Melbourne & Palm Bay: who represents it, and who is running

2026 General Election (Florida), Brevard County votes on 2026-11-03. It elects u.S. Senate (special election, Moody seat); U.S. House FL-8; Governor and Lieutenant Governor (open) and the Cabinet; Florida House HD-32 and HD-33 (SD-19 not up); City of Melbourne Council Districts 2 and 4 (District 6 unopposed). City of Palm Bay Council Seats 4 and 5 were decided in the August 18, 2026 primary..

Holding office14
the sitting council
On the ballot22
5 sitting members running again

The official candidate list ↗ · What Melbourne & Palm Bay is like — the /local page

Congressional district (city hall): Florida's 8th congressional district (both cities, whole) — Mike Haridopolos (Republican)

1

Mayor

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Paul Alfrey ✉️ Elected Mayor Independent City of Melbourne
2

Council Member — District 2

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Mark LaRusso ✉️ Elected Council Member Independent District 2 City of Melbourne
Leigh Alexander Hinton Council Member Running Independent District 2 Brevard County Supervisor of Elections
Milo Matthew Zonka Council Member Running Independent District 2 Brevard County Supervisor of Elections
3

Council Member — District 4

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Rachael Bassett ✉️ Elected Council Member → Running Independent District 4 City of Melbourne
John Bruce Council Member Running Independent District 4 Brevard County Supervisor of Elections
4

Council Member — District 6

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Hunter Benninger acclaimed Council Member Running Independent District 6 Brevard County Supervisor of Elections
5

Vice Mayor and Council Member — District 6

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Julie Kennedy ✉️ Elected Vice Mayor and Council Member Independent District 6 City of Melbourne
6

Council Member

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
David Neuman ✉️ Elected Council Member Independent District 3 City of Melbourne
Marcus Smith ✉️ Elected Council Member Independent District 1 City of Melbourne
Mimi Hanley ✉️ Elected Council Member Independent District 5 City of Melbourne
7

Governor

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Ron DeSantis Elected Governor Republican Executive Office of the Governor of Florida (as read 2026-10-15 for us-jacksonville; not re-read)
Byron Donalds Governor Running Republican Florida Division of Elections
Charles Burkett Governor Running Independent Florida Division of Elections
David Jolly Governor Running Democratic Florida Division of Elections
Dean Ocean Abrams Governor Running Independent Florida Division of Elections
Frank J. Russo Governor Running Independent Florida Division of Elections
Jeffrey Peter "Dr. Jeff" Datto Governor Running Independent Florida Division of Elections
Moliere "Moe" Dimanche Governor Running Independent Florida Division of Elections
Scott Eckhard Jewett Governor Running Libertarian Florida Division of Elections
8

State Representative — HD-32

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Brian Hodgers Elected State Representative → Running Republican Florida House of Representatives
Juan J. Hinojosa State Representative Running Democratic Florida Division of Elections
9

State Representative — HD-33

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Monique Miller Elected State Representative → Running Republican Florida House of Representatives
Daniel R. McDow State Representative Running Democratic Florida Division of Elections
10

State Senator — SD-19

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Debbie Mayfield ✉️ Elected State Senator Republican The Florida Senate
11

U.S. Senator

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Rick Scott Elected U.S. Senator Republican @unitedstates congress-legislators (legislators-current.json); senate.gov not used (HTTP 403 on robots.txt in earlier runs)
Ashley Moody Elected U.S. Senator → Running Republican @unitedstates congress-legislators (legislators-current.json); senate.gov not used (HTTP 403 on robots.txt in earlier runs)
Angie Nixon U.S. Senator Running Democratic Florida Division of Elections
Neil J. Gillespie U.S. Senator Running Independent Florida Division of Elections
12

U.S. Representative — FL-8

NameOfficeParty / slateSeatSource
Mike Haridopolos Elected U.S. Representative → Running Republican Office of the Clerk, U.S. House
Jennifer Jenkins U.S. Representative Running Democratic Florida Division of Elections
i

Notes on this record

How the lists were read, and what could not be.

  • Districts: Census Geocoder — Melbourne City Hall: CD-8, SD-19, HD-32; Palm Bay City Hall: CD-8, SD-19, HD-33. 12x12 coordinate grids: Melbourne 51 points inside (all CD-8 and SD-19; HD-32 36, HD-33 15); Palm Bay 53 inside (all CD-8 and SD-19; HD-33 49, HD-34 4). HD-34 (Robert Brackett, REP incumbent, v Jordyn Guadalupe Balderas, DEM, per the Division list) touches Palm Bay's edge but contains neither city hall — not recorded as people.
  • Candidates: Florida Division of Elections Candidate Tracking System, 2026 General Election (20261103-GEN), County = Brevard, Status = ALL, retrieved 2026-11-01 (dos.elections.myflorida.com has no robots.txt — 404). Kept 'Qualified' entries; dropped Defeated/Withdrew/Did Not Qualify and write-ins (WRI). FL-8: Haridopolos (REP, inc.) v Jennifer Jenkins (DEM). HD-32: Brian Hodgers (REP, inc.) v Juan J. Hinojosa (DEM). HD-33: Monique Miller (REP, inc.) v Daniel R. McDow (DEM). Statewide U.S. Senate and Governor lines identical to the us-daytona-beach record (rows carried over).
  • Melbourne municipal: City Council page (melbourneflorida.org/Government/City-Council, read 2026-11-01): Mayor Paul Alfrey; District 1 Marcus Smith; District 2 Mark LaRusso; District 3 David Neuman; District 4 Rachael Bassett; District 5 Mimi Hanley; Vice Mayor and District 6 Julie Kennedy, with official @mlbfl.org emails (phones not copied). 'The Mayor and Council Members are elected by a city-wide vote. Each Council Member represents a district of the city', four-year terms. 2026 (Brevard SoE 2026 Candidates page): District 2 — Leigh Alexander Hinton, Milo Matthew Zonka; District 4 — Rachael Bassett (incumbent), John Bruce; District 6 — Hunter Benninger, 'Unopposed'. Next Melbourne election after this: November 2028 (Mayor and Districts 1, 3, 5).
  • Palm Bay municipal: NOT recorded as people. www.palmbayfl.gov (and palmbayfl.gov) answer 'Access Denied' (Akamai) to robots.txt — not bypassed, nothing further requested. The Brevard SoE 2026 Candidates page shows Palm Bay City Council Seat 4 'Kenny Johnson — Elected in Primary' (Alfy Agarie and Michael J. Bruyette defeated) and Seat 5 'Mike Jaffe — Elected in Primary' (Eduardo Macaya and Santa Isabel Wright defeated) at the August 18, 2026 primary, so no Palm Bay contest is on the November ballot. The sitting Palm Bay mayor and council could not be read from an official page.
  • Sitting legislators: SD-19 Debbie Mayfield from flsenate.gov/Senators/s19 (Crawl-delay 10 honoured; official @flsenate.gov email as printed); HD-32 Brian Hodgers (since 06/10/25) and HD-33 Monique Miller (since 11/06/24) from the flhouse.gov Representatives list (read 2026-11-01). Rep. Haridopolos from clerk.house.gov MemberData.xml (October 1, 2026). Senators Scott and Moody from the CC0 @unitedstates legislators file; Governor DeSantis row carried over (flgov.com disallows Claude agents).
  • standsFor null for everyone. Candidate emails on the SoE page are Cloudflare-obfuscated personal/campaign addresses — not decoded or recorded; campaign websites recorded where the SoE lists them (Bassett, Bruce).
  • Robots/terms: votebrevard.gov ('User-agent: *', no Claude group; /*/ctl/ and admin paths disallowed — not used), melbourneflorida.org ('User-agent: *', council page allowed), flsenate.gov (Crawl-delay 10), flhouse.gov (list page allowed), clerk.house.gov, dos.elections.myflorida.com and geocoding.geo.census.gov (no robots.txt). Blocked: palmbayfl.gov (Akamai 403). No home addresses, phones or personal emails recorded.
s

Sources

Prepared 2026-11-01. Nomination papers are never opened: they carry home addresses. After voting day a candidate list becomes a result; these rows are reconciled, not deleted.