A crowded field is vying for state Senate in this year's elections. But only two of those candidates showed up Friday at a debate sponsored by the Tampa Tiger Bay Club.
One, Fentrice Driskell, the current Florida House minority leader, will face off against fellow Democratic Rep. Michelle Rayner in the August primary. That is for state Senate District 16, which covers Brandon, Riverview and parts of southern Hillsborough County, before crossing Tampa Bay into southern St. Petersburg. It is being vacated by Darryl Rouson, who is term-limited and leaving politics to teach at New College.
The other candidate appearing at the Cuban Club was Democrat Brian Nathan. He'll face Republican Josie Tomkow on the November ballot for state Senate District 14, which covers south Tampa and most of western Hillsborough.
Both candidates came out against Amendment 3. Voters will be asked to raise the homestead exemption for residential property taxes to $250,000 dollars. Backers of the bill say its needed to cut government fat. Driskell said it would limit the ability of local governments to provide services.
"If this passes, so many of our local governments, not just the small ones, are going to have to come to Tallahassee and effectively beg to have their budgets made whole," Driskell said.
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Nathan also came out against the ballot proposal.
"These are all different ways that local governments are gonna have to consider in order to fill these holes in their budget," he said. "We're going to pay these taxes one way or another, be it property taxes, sales tax, consumption tax, a change in millage, or fee for service."
Both candidates also oppose the amendment that will be on the ballot in Hillsborough County this fall to make the appointed school superintendent into an elected position. It would also make the non-partisan school board races partisan.
"Right now our schools do not need to be politicized," Nathan told the audience. "They do not need to be run by someone who has a political agenda who's going to be spending more time worrying, excuse me, about raising money for their next election than delivering for the kids in those schools."
Driskell said there are more important topics to improve education.
"I don't think that this is what parents want by the way," she said. "When I talk to parents about education, what they tell me is that they just want better funding for the schools they want to make sure that they have the option to decide what their kids are reading. They don't want politicians deciding that stuff and they want less politics."
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Since Driskell and Rayner are Democrats — and no Republican is running for this blue district — the Senate District 16 primary on Aug. 18 will be open to all registered voters.
Driskell has represented House District 67 since 2022 and began serving as minority leader in 2023. The district covers parts of east and northeast Hillsborough. She was first elected to the House in 2018 for District 63, which covered north Hillsborough before redistricting in 2022.
Rayner, a civil rights attorney and former public defender, has been in the House since 2020, representing parts of Pinellas and Hillsborough.
Nathan won a special election held in March for the Senate district that was vacated when Jay Collins was appointed as lieutenant governor. He defeated Tomkow by 405 votes — just five votes above one-half of a 1% difference needed for a recount.
