Fort Myers News-Press Election News
U.S. HOUSE DISTRICT 17
Montavon wins Dem primary, moves on to face Steube
Amy Bennett Williams
Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK – FLORIDA
After winning the Democratic primary for U.S. District 17, Sarasota’s Matthew Montavon will go on to face incumbent Greg Steube and Michael Quirk, with no party affiliation, in November.
His opponent, Allen Spence of Babcock, won in Lee County, with 51.25% of the votes, but district-wide, Montavon got 55.41% of the votes.
Reached at a multi-candidate celebration at the Tamiami Tap in Sarasota after the election, Montavon said he was grateful, overwhelmed and honored.
He views his win as a sign he has support for his vision of a changed nation, “So I’ll work hard to defeat Greg Steube,” he says. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to take our representation – and our country – in a different direction.”
Steube, 48, who’s consistently won by nearly 30 points since 2018, is running in the solidly GOP district that includes all of Charlotte and parts of Sarasota and Lee counties.
It’s a district that has changed its boundaries in recent years, resulting in a more diverse and urban version than the one voters saw after the 2022 redistricting.
Florida’s latest congressional redistricting pushed 17 deeper into Lee County, adding portions of Fort Myers, including the historically Black Dunbar community, while continuing to include all of Charlotte and much of Sarasota County. That county has gone back and forth and back again: starting with an in-county split between districts 16 and 17, then becoming all 17, then returning to “a pre-2022 scenario,” as Sarasota’s Supervisor of Elections’ website describes it. Though only registered Democrats participated in their party’s primary, all registered voters can vote in the Nov. 3 general election. Candidates with no party affiliation go straight to that November ballot, with no limits on how many unaffiliated candidates can appear, since they don’t belong to a party.
Who is incumbent Greg Steube?
Attorney Greg Steube is a fifth-generation Floridian with rural roots. He has a bachelor’s in beef cattle science from UF, where he later earned a law degree, before enlisting in the Army after the September 11 attacks.
He says he views issues through a “Biblical lens” and measures his decisions against the U.S. Constitution. “So if it violates one of those things in my mind, I’m not voting for it,” Steube told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in 2024. “We are a Judeo-Christian country, we’re founded on that.”
In Congress, he helped lead a successful bipartisan push to restore tax deductions for victims of federally declared disasters. It was signed into law in 2024, a year after he recovered from a 25-foot fall from a ladder (he’d been trimming trees). He had a concussion and multiple fractures, but returned to Congress a few months later.
Who is Sarasota Democrat Matthew Montavon?
Sarasota Democrat Matthew Montavon was born in South Bend, Indiana, one of nine children. According to his website, he graduated with honors from the Catholic University of America with a bachelor’s in political science and Spanish.
He earned a master’s in public administration at Indiana University, working as a farmhand, janitor, messenger and store clerk as he put himself through school. Montavon spent two years in the Peace Corps, then 27 years with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, according to his bio. As of March 31, he had $72,321.82 in loans and contributions.
Besides Steube, Democrat primary winner will face Michael Quirk. Who is he?
The check with which Michael Quirk paid his $6,960 qualifying fee has a Sarasota address, but calls and texts to the number listed on his campaign documents were not returned. He has no party affiliation, no website and no social media presence – at least, not identifiable as connected to his campaign.
A look at campaign finances in the District 17 primary
Montavon https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/H4FL17060/
Quirk: https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/H6FL17081/
Spence https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/H6FL17065/
Steube https://www.fec.gov/data/candidate/H8FL17053/
Amy Bennett Williams is a senior reporter. Reach her at awilliams@news-press.com.
