ORLANDO, Fla. – A former political rival of the late Geraldine Thompson has announced he will run to fill her Florida Senate seat, less than 24 hours after her family announced her passing.
Randolph Bracy III, a former state senator who lost to Thompson when he challenged her in the Democratic primary for Florida Senate District 15 last August, made the announcement on Instagram and Facebook on Friday.
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Bracy, who is vacationing in Italy, says he has been getting calls asking if he planned to run for the seat.
“I will be seeking election to District 15. God Bless,” Bracy said in the video.
Thompson, a longtime Orlando Democrat, died from complications from knee replacement surgery this week at age 76.
Bracy did not acknowledge Thompson’s passing in his video and has not done so publicly anywhere else on social media.
State Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, commented on Bracy’s post and criticized the timing.
"How dare you. The tears of Senator Thompson’s surviving loved ones have not even dried, but here you come, like a vulture scavenging for a prize. What a classless demonstration of disrespect for her legacy and everything she stood for," Smith said.
Bracy represented much of western Orange County in the Florida Senate from 2016 to 2022 when he resigned to run for Congress. He lost that race to now-Rep. Maxwell Frost.
Bracy then filed to run for Florida Senate District 15 in 2023, primarying Thompson, who was running for reelection. Bracy told News 6 in April 2024 that challenging Thompson was not personal.
However, in June 2024, Bracy threatened to file a lawsuit if Thompson did not drop out of the race. Bracy publicly challenged whether Thompson lived in the district.
Thompson said she was currently living not at her primary residence, but with her daughter to help her raise her children. Thompson’s voting record, obtained by News 6, shows her assigned voting precinct is in Ocoee and within Florida Senate District 15. Florida Senate rules on residency take into account the totality of a candidate’s circumstances.
Court records show Bracy never filed the lawsuit.
Thompson went on to defeat Bracy in the Democratic primary, 60.8% to 39.2%. Since there were no other candidates, Thompson won reelection without further opposition.
Bracy, who runs several businesses, is the son of pastor Dr. Randolph Bracy Jr., who founded New Covenant Baptist Church in Orlando. Thompson was close to Bracy’s parents — she roomed with Bracy’s mother, Dr. LaVon Wright Bracy, in college.
During his time in the Florida Senate, Bracy focused largely on criminal justice legislation, but helped get several bills passed, including one to increase firefighter safety training, a bill to ensure that identifying information of a murder witness cannot be made public, and a bill to make Florida better acknowledge the 1920 Ocoee Election Day Riots.
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