In the last four years, the Legislature has passed laws that have raised costs for families while reducing consumer protections:

• SB 2‑A (2022) — reshaping the property insurance market by limiting homeowners’ ability to challenge insurers and reducing accountability
• SB 7052 (2023) — further limiting litigation options for consumers
• HB 1417 (2023) — blocking local tenant protections, including notice requirements and anti‑price‑gouging measures
• SB 102 “Live Local Act” (2023) — overriding local zoning while failing to ensure affordability for working families
• Utility and energy policies that allow rate increases without meaningful consumer input
• Transportation and toll policies that increase costs for commuters without expanding affordable alternatives

These decisions have contributed to skyrocketing insurance premiums, rising rents, higher utility bills, and increased financial pressure on seniors and working families across Pinellas County.

I oppose policies that raise costs, favor special interests, or shift financial burdens onto everyday Floridians.

I will support and/or sponsor bills that directly lower costs for families, including:

Property Insurance Reform

• Require property insurance rate caps
• Require mediation if an appeal is denied 
• Allow an independent roof inspection if the insurer requires a new roof prior to property insurance renewal
• Restore the ability of homeowners to challenge unfair insurance practices
• Require insurers to justify rate increases with transparent data
• Create a state‑backed reinsurance program that lowers premiums
• Crack down on insurers that delay or deny legitimate claims

Housing Affordability

• Protect renters from algorithm-driven price inflation that lets large landlords raise rent by collaborating together and squeeze out working families
• Allow attainable dwelling units (ADUs) subject to septic tank requirements, site plan reviews, and local rules. These would be for smaller single-family layouts, an additional small home on a large family lot, and attached home options like townhomes, duplexes, and triplexes
• Provide incentives to cities for increasing housing supply
• Provide timelines to speed up review processes
• Restore local authority to enact tenant protections such as notice requirements, anti‑price‑gouging measures, and fair‑chance housing policies
• Require developers receiving state incentives to include truly affordable units
• Expand down‑payment assistance for first‑time homebuyers
• Increase funding for workforce housing near jobs, transit, and schools

Utility and Energy Costs

• Strengthen oversight of utility companies to prevent unnecessary rate hikes
• Expand energy‑efficiency programs that reduce monthly bills
• Support community solar programs that lower costs for renters and homeowners

Grocery Store Sales Tax

• Eliminate sales tax on prepared and packaged foods, paper goods, cleaning products, etc. and pay for this by closing large corporate tax loopholes

Transportation  

• Expand affordable public transit options including investing in a fleet of smaller, more fuel-efficient buses for non-rush hours and for use in neighborhoods where people who live too far to walk to a bus stop can get to a larger bus stop

• Give employers with large numbers of mass-transit reliant employees subsidies and/or tax credits for purchasing buses to shuttle their own employe

 Healthcare and Medicaid

• Protect seniors from rising prescription and healthcare costs through state‑level consumer protections
• Accept Medicaid expansion dollars which will lead to:
  • Hundreds of thousands of working Floridians receiving affordable health coverage
  • Strengthening rural hospitals and reducing medical debt across the state
  • Bringing billions of federal dollars home
  • Lowers insurance premiums
  • Improving overall health outcomes for families.

In recent years, the Legislature has passed laws that restrict reproductive freedom, target LGBTQ+ families, and insert the state into private medical decisions. These include:

• HB 5 (2022) and SB 300 (2023) — restricting abortion access and imposing government control over private medical decisions.
• The “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” expansions (HB 1557 in 2022; HB 1069 in 2023) — limiting how families, teachers, and counselors can support LGBTQ+ students.
• The Stop WOKE Act (HB 7, 2022) — restricting how educators and employers can discuss race, gender, and history.
• HB 1069 (2023) — expanding book challenges and limiting how teachers can address identity.

The Legislature has also weakened community safety by expanding gun access without training or local oversight:

• HB 543 (2023) — creating permit‑less concealed carry with no training requirement.
• Long‑standing firearm preemption laws — preventing cities and counties from adopting local gun safety ordinances tailored to community needs.

These policies remove tools that law enforcement and local leaders once used to reduce gun violence and protect families.

I oppose government intrusion into personal healthcare, family decisions, community safety, and private life.

I will support and/or sponsor bills that return reproductive freedom, safeguard LGBTQ+ families, and ensure personal medical decisions remain between individuals and their doctors — not politicians.

I will also support and/or sponsor common‑sense gun safety legislation, including restoring local authority to enact gun safety ordinances, requiring training and background checks for concealed carry, and giving communities the ability to adopt measures that keep residents safe.

Over the last four years, Florida has passed laws that restrict voting access and reduce local control:

• SB 90 (2021) — restricting vote‑by‑mail, limiting drop boxes, and adding new ID requirements
• SB 524 (2022) — creating the Office of Election Crimes and Security and increasing voter roll purges
• SB 7050 (2023) — further restricting vote‑by‑mail, limiting third‑party voter registration groups, and shifting authority away from county supervisors of elections

These laws have made it harder for seniors, working families, and people with disabilities to vote — especially in counties like Pinellas, where vote‑by‑mail participation is among the highest in the state.

I oppose barriers that make it harder for Floridians to vote and efforts that strip local election officials of control.

I will support and/or sponsor bills that:

• Restore secure drop boxes
• Expand vote‑by‑mail access
• Restore common sense voter ID including student ID cards
• Prevent improper voter purges
• Protect third‑party voter registration groups
• Return election administration authority to local communities

State laws passed in the last four years have reshaped Florida’s education system:

• Stop WOKE Act (HB 7, 2022) — restricting instruction on race, gender, and history
• HB 1467 (2022) — requiring book reviews and enabling mass book removals
• HB 1069 (2023) — expanding censorship rules, restricting pronoun use, and accelerating book challenges
• HB 1 (2023) — creating universal vouchers and diverting public funds to private and religious schools without accountability or disability accommodations 
• SB 266 (2023) — eliminating equity programs in higher education and restricting academic freedom

In Pinellas County, these mandates have forced schools to remove books within five days of a challenge, cover classroom libraries, rewrite curriculum, and eliminate supports that help students and educators feel safe and respected.

Meanwhile, the rapid expansion of vouchers and publicly funded private programs redirects money away from neighborhood public schools — the only schools legally required to serve every child.

I oppose classroom censorship, book bans, political interference in libraries, attacks on public education, and policies that siphon public funds away from public schools.

I will support and/or sponsor bills that:

• Eliminate book bans and protect libraries from political pressure
• Invest in strong public schools that serve every child
• Require charter schools and public schools to be regulated the same way
• Restore programs that promote fairness and inclusion
• Require transparency and accountability for any program using taxpayer dollars including home school programs
• Return decision‑making about classrooms and community programs to local hands
• Increase teacher pay

Recent state actions have weakened environmental protections:

• CS/SB 492 (2025) – allowing developers to buy wetland mitigation credits outside the watershed when local credits are not available breaking the long-standing rule that environmental impact must be offset in the same basin as where the damage occurs
• SB 540 (2023) — allowing developers to sue local governments for protecting wetlands or modifying development proposals
• State‑level wetland permitting rollbacks (2020–2024) — reducing local authority to protect sensitive areas
• Underfunding of coastal resilience programs despite rising storm intensity
• Policies allowing development in vulnerable coastal and wetland areas

These decisions threaten Brooker Creek Preserve, the Anclote River watershed, and coastal communities across Pinellas County which are one of the most flood-prone, built-out counties in Florida.

I oppose rollbacks of environmental safeguards and policies that put short‑term interests ahead of long‑term environmental health.

I will support and/or sponsor bills that:

• Keep mitigation within the same watershed
• Expand or create local or regional mitigation options so developers have credits without exporting restoration elsewhere
• Strengthen coastal resilience and flood mitigation protections
• Protect clean water and reduce pollution
• Preserve wetlands and wildlife habitats
• Prioritize stormwater improvements
• Restore local authority to protect environmentally sensitive areas

The Legislature has repeatedly overridden local governments in Pinellas County — taking away the ability of residents, city councils, school boards, librarians, and election officials to make decisions that fit our communities.

State mandates have:

• Overridden local zoning rules through the Live Local Act (SB 102), forcing cities like St. Petersburg, Largo, and Clearwater to approve high‑density developments even when they conflict with local height limits, traffic plans, or neighborhood protections. This same loss of local control could happen in our district as well, leaving neighborhoods with little say over development that affects traffic, safety, and quality of life.
• Stripped schools and libraries of authority through HB 1467 and HB 1069, requiring Pinellas County Schools to remove books within five days of a challenge and restricting what teachers can teach or say.
• Reduced local election control through SB 90, SB 524, and SB 7050, limiting drop box hours, imposing new vote‑by‑mail restrictions, and shifting authority from the Pinellas Supervisor of Elections to the state.
• Blocked local responses to housing and business needs through HB 1417 and HB 403, preventing cities from enacting tenant protections, regulating short‑term rentals, or setting local business rules.
• Weakened local environmental protections through SB 540, which allows developers to sue cities and counties for denying or modifying development proposals — discouraging local leaders from protecting wetlands, coastal areas, and neighborhood character.

I oppose state preemption that removes decision‑making power from local communities and prevents Pinellas residents from shaping the future of their own neighborhoods, schools, libraries, and elections.

I will support and/or sponsor bills that restore local authority so residents — not distant politicians — decide how our communities grow, how our schools operate, how our elections are run, and how we protect the character and quality of life that make Pinellas County home.