisa Yeager and Jonathan Deckard, and the crowded primary for governor.

Voting today

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Bring photo and signature identification. You must vote at your assigned precinct, and the county's precinct finder is on the Supervisor of Elections site at pascovotes.gov. Voting in a precinct where you do not live is a felony in Florida. Early voting ended Saturday, Aug. 15, so today is the last chance to vote in person. If you still have a mail ballot at home, it has to be in the elections office's hands by 7 p.m. tonight. A postmark does not count.

Unofficial results start posting on the county elections site after the last precinct closes, and the House 54 race should be clear well before the school board fields are settled. Watch what Bybee does next: if he withdraws, as he did after the 2024 primary, tonight's winner goes into the Nov. 3 general election unopposed and the seat is decided by the roughly one slice of District 54 voters who turned out today.

For more on this race and the rest of the Aug. 18 ballot, stay with Wesley Chapel Community Website, and read more government and politics stories from around the county. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X for results as they post tonight. Voted already, or still deciding? Join the conversation in our Community Forum.

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