Age
37
Education
University of Pennsylvania
Hometown
Miami
County
Miami-Dade
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/votejmr
Campaign Phone
7863388417
The two most important challenges facing Florida are the cost of living and our public education system. Within my first six months, I will fight to lower the cost of living by expanding our affordable housing supply, strengthening tenant protections, and fully funding the Sadowski Fund (the state’s Affordable Housing Trust) so those dollars actually go to housing instead of being swept by Republicans for other purposes. I will also work to expand access to healthcare, including Medicaid expansion, and push for real property insurance reform that holds insurers accountable and lowers premiums. On education, I will fight to fully fund our public schools, pay teachers the fair wage they have earned, and end Tallahassee's interference in decisions that belong to local school communities. I grew up in this district and returned home after a successful career in business because I believe we need to build a Florida we can afford, and I will fight for that every day in the state House.
I will push back against restrictive measures like these, which create real barriers to voting, especially for women whose legal names have changed through marriage. If such a requirement takes effect in Florida, I will fight to make the necessary documentation, including certified birth and marriage certificates, cost-free and easy to obtain. I will also fight to shift the burden of proof to the state itself, not the voter, by requiring election officials to verify citizenship through existing government records when someone applies to register. No eligible Floridian should be turned away from the ballot box because a document costs too much to replace or is too difficult to access.
Housing is at the center of my campaign. I support a comprehensive approach I call the Florida Affordable Housing Act. First, we must protect and fully fund the state's affordable housing trust funds so those dollars build homes instead of plugging budget holes in Tallahassee. Second, we should create state incentives for faster, more predictable permitting so it costs less and takes less time to build the housing working families need. Third, we should give local governments tools to allow accessory dwelling units, which add gentle density and create naturally affordable rentals. For renters, I support stronger tenant protections, including protections against unfair fees and retaliatory evictions. As a child, my family was evicted from our home, with nowhere to go. I know firsthand the fear families face when they don't know where they will sleep at night. My district has some of the worst cost burdens in America. Solving this crisis is why I am running and it will be my first priory
I support access to abortion, full stop. This decision belongs to a woman and her doctor, not politicians in Tallahassee. Florida's current ban endangers women's health and forces doctors to choose between their patients and their licenses. In 2024, a majority of Floridians voted for Amendment 4, and even though it fell short of the 60 percent threshold, the message was clear: Floridians do not want the government in the exam room. I will vote to repeal the ban, protect access to contraception, and defend the privacy rights guaranteed by our state constitution.
The balance of power between Tallahassee and local governments is badly broken. Republicans in Tallahassee campaign on "small government," then fight for the exact opposite when it comes to local control. For years, the Legislature has chipped away at home rule, stripping communities of the power to make decisions about their own neighborhoods, from zoning to environmental protection to public schools. I believe decisions about a community are best made within that community, not hundreds of miles away on the other side of the state. Tallahassee politicians who have never set foot in our neighborhoods should not be overriding the people who actually live with the consequences. I served as president of my neighborhood association in a historic district, and I have seen firsthand how local voices get steamrolled. I will fight to restore home rule and end the era of state interference.
Florida must face this crisis head-on. The most direct action we can take is Medicaid expansion, which would cover hundreds of thousands of uninsured Floridians and bring billions of our own federal tax dollars back home instead of leaving them on the table. Florida remains one of only ten states that has refused to expand, and our families pay the price. I am the only candidate in this race who has consistently championed Medicaid expansion. Beyond that, healthcare costs cannot be disentangled from the broader affordability crisis. When families are crushed by insurance premiums and rent, they skip checkups, ration medication, and end up in emergency rooms with worse outcomes at higher costs. That is why I am running on a comprehensive affordability agenda: expand Medicaid, lower housing costs, and hold insurance companies accountable. Solving any one of these problems eases the financial stress that keeps Floridians from getting care.
I share the public's view: property insurance is the real crisis. Florida homeowners pay the highest premiums in the nation, and no tax cut can offset an insurance bill that doubles in a few years. Insurance is the line item families cannot control, cannot appeal, and cannot escape, and it is pricing people out of homes they already own. The solution is holding insurance companies accountable. That means requiring transparency on rate increases, stopping insurers from hiding profits in affiliate companies while claiming losses to regulators, strengthening Citizens as a true public option, and making sure companies actually pay claims instead of delaying and denying them. Property taxes, by contrast, fund our schools, hospitals, and first responders; eliminating them would gut services while leaving the real problem untouched. Floridians are right about which bill is breaking them, and in Tallahassee I will fight to lower it.
