2026 Election · Hillsborough County
Who's running in Florida's 14th Congressional District in 2026?
The complete, sourced candidate guide for the new FL-14: an eight-candidate Republican primary on August 18, nine-term incumbent Kathy Castor on the Democratic line, and the general election on November 3.
The race at a glance.
Florida's 14th Congressional District was redrawn in May 2026 and now lies entirely within Hillsborough County, covering 14 eastern and southern communities from Brandon and Plant City to Riverview and Sun City Center, plus parts of south Tampa. If you are not sure whether you live in the new FL-14, the interactive district map lets you search your address.
Two facts define the 2026 race. First, there is no Democratic primary: Kathy Castor is the only qualified Democrat and advances automatically to November. Second, that means the only contested congressional race on the August 18 ballot in FL-14 is the Republican primary. Florida runs closed primaries, so only voters registered Republican by the July 20 book closing can vote in it.
Republican primary · August 18, 2026
The eight qualified Republican candidates.
Listed alphabetically, per the Florida Division of Elections qualified-candidate list (qualifying closed June 12, 2026).
| Candidate | Party |
|---|---|
| Mike Beltran | Republican |
| Michael Marcel | Republican |
| John Peters This campaign. Rooted in Brandon; three decades in Hillsborough County. Meet John → | Republican |
| Robert "Rocky" Rochford | Republican |
| Gavriel E. Soriano | Republican |
| Kevin M. Steele | Republican |
| Ergin "Batman" Tek | Republican |
| Bea Valenti | Republican |
The general election: November 3, 2026.
The Republican primary winner advances to face Kathy Castor, the nine-term Democratic incumbent whose eighteen-year Washington voting record is documented vote by vote on this site. Also on the November ballot: Brian Lambert of the Libertarian Party of Florida, plus two qualified write-in candidates (Salomon Hernandez Sr. and Keith Varian) whose names do not print on the ballot.
One of the eight Republicans, Robert "Rocky" Rochford, was the 2024 GOP nominee against Castor under the old district lines; the public-record audit of that campaign is at the Rochford record page.
Key dates for FL-14 voters
Every date that matters, verified.
- July 20, 2026: Voter registration and party-change deadline for the primary (book closing)
- August 3 to 16, 2026: Early voting across Hillsborough County (27 sites, 10am to 6pm)
- August 6, 2026 (5pm): Deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot for the primary
- August 18, 2026: Primary election day
- October 5, 2026: Voter registration deadline for the general election
- October 19 to November 1, 2026: Early voting for the general election
- October 22, 2026: Deadline to request a vote-by-mail ballot for the general
- November 3, 2026: General election day
Dates from the Florida Division of Elections and the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections. Note: Florida vote-by-mail requests expire after every general election, so even if you voted by mail in 2024, you must submit a new request for 2026. Hillsborough's early-voting window is longer than the statewide minimum, so guides written for other counties may show different dates. A step-by-step guide is in How to Vote in Florida's 2026 Primary, and every race on the August ballot is covered in the Hillsborough County sample-ballot guide.
Where this campaign stands.
This guide is published by the John Peters campaign, and the roster above is reported straight from the state's official list. The case for choosing John in that field is made across this site: three decades rooted in Brandon and eastern Hillsborough, a platform built around lower costs, constitutional rights, and term limits, and a documented, receipts-first contrast with the incumbent's eighteen-year voting record.
August 18 is the whole ballgame
Eight names on the primary ballot. One who shows up every week.
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