AP Calls Luna Winner Over Gray in Florida’s 13th

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna won a third House term in Florida’s 13th Congressional District after the Associated Press called the race for her on Thursday, Bay News 9 and WTSP reported. The Pinellas- and Pasco-based contest stayed too close to call for nearly two days after Election Day.

Bay News 9 said that with about 99% of expected ballots counted on Thursday, Luna had 155,117 votes (49.5%) to Democrat Leela Gray’s 152,600 (48.7%), a margin of roughly 2,500 votes. No-party candidate Tony D’Arrigo had 5,779 votes (1.8%), Bay News 9 reported. WTSP’s Thursday update likewise said the Associated Press had called the race for Luna after she led Gray by less than one percentage point in unofficial returns.

District map and the count

Florida’s 2026 redistricting shifted the 13th by removing southern Pinellas precincts and adding thousands of residents from southern Pasco County, WTSP reported, a change that added more Republican-leaning voters. Luna told WTSP the new map left her campaign with little time to adjust before the general election and said she had expected a close race. Bay News 9 said the map change helped Luna in a contest that finished within one point.

Developing: County canvassing boards were still processing remaining ballots after the Associated Press call; certified margins may shift slightly from the unofficial Thursday tallies.

Luna’s next-term plans

Luna said she intends to pursue term-limits legislation and will no longer take PAC or foreign-interest money, according to Bay News 9. She told Bay News 9 she raised close to $4 million in small-dollar donations this cycle. Gray told WTSP on election night that she was waiting for every vote to be counted. The result leaves Luna as the continuing Republican in a Tampa Bay seat Democrats had targeted; see also Killin’s flip of Colorado’s 5th.

Sources: Bay News 9, WTSP, Associated Press