Age
55
Education
BBA Management and Intl Business FIU, MBA University of Miami
Hometown
Miami
County
Miami Dade County
Florida has become too expensive for too many families. Housing, property insurance, childcare, and healthcare costs are stretching family budgets and forcing people to wonder if they can afford to stay in the communities they love. I've spent my career solving problems in housing, small business, and elder care, and I'm ready to get to work on day one. I'll fight to build more affordable housing faster, lower insurance costs, expand affordable childcare so parents can get back to work, and improve access to healthcare and support for seniors and caregivers. We need practical solutions that lower costs and help everyday Floridians get ahead again - truly move Florida forward!.
Every eligible citizen deserves a fair opportunity to exercise their constitutional right to vote. I will champion a dedicated funding source to ensure that the State has the technology in place to ensure birth certificates, marriage certificates, and other records are affordable, easy to obtain, and accessible in multiple languages. Additionally I will spearhead interstate coordination to reduce friction and delays in accessing records from outside Florida that could be required for registration. Finally, I will support partnerships with local governments and community organizations to form networks for residents to navigate the process so unnecessary barriers do not prevent eligible Floridians from participating in our democracy.
I've spent my career helping solve housing challenges, from turning around struggling condominium communities to working on affordable housing and community development projects across South Florida. Florida needs to build more homes that working families can actually afford. I support expanding financing mechanisms to encourage builders/developers to include housing targeted for affordable housing, repurposing underused properties, and helping local governments cut red tape and neutralize NIMBY’ism so affordable housing can be built faster. We must also strengthen public-private partnerships, encourage transit-oriented development, and expand financing tools for first-time home buyers. I will apply my 40 years of experience in affordable housing, condominium and elder housing to lead on practical solutions that increase housing supply while preserving the neighborhoods people love.
I trust women, not politicians, to make deeply personal healthcare decisions in consultation with their families, their faith, and their doctors. I support restoring access to safe, legal abortion and protecting every person's freedom to make their own reproductive healthcare decisions. Throughout my advocacy with organizations like Ruth's List Florida and Catholics for Choice, I have stood up for reproductive freedom because I believe government should not interfere in private medical decisions. Every Floridian deserves the freedom to access the healthcare they need with dignity, compassion, and respect.
For decades Tallahassee believed that the government works best when it's closest to the people. The erosion of home rule is a reflection of special interests, often from Wall Street and Silicon Valley, using Tallahassee politics to get their way often at the expense of hard working Floridians and small businesses. Local communities understand their own challenges better than politicians in Tallahassee. I believe the state’s role is to set parameters and goals, not prescribe to local governments how to address housing, transportation, resilience, and other community needs. I support restoring a healthier balance that respects home rule while encouraging collaboration between state and local leaders to solve problems instead of imposing one-size-fits-all mandates, especially when they are unfunded.
Healthcare should be affordable and accessible for every Floridian. I support expanding access to coverage, strengthening our healthcare workforce, and protecting programs that seniors, children, and working families rely on. We should invest more in preventive care, community health partnerships, and patient navigators to reduce long-term costs. As someone who cared for my mother through Alzheimer's and now advocates for families facing dementia, I know firsthand how we can bend the cost curve and achieve better health outcomes for Floridians.
Floridians deserve relief from rising costs, but eliminating property taxes is not a responsible solution. Property taxes fund essential local services like public schools, police, fire rescue, parks, our public health systems and libraries. The bigger affordability crisis is property insurance, where families have seen premiums skyrocket with little relief. As a small business owner my own commercial policy jumped from $8,000 to $25,000 in one year! I have talked to dozens of families throughout my district that have opted out of insurance for flood and/or windstorm due to it being unaffordable. As a property manager during Hurricane Andrew I saw first hand the devastation of entire neighborhoods. Florida is ground zero for extreme weather and it is unacceptable to think about the prospect of entire neighborhoods being uninsured and unable to rebuild. I'll fight to hold insurance companies accountable, increase rate setting transparency, invest in resilience and hurricane hardenin
