Age
59
Education
Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communications from Elon University in North Carolina Master’s degree in Journalism from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania Juris Doctorate from Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida
Hometown
Lynchburg, VA
County
Pinellas
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/LeelaJGray
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/leelajgray/
Campaign Phone
727-338-8252
Our immigration system is broken because politicians choose partisanship over solutions. Immigrants are vital to our heritage and economy — many have lived here for decades, paying taxes, and supporting the businesses that form Florida's backbone. In Congress, I’ll push for immigration reform that secures our borders and treats immigrants with dignity. The Trump administration’s approach to immigration is not only cruel, but lacks accountability and transparency, and in Congress, I will fight to restore humanity, common sense, and responsibility to the system for the American people.
In 2024, Hurricanes Helene and Milton wreaked catastrophic damage on Florida’s 13th district. Two years later, our neighbors and small businesses are still rebuilding while navigating skyrocketing utilities and tripled property insurance rates. As a coastal community on the front lines, we see that climate change is an immediate economic threat. We must combat this crisis by growing our clean-energy economy and rewarding American businesses that innovate in clean energy technology and resilient infrastructure.
As a retired Brigadier General, I also believe climate change poses a serious risk to our national security. We need a strategy that ensures energy diversity and reduces the threat to our environment. We cannot afford the cost of inaction.
In Congress, I will tackle the cost-of-living crisis by taking on corporations and insurance monopolies driving up homeowners, flood, and health premiums, and passing a real middle-class tax cut.
I will also fight to restore integrity, transparency, and accountability to our government by prosecuting corruption. I will lead to build consensus, rather than engage in partisan politics, to solve our most pressing problems.
I spent 30 years in uniform fighting for our Constitution and the freedoms it bestows on the American people. The freedom to speak out and to make our voices heard by our leaders and our fellow citizens is the bedrock of our democracy. It is what makes America unique, resilient, and the greatest force for liberty in the world. It is what differentiates us from the tyrants and authoritarian adversaries, and it is what truly makes all citizens equal. In our great republic, no Americans’ voice is more important than the next. As I have throughout my life, I will always fight to protect our freedom of speech.
It is the Executive Branch’s role to execute the laws and manage the federal agencies. It is Congress' constitutional responsibility to fund the government and provide oversight to ensure the funding is being properly used and the laws are being executed. This Congress, including FL-13’s current representative, has failed to provide that crucial check and balance to the Executive Branch. We must require oversight that creates transparency and accountability for all agency action, including spending, rulemaking, policy implementation, and federal overreach.
Laws requiring documentary proof of US citizenship for voting burden married women who change their last name, people of color, and service members. Passports are prohibitively expensive, so in Congress, I would push for a federal framework that allows for a wide range of secondary documents to be able to vote, including military IDs, marriage certificates, birth certificates, and divorce documentation. I would push for a federal law that requires states and municipalities to waive all fees for records if the applicant declares it is for voter registration purposes. Nine percent of all Americans do not have access to their birth certificate so any laws requiring proof of citizenship should mandate a provision to allow those people to register without undue burdens in their registration process. We should direct federal and/or state funding for the creation of a plan such as mobile units sent to communities to assist anyone that does not have access to their documents or needs help.
President Trump’s dismantling of the Department of Education is a direct attack on public education in America. In Congress, I’ll fight to restore funding for K-12 public education, work to pay educators a fair, livable salary, and invest in apprenticeship and trade programs for high school students and graduates, so they can graduate with the skills to compete in today’s economy.
Age
65
Education
Bachelor of Science Electrical Engineering
Hometown
New Milford, PA
County
Pinellas
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/johnlicc4c/
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnliccione/
Campaign Phone
443-698-8156
I support a secure, high-tech southern border, investing in ramping up immigration court capacity, humane treatment of those yearning to breathe free in America, and screening out the criminals seeking to do us harm. I'm the son and grandson of Italian immigrants who came to America through Ellis Island in the 30's. If we could do immigration processing humanely and at scale some 9 decades ago, we can do so again. America was once a shining city on a hill, a beacon of freedom to the world. I will support legislation to redirect funding of this ungodly mass deportation system of Stephen Miller by defunding it and redirect funds to combat child sex trafficking and counterintelligence targeting our countries enemies.
Yes it is. After living through back to back hurricanes in 2024 and witnessed the thousands of homes and businesses destroyed, I've seen the finanicial devasation on the beach communities. I'm an engineer, the STEM candidate in my race, and I'll support legislation to increase investments and R&D in clean energy, federal grant's for solar kits for homes and business, in smart-safe nuclear.
Interdicting and ending child sex trafficking and defending our democracy by fighting corruption and defending the integrity of our elections and the voting rights of our people. I propose a National Child Defense Act of 2027 to take $100B from the mass deportation budget and fund a strategic child defense initiative which will provide a multi-agency task for to interdict the Epstein networks, roll up the kingpins and those who enable them, and end this evil scourge. As to democracy defense, I've ALREADY sued Ron DeSantis to roll back his unconsitutional gerrymander map (see Liccione-v-DeSantis, et al, Case No. 26-002751-CI). I did not stand back and stand by while over 100K Pinellas County voters' congressional votes were deported from Pinellas over Tampa Bay into Manatee County. I'm the only candidate fighting this fight and walking my talk.
Freedom of the press/speech is the bedrock of our Constitution. We are watching the takeover of mainstream media by partisn forces and oligarchs with malicious agendas. They've infiltrated our media outlets, radio, local news, national news, much of social media. I write lyrics and perform comedica political satire and have been an independent investigative journalist at RussiLeaks, The Crabber News, and The Bleed on Substack. I marched to the White House during the George Flloyd protests as a USAF veteran for black lives. I marched to the gates of the Russian embassy in 2022 gave a fiery speech into the embassy security cameras where I called Putin a pedophile president, and demanded the Russian people take him out. I operate at the bleeding edge of democracy with my speech, my music, my actions, and through creative acts of non-violence.
Congress has oversight responsibility and exercises influence and governance through the power of the purse, while the President has executive authority. That doesn't extend to Congressionally established independent agencies like the Federal Reserve and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Republicans in Congress have abdicated their responsibility to keep in check a rogue president: They are cowed supplicants to a Putin-compromised president. I'm running to unseat Anna Luna who is the single most Russian-compromised member of Congress. She gives Capitol tours to sanctioned Russian Duma politicans, advocates for Russia, against Ukraine, while taking Chinese Communist Party laundered money through the Tampa iGas Corporation. I'm a veteran USAF/NSA intelligence analyst. I'll serve on the intelligence, defense, judiciary oversight committees. I will use the power of the purse and oversight to impeach and remove Pete Hegseth, Todd Blanch, other corrupt officials.
Requiring proof of US citizenship to vote sounds like a virtue but it is not when it's enacted as a vice with malicious intent. We cannot deny women the right to vote because of a name change, without first having provided a properly funded and resourced phase-in period, over the next decade, so no woman is left behind at the ballot box. We did this with RealID. We can do it with voter registration. We cannot have a knife-edge cutover. The SAVE Act, for which Anna Luna is queen advocate, is a wolf in sheep's clothing. It purports to solve what is a SMALL problem with a big, flashy, draconian, non-democratic law that will hurt millions of woman. We should provide a national hotline, support system, and funding to ensure all American women can vote instead of introducing MORE friction into the democratic process. We should be making it EASIER to vote legally, harder to vote illegally, and prosecute those committing actual at-scale election fraud.
The Dept of Education must be properly funded and set national standards and infrastructure support. I support a national minimum teacher wage for public schools. Here in FL we are 50th in teachers' pay and that's an embarrassment. I support federal grants to ramp up STEM education and to recruit more STEM professionals into the teaching profession. For college, I'm calling for re-establishing FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps where our college age students can learn trades while having a portion of their college education covered for honorable service. I support capping college loan interest rates at 3 percent and advocate for the elemination of the bankruptcy exemption on college loans.
Age
56
Education
FSU - BS Political Science - With a minor in Black Studies. FSU -Masters in African American History
Hometown
Palm Harbor
County
Pinellas
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/brandtforcongress/
Campaign Phone
8137327239
An affordable path to citizenship for green card holders and longtime undocumented residents who live, work, and pay taxes. Citizenship for DACA recipients. Investments in root‑cause solutions abroad. ICE must be abolished for its constitutional and human‑rights violations, and we need a new agency with independent oversight. Trump’s policy is built on the lie that immigrants commit crimes or vote illegally, but immigrants commit far fewer crimes than citizens. 70-80% of ICE detainees are already in the legal immigration process yet are detained without due process. 8 U.S. citizens have been killed, thousands are missing, detainees are being tortured, and there’s no accountability. We’ve spent $38B on mass‑detention real estate while private prisons make billions, yet we’re told we can’t afford healthcare. It’s unconscionable.
Ignoring climate change endangers the economy. Just look at the $2B in damage from Helene and Milton, neither were direct hits. Intense weather is driving insurance costs up, and people are leaving Pinellas because they can’t afford to live here. We’re becoming more vulnerable, not less. Our district lacks resilient infrastructure for a high‑category storm. 80% of our economy is in service and hospitality, so failing to act on climate resiliency is a policy failure that could cost jobs, discourage visitors, and increase departures. We must invest in clean energy, modernized building codes, and innovative development. Neglecting nature, letting polluters off the hook, and paving over green space while flooding worsens makes no sense. Every region has its own disaster, and ignoring resiliency will have long‑term consequences.
Ending Citizens United is essential to addressing the affordability crisis. Unlimited spending by corporations, special interests, foreign actors, and the ultra‑wealthy has produced politicians who rig the rules and make choices that burden working families. It shows up in forever wars, price manipulation across housing, utilities, food, and medicine, and in weak antitrust enforcement as markets consolidate.
Pass the Progressive Caucus’ 10‑bill economic plan, which tackles housing, prescription costs, childcare, worker protections, and more to restore dignity and opportunity.
My mother taught us that the First Amendment is more than law — it’s the freedom of expression and the core of our natural rights, the fire that keeps our democracy alive. It’s the promise that your voice cannot be silenced, the shield that protects every courageous person who speaks against injustice and stands up for the common good. When it’s threatened, we are threatened. We must defend it with everything we’ve got, because it means defending the very soul of who we are as human beings on this land.
Congress holds the constitutional responsibility for overseeing federal agencies. But real oversight only works when we elect more leaders who aren’t bought by corporations or special interests. Pay‑to‑play politics is how we ended up with a Supreme Court that expanded executive power and why agencies like ICE continue violating constitutional and human rights without accountability. To fix oversight, we must first fix who we send to Congress.
The SAVE Act and state versions like Florida’s are built on the bigoted lie that non‑citizens are voting in our elections. That claim is false. Independent studies consistently show that the U.S. runs clean elections. We already show ID to vote, and forcing millions of verified citizens to prove themselves again, at their own expense and time, is anti‑democratic. Our campaign fully supports the advocacy groups pushing back in court and representatives holding strong in Congress. If this law moves forward, we will partner with those same groups to help voters obtain their records and push for the government to fully fund accessible document services.
The federal government has a responsibility to make sure every student in America gets a fair shot across all levels. That means real access to public education and strong, consistent quality in every community. The Department of Education exists to uphold those goals, and it must be fully funded so it can do its job. Equity shouldn’t be optional. Federal oversight is meant to close gaps, protect civil rights, support and ensure that no child’s education depends on their location, condition or income. Access to quality education is foundational to a healthy democracy.
