Updated March 10, 2026 8:35 PM
Incumbent Lew Crampton defeated challenger John David Corey by a wide margin in Tuesday’s contest for a seat on the Town Council, claiming nearly 58 percent of the vote to Corey’s 42 percent in the town election.
Crampton tallied 1,711 votes to Corey’s 1,245, according to unofficial results posted Tuesday by the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office.
Unofficially, turnout was 40.2 percent of the town’s 7,352 registered voters.
Reached at his campaign party at Renato’s Palm Beach, Crampton said the race was a referendum on the performance of the council during the past eight years, when it faced major challenges including the Covid-19 pandemic, intense development pressures, and unprecedented regional growth and traffic congestion.
“It was a tough race,” Crampton said. “It was long. It was a head-to-head contest. But I do think we won big. My opponent had a lot of energy and went around to a lot of places, as did we. But, in the end, I think we triumphed because we represented a larger swath of public opinion in support of how our town has developed over the past four or five years.”
Corey could not be immediately reached to comment on the election result.
There were 2,956 votes cast, including 1,909 in-person votes and 1,047 mail-in ballots, according to the elections office.
Counting the in-person votes, Crampton easily defeated Corey, 1,147 to 762. The margin was much closer with the mail-in ballots, with Crampton edging past Corey 564-483.
Crampton will be sworn to a new two-year term on the council at the April 14 council meeting.
Crampton, a South End Resident, and Corey, a Midtown resident, were both nominated for the Group 1 council seat at the Town Caucus in December.
Crampton is a four-term council member who is currently president pro tempore of the board. Corey served on the town’s architectural commission from 2016 to 2024 before running unsuccessfully against Bridget Moran for a council seat two years ago.
Traffic and development impacts were the top two issues in the race. Corey ran on a “Residents First!” platform and vowed never to support any commercial development that would intensify land use or add to traffic congestion. Crampton said his judgment and experience made him the best candidate, and that regional growth and other external issues, including the closure of South Ocean Boulevard near Mar-a-Lago for security purposes, are largely responsible for the traffic woes.
Crampton is a former president of the Citizens’ Association of Palm Beach, former vice chairman of the Planning and Zoning Commission, and former president and CEO and emeritus trustee of the Cox Science Center and Aquarium.
Crampton joined the council after defeating Harris S. Fried in the March 2018 town election. He was re-elected without opposition in 2020, 2022 and 2024.
When announcing his candidacy in October, Crampton said he is the only council member who keeps regular office hours for residents, and that he voted to cut the property tax rate by 23 percent during his tenure on the council.
Crampton spearheaded the development of a six-point parking plan to alleviate traffic congestion on the island. During his time on the council, the board oversaw reconstruction of the highly lucrative Town Marina and a new recreation center.
Corey is a real estate portfolio manager and former developer and historic preservationist from Boston.
Shortly after becoming a town resident in 2012, Corey started the resident group Palm Beach Walks to promote safe streets and pedestrian safety. He founded Friends of Lake Drive Park to lobby for the preservation of open space next to the Town Marina when it was under construction.
When announcing his candidacy in October, Corey cited commercial overdevelopment, traffic congestion, intensification and zoning reform as the critical issues facing Palm Beach.
Corey has been a Palm Beach Civic Association director since 2019.
The Civic Association is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization that does not endorse political candidates.
Palm Beach County Supervisor of Election Results
To receive Palm Beach TV, Our Town News, The Civic and more in your inbox sign up HERE.
To sign up for text notifications from Palm Beach Civic Association go HERE.
Breaking News sponsored by:
