ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna has won a third term in Florida’s 13th Congressional District, holding off Democrat Leela Gray in one of the closest House races in the country.
The Associated Press declared Luna the winner on Thursday at 2:38 p.m. Eastern, two days after Election Day, as the last ballots were counted in the Tampa Bay district. Decision Desk HQ had projected her the winner on election night, and Luna declared victory on Wednesday.
Florida’s official unofficial results give Luna 155,189 votes, or 49.5 percent, to 152,698 votes, or 48.7 percent, for Gray. Tony D’Arrigo, who ran with no party affiliation, took 5,782 votes, or 1.8 percent. About 99 percent of the vote is counted, with 207 of 210 precincts reporting.
The margin, 2,491 votes or 0.8 points, is too wide to set off a recount under Florida law. The state orders a machine recount only when the margin is half a point or less. The results stay unofficial until the state certifies them, which is set for Nov. 17.
The seat was one of the Democrats’ top targets in Florida. The district covers St. Petersburg, Clearwater and parts of Pinellas and Pasco counties. It was redrawn this year in a way that helped Republicans, and it had favored President Donald Trump by more than 13 points in 2024, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Luna won the seat by 10 points that year. This time she held on by less than one point, on a night when Democrats won control of the House.
Luna, 37, is an Air Force veteran who has served in Congress since January 2023. She is the first Mexican American woman elected to Congress from Florida. She sits on the Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees and chairs a task force on releasing secret federal files. She is a close ally of President Trump and a member of the House Freedom Caucus.
After the race was called, Luna said she would stop taking corporate PAC money and money from special interest groups tied to foreign policy, and that she would push for term limits for members of Congress. Her campaign raised more than $4 million, most of it from small donors.
Gray, 59, is a retired Army Reserve brigadier general who served for 30 years, including two combat deployments. She later earned a law degree from Stetson University and worked on veterans’ benefits cases. This was her first run for office. She won the Democratic primary in August with about 65 percent of the vote, campaigned on the cost of living, and won the backing of the Tampa Bay Times editorial board.
Luna’s win keeps the seat in Republican hands. She starts her third term when the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, 2027.
