District 4 covers part of Okaloosa County along Florida's Emerald Coast. The House district map and 2022 plan anchor its boundaries. The district connects Gulf tourism and fishing, defense installations, coastal housing, hospitals, and transportation corridors.
The starting dossier identifies Fort Walton Beach, Destin, Niceville, Mary Esther, Shalimar, Valparaiso, and southern Crestview, along with Ocean City, Wright, Lake Lorraine, Cinco Bayou, Eglin Village, Bluewater Bay, and Wynnehaven Beach. US 98 runs through the coastal corridor; State Road 85 links Fort Walton Beach, Eglin, Niceville, and Crestview. The Mid-Bay Bridge and connector link the Niceville and Destin areas. Destin–Fort Walton Beach Airport is another transportation node.
Choctawhatchee Bay, East Pass, Santa Rosa Sound, Boggy Bayou, and Garniers Bayou connect the district's neighborhoods to fishing, recreation, flood exposure, and habitat decisions. Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou and Henderson Beach state parks add conservation and public-access questions. The district polygon and local boundaries can establish exact overlap for each community, facility, and shoreline.
| Measure | Starting dossier | Data connection |
|---|---|---|
| Florida House seat target | Approximately 179,754 people in the 2020 redistricting cycle | Equal-population target; pair with measured District 4 population |
| Voting-age population | White non-Hispanic roughly 74.5–77%; Hispanic roughly 8.5–10%; Black roughly 6.5–8%; Asian, multiracial, and other roughly 5–6.5% | Join the district polygon to Census blocks and record the vintage |
| Median household income | Roughly $76,000–$82,000 | Add ACS vintage and district-aligned geography |
| Poverty and education | Poverty roughly 9–10.5%; bachelor's degree or higher roughly 36.2% | Compare inland, military-adjacent, and coastal tracts |
| Veteran and military-retiree share | Roughly 19.5–22% | Define the population and denominator before comparing places |
| Party registration | Republican over 54%; Democratic around 20%; NPA and minor parties around 26% | Compare with a dated Florida House-district registration report |
The starting dossier places partisan lean around R+20 to R+24. Census, ACS, registration, and precinct records can show how the military, coastal, and inland parts of the district differ.
The Florida House profile lists Patt Maney (R) as the District 4 representative for the 2024–26 term. His House biography records his 2020 election, prior service as an Okaloosa County judge, and retired Army brigadier-general rank.
The submitted dossier records a 2024 general-election result of 73.5% for Maney and 26.5% for Samuel Chang (67,712 to 24,428 votes), an unopposed major-party contest in 2022, and a 2020 result of 72.2% to 27.8% against John Plante (70,208 to 27,083 votes). District election history provides a comparison point; certified canvasses can anchor the final series. The dossier also names former representatives Matt Gaetz and Mel Ponder as historical officeholders, with election dates and boundaries to be attached separately.
For the 2024–26 term, the House profile lists Maney as chair of the Justice Budget Subcommittee and a member of Budget, Judiciary, Security & Threat Assessment, the Select Committee on Congressional Redistricting, and the Select Committee on Property Taxes. The district research can connect those assignments to specific bills, requests, votes, and appropriations. Veterans treatment courts, mental-health policy, military-base buffers, coastal insurance, and condominium rules are policy threads in the submission; each needs its own dated legislative record.
The dossier names former representative and county commissioner Mel Ponder, Sheriff Eric Aden, the Emerald Coast Association of Realtors, and the Fort Walton Beach and Destin chambers as leads for public-record research. It also proposes Bultman, Boswell, and Kelly family property-history threads. Property records, campaign-finance filings, board memberships, public meetings, and contracts can show whether specific people or organizations connect to a given decision. Shared geography or a surname alone does not establish a relationship.
This page combines the owner's District 4 submission with the linked House map, House profile, and Florida election archive. The graph stores the district's dated claims and connection questions separately from the full text.