Incumbent Congressman Allen West has handily won his party’s nomination in the Republican primary in Florida’s U.S. Congressional District 18.

By 9 p.m. on the coast, well-funded West had 74 percent of the vote to Martin County Sheriff Bob Crowder's 26 percent.

Crowder was widely considered a long shot for the nomination, after he alienated himself from much of his party’s conservative base in 2010 when he endorsed Democrat Alex Sink in the 2010 Florida gubernatorial race.

The primary campaign was one of the state’s ugliest. Crowder repeatedly chided West for refusing to publicly debate him, and even accused him of rudeness – in particular, of refusing to shake his hand at a recent joint appearance before the St. Lucie County Republican Executive Committee. Both the West campaign and committee members accused Crowder of lying, and a West spokesman defended the nominee’s refusal to debate Crowder by saying “[t]here will be plenty of time to debate Democrats after the primary.”

West, a founding member of the congressional Tea Party Caucus, commonly considered one of the legislative body's staunchest conservatives, will face off with Democrat environmental services executive Patrick Murphy in the Nov. 6 general election. West has criticized a political ad put out by the American Sunrise super-PAC, which is directed by Murphy’s father. The video depicts West punching a white woman, which West insists evokes racial prejudices. West is Florida's first black Republican congressman since Reconstruction.

Sink did not return Crowder’s 2010 cross-partisanship; she endorsed fellow Democrat Murphy in July.


Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.