Hernando County 2026 election field takes shape for commission, school board seats

Hernando County voters are already looking at a crowded field that could shape taxes, roadwork, school spending and growth decisions long before the ballots are cast. Two Board of County Commissioners seats and three School Board seats were in play in the early field, with the county’s at-large voting system giving every voter a say in both sets of races even though each candidate lives in a specific district.

The commission side is partisan, and the school board contests are nonpartisan, a distinction that will matter as campaign messages sharpen. Hernando County’s five commissioners serve four-year terms and represent the district where they live, while the school board’s current lineup includes Kayce Hawkins, Shannon Rodriguez, Michelle Bonczek, Susan Duval and Mark Johnson.

District 2 is already drawing the most attention. Incumbent Brian Hawkins, first elected on Nov. 8, 2022, has filed to run again. He was joined by three Republican challengers: realtor Silvia Dukes, conservative conservationist Maxwell Glenn and gun shop owner James Scavetta. Dukes had loaned her campaign $20,000 and was the only candidate in the race reporting fundraising at that point. Hawkins won his 2022 primary with 42% of the vote before running unopposed in the general election, and his current term expires in November 2026.

District 4 also has a race forming, with incumbent Jerry Campbell seeking another term and firefighter Marvin Baynham already in the field. On the School Board, District 1 incumbent Mark Johnson is running again, with Anthony Arenz and recently retired Springstead High principal Dana Pearce also in the contest. District 3 incumbent Shannon Rodriguez is also on the ballot again and faces Daniel Dumont, Matthew Impemba and Luciano Vignali. In District 5, Susan Duval was still weighing whether to run again.

The stakes are larger than the candidate list alone. Hernando County’s population was estimated at 221,701 on July 1, 2025, up 14.0% from the April 1, 2020 census base, and the Hernando County School District served 24,015 students across 32 schools in the 2024 school year. That growth is why county races keep circling back to development, traffic, public safety, school capacity and the tax burden that follows.

The calendar is moving quickly. Florida’s primary is Aug. 18, 2026, with the general election set for Nov. 3, 2026. In Hernando County, voter registration and party changes for the primary must be completed by July 20, 2026, and early voting runs Aug. 8-15, 2026. Qualifying for many local and state offices opens at noon on April 20 and closes at noon on April 24, setting up the next phase of a race that will help decide how Brooksville and the rest of Hernando County grow, spend and move over the next four years.