PALM BAY, FL (The Palm Bayer) — Incumbents Kenny Johnson and Mike Jaffe secured outright reelection victories in Tuesday’s primary election. Final canvassing results from all 16 Palm Bay precincts confirm both candidates cleared the 50 percent charter threshold, eliminating the need for November runoff elections.
Under Palm Bay municipal charter rules, any candidate securing a simple majority in the August primary wins office outright. Neither Seat 4 nor Seat 5 will appear on the general election ballot on November 3, 2026.
Seat 4: Johnson Retains Seat with 54 Percent Majority
In Seat 4, two-term incumbent Councilman Kenny Johnson earned 9,735 votes (54.0 percent) out of 18,013 total ballots cast. Johnson cleared the required majority threshold by 4.0 percentage points.
Challenger Alfy Agarie placed second with 4,990 votes (27.7 percent). Michael J. Bruyette finished third with 3,288 votes (18.3 percent).
Johnson focused his campaign platform on council oversight, administrative audits, and strict enforcement of developer infrastructure concurrency. Challengers Agarie and Bruyette declined to participate in the pre-election candidate readiness assessment, resulting in blank exam notations under evaluation protocol rules.
Seat 5: Deputy Mayor Jaffe Defeats Challengers with 58.7 Percent
In Seat 5, incumbent Deputy Mayor Mike Jaffe won a full four-year term, receiving 10,738 votes (58.7 percent) out of 18,281 total ballots cast. Jaffe surpassed the charter threshold by 8.7 percentage points.
Santa Isabel Wright took second place with 5,080 votes (27.8 percent). Eduardo Macaya finished third with 2,463 votes (13.5 percent).
Jaffe emphasized fiscal discipline in the Capital Improvement Plan, commitments to public safety collective bargaining, and protection of residential HOA privacy. Jaffe actively opposed extending automated license plate reader surveillance into private residential feeds, following the August 7 emergency suspension and physical hooding of non-compliant Flock cameras across the city.
Wright’s campaign proceeded alongside an active federal civil rights lawsuit against the City of Palm Bay and the Palm Bay Police Department (Case No. 05-2026-CA-032364-XXCA-BC). Macaya centered his platform on municipal road repairs and expanding local sports infrastructure.
Canvassing Mechanics and Turnout Breakdown
Brevard County Supervisor of Elections records show total municipal voter participation reached 101,767 ballots out of 439,576 registered voters, yielding a countywide turnout of 23.15 percent.
Voting methods showed balanced distribution across early and mail-in options. Vote-by-Mail accounted for 37,983 ballots (37.32 percent), Early Voting contributed 30,679 ballots (30.15 percent), and Election Day polling sites tabulated 33,059 ballots (32.48 percent).
Party affiliation among participating voters favored registered Republicans, who cast 58,307 ballots (57.29 percent). Registered Democrats cast 32,362 ballots (31.80 percent), No Party Affiliation (NPA) voters cast 9,633 ballots (9.47 percent), and minor party voters cast 1,465 ballots (1.44 percent).
Primary Source Documentation
Primary Source Document Download: Access the complete side-by-side candidate assessment records: 👉 Download 2026 Candidate Readiness Assessment Master Transcripts (14-Page PDF)
