Stability

Government should see problems coming, not just clean up after them.

District 71 is growing fast, and growth has a way of outrunning the roads, schools, drainage, and emergency services meant to support it. My approach to stability starts from one idea: the state's job is to set a floor that protects communities, not a ceiling that stops them from protecting themselves.

Growth That Pays For Itself

Manatee County doesn't have a growth problem so much as a sequencing problem. New rooftops keep going up before the roads, bridges, drainage, water and sewer capacity, and schools around them are ready to carry the load. I support impact fees and other mechanisms that make new development pay its fair share of the infrastructure it requires, instead of asking current residents to cover the difference later.

That doesn't mean opposing growth. It means being smarter about where the growth goes. I support concentrating new development in places that already have infrastructure, through infill, redevelopment, and mixed-use projects, rather than continuously pushing pipes and pavement further out.

Transportation is part of the same equation. A wider bridge between Bradenton and Palmetto doesn't solve anything if the traffic just backs up in downtown Bradenton on the other side. I support planning that looks at the whole network, expands public transportation and regional rail as a real alternative to driving, and treats safe sidewalks, crossings, and protected bike lanes as core transportation infrastructure, not an afterthought.

Protecting Local Control

I oppose SB 180's restrictions on local land-use authority after a hurricane. Statewide rules should set a minimum standard that every community can count on, not block cities and counties from adopting stronger protections when their own conditions call for it.

That same principle drives my opposition to a proposed cruise terminal near Terra Ceia and the Sunshine Skyway. The concern isn't cruise ships. It's the environmentally damaging dredging and filling a project of that scale would require in and around the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve, one of the region's most important natural buffers. I support keeping that protection strong.

More broadly, I believe Tallahassee should set necessary statewide standards and then get out of the way. Counties and cities are closer to their own problems and should have the authority to solve them.

Ready Before The Storm, Not Just After It

Florida has a habit of paying for disaster recovery instead of investing in disaster prevention. I want to flip that order: stronger stormwater and flood-resilience investment, drainage improvements, and protection of the wetlands and natural systems that absorb storm impact before they ever reach a neighborhood.

On the ground, that means expanding home hardening, free or affordable resilience inspections so families can find out what their home actually needs, mitigation grants based on financial need, affordable financing for everyone else, and insurance discounts that genuinely reflect the risk a homeowner has reduced.

Protecting Natural Florida

Wetlands, aquifers, waterways, and habitat aren't just scenery. They're infrastructure that protects water quality, absorbs stormwater, and keeps the state livable. I support giving the DEP, water-management districts, and wildlife regulators the staff and authority to actually enforce the protections already on the books, closer oversight of phosphate mining so the costs of extraction don't get pushed onto surrounding communities, and stronger action against the runoff pollution reaching Florida's waterways.

I oppose fracking and expanded oil and gas drilling in and around Florida, including offshore and near the Everglades, and support ending pre-harvest sugar burning in favor of cleaner harvesting practices. I also support restoring the public's customary access to Florida's beaches and rebuilding the kind of independent statewide review that used to catch developments with major regional impact before they broke ground.

Energy, And The Honest Answer On Data Centers

I support clean energy and a much bigger role for solar in Florida, from rooftops to parking lots to storage that hardens the grid against outages.

On AI data centers, I'm not interested in a slogan in either direction. Before deciding