Age
65
Education
Puerto Rico Junior College, AA, Criminology and Administration
Hometown
Orlando
County
Orange County
Campaign Phone
321-438-6315
Affordability: Florida families are struggling with rising housing costs, property insurance premiums, utility bills, and the overall cost of living. Within my first six months in office, I will work to lower insurance costs, expand affordable housing, provide property tax relief, support small businesses, and invest in workforce development and infrastructure.
Public Safety: Floridians deserve safe communities and strong emergency response systems. Within my first six months, I will reintroduce legislation creating a statewide Active Shooter Alert System, strengthen disaster preparedness, support law enforcement and first responders, and expand access to mental health resources.
As your State Representative, I will continue my People First approach by delivering practical, bipartisan solutions that improve the lives of Florida families.
Every eligible U.S. citizen should have the opportunity to register and vote without unnecessary barriers. If documentary proof of citizenship becomes required, I would work to ensure that obtaining the necessary documents is affordable, accessible, and efficient.
I would support waiving or reducing fees for certified birth and marriage certificates for voter registration purposes, especially for seniors, low-income residents, veterans, and individuals affected by name changes through marriage or divorce. I would also advocate for partnerships among state agencies, county offices, and community organizations to help residents obtain required documents and navigate the process.
Election integrity and voter access should go hand in hand. We must protect the integrity of our elections while ensuring that every eligible Floridian can exercise their constitutional right to vote.
Florida's affordable housing crisis is affecting working families, seniors, veterans, teachers, first responders, and young professionals. Beyond tax and insurance reform, I support fully funding Florida's affordable housing programs, including the Sadowski Housing Trust Fund, to expand workforce and affordable housing opportunities.
I also support incentives for public-private partnerships to increase the supply of affordable housing, especially near employment centers and transit corridors. We must streamline permitting and reduce unnecessary barriers that delay construction and increase costs.
For renters, I support expanding rental assistance programs and strengthening pathways to homeownership through down payment assistance and first-time homebuyer programs.
I believe these are deeply personal and often difficult decisions that should involve a woman, her family, her faith, and her physician. I support access to abortion in cases involving rape, incest, or when the life or health of the mother is at risk.
I also believe women should have access to quality healthcare, prenatal care, family planning services, and accurate medical information so they can make informed decisions. As a legislator, I will continue to listen to the people of my district, respect individual freedoms, and work to ensure that Florida's laws protect both women and families while recognizing the complexity of these issues.
I believe Florida's state and local governments should work as partners. The state has an important role in establishing consistent statewide standards on major issues, while local governments should retain the flexibility to address the unique needs of their communities.
I support preserving local home rule whenever possible, especially on issues such as housing, transportation, infrastructure, and community development. Local leaders are often in the best position to understand and respond to local challenges.
At the same time, statewide preemption may be appropriate when uniform standards are necessary to protect public safety, ensure consistency, or promote economic stability across Florida.
The goal should be balance, collaboration, and respect between state and local governments to ensure decisions are made at the level closest to the people whenever practical.
Access to affordable healthcare is essential for Florida families, seniors, veterans, and individuals with disabilities. As federal healthcare policies change and Medicaid costs increase, Florida must work to protect access to quality, affordable care.
I support strengthening community health centers, expanding access to telehealth services, and increasing the healthcare workforce, particularly in underserved and rural areas. We must also improve access to mental health services and preventive care to reduce long-term healthcare costs.
Florida should continue working with federal partners to maximize available funding while ensuring Medicaid remains sustainable and focused on those most in need. Our goal should be a healthcare system that is affordable, accessible, and responsive to the needs of all Floridians.
I agree that the cost of property insurance is one of the greatest financial concerns facing Florida homeowners. Many families have seen their insurance premiums increase dramatically, making it difficult to afford and remain in their homes. In some cases, insurance costs have risen faster than property taxes.
Both issues deserve attention, but stabilizing the property insurance market must be a top priority because rising premiums affect homeowners, renters, businesses, and the overall cost of living. I support policies that increase market competition, strengthen consumer protections, combat fraud, and improve transparency and accountability within the insurance industry.
At the same time, I will continue to support meaningful property tax relief for homeowners (my 2022 sponsored bill: HB 13), seniors, veterans, and working families to help make Florida more affordable.
Age
29
Education
Valedictorian of Colonial High School; Bachelor's in Politics from Princeton University; Masters in Public Policy from the University of Oxford
Hometown
Orlando
County
Orange
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/samuelforfl/
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/samuelvilchez/
Campaign Phone
4074592324
The two most important challenges facing Florida are the affordability crisis and the dismantling of public education. Too many families are struggling with rising housing costs, skyrocketing property insurance costs, and the high cost of healthcare. If elected, I will focus on practical solutions that lower costs for working families, including expanding Medicaid, increasing investment in affordable housing programs, and addressing Florida's property insurance crisis through stronger oversight and consumer protections.
Second, we need to strengthen public education. As a graduate of Orange County Public Schools, I know the opportunities that a quality public education can create. We must do more to support students, teachers, and public schools. During my first six months in office, I will advocate for increased investment in public education, better teacher pay and strengthening career training programs that prepare students for success in college and the workforce.
As someone who came to the United States as a political refugee after fleeing political persecution in Venezuela, I understand firsthand how fragile democratic institutions can be and what happens when governments undermine the rights of their citizens. That experience shaped my lifelong commitment to protecting democracy and expanding access to the ballot box. I believe the right to vote is fundamental, and I strongly oppose efforts that make it harder for eligible citizens to register and participate in elections.
If documentary proof of citizenship becomes a requirement for voter registration, I would work closely with local election officials, community organizations, and state agencies to ensure that eligible voters have accessible ways to obtain the documents they need. During my time working at All Voting is Local, I partnered with election administrators across Florida to identify and address barriers to voting. I would use that experience to help those impacted.
Florida families are being priced out of their homes, and state government needs to step up.
First, stop raiding the Sadowski Trust Fund. Floridians voted to dedicate that money to affordable housing; Tallahassee must keep those dollars where they belong.
Second, incentivize developers to build workforce housing by tying state incentives to real affordability requirements that serve working families, teachers, and first responders.
Third, modernize zoning to allow greater density near transit corridors, making it easier and less expensive to build where people need it most.
Fourth, strengthen first-time homebuyer programs so Floridians who work hard can achieve homeownership instead of being priced out.
Finally, local governments know their communities best. Tallahassee shouldn't tie their hands. I will fight to give cities and counties the authority to craft local solutions, whether that's inclusionary zoning, community land trusts, or other tools that fit their needs.
I support a woman's right to choose because I believe these are deeply personal healthcare decisions that should be made by women, their families, and their doctors, not politicians. Florida's six-week ban has effectively stripped that right away, denying many women the ability to decide over their bodies before they even know they are pregnant. It has created dangerous uncertainty for patients and providers alike and put women's health at risk.
I trust women. Full stop. Whether it's a difficult medical circumstance, a personal situation, or simply a woman exercising her right to make decisions about her own body and future, I believe that right must be protected.
In this race, I am the only candidate who unequivocally supports a woman's right to choose. My opponents have either supported Florida's draconian ban or refused to take a clear stand. I won't hedge on this. I am committed to fighting to restore the right to choose for every woman in Florida.
The balance of power between state and local governments in Florida is badly out of balance, and it's hurting communities across the state. Over the past several years, Tallahassee has aggressively used preemption to strip local governments of their ability to address the issues their residents care most about, from wage protections and gun safety measures to vacation rentals and environmental regulations. The result is that locally elected officials, who are closest to the people they serve, are being overruled by state politicians with a one-size-fits-all agenda.
I believe in home rule. Local governments should have the authority to respond to local needs. A policy that makes sense in rural North Florida may not work for Orlando or Miami, and vice versa. Our communities deserve the flexibility to govern themselves.
In the legislature, I will push back against overreaching preemption laws and fight to restore meaningful local control.
Florida families are being squeezed out of healthcare, and Tallahassee has had the power to help. Lowering healthcare costs and increasing access will be a top priority for me.
The most important thing Florida can do right now is expand Medicaid. We are one of the last states that hasn't done it, turning away billions in federal dollars while hundreds of thousands of working Floridians fall into the gap, making too much for Medicaid but too little to afford coverage on their own. Expanding M access is a common sense solution.
We also need to invest in community health centers as they are often the only option for uninsured Floridians, and make sure rural communities aren't left behind as hospitals close and providers leave.
As Washington cuts subsidies and pushes more Medicaid costs onto states, Florida can't just pass that pain on to patients. As someone who grew up on Medicaid, I understand that protecting healthcare access is a basic responsibility to the people we serve.
Florida's property insurance market has essentially collapsed, and families across the state are feeling it. Premiums have doubled and tripled, carriers keep leaving, and Citizens is being asked to carry a load it was never designed to handle.
Fixing Florida's property insurance crisis requires going after the root causes. We need to rein in the insurer practices that have driven carriers out of the market, create real incentives to bring competition back, and ensure that the policies Floridians are paying for actually hold up when a storm hits.
I support targeted property tax relief, including increased homestead exemptions for seniors and first-time homebuyers, but I oppose eliminating property taxes entirely. Property taxes fund essential local services, including schools, public safety, and infrastructure. Eliminating them without a sustainable replacement would undermine local governments and likely shift the tax burden onto working families through higher sales taxes and fees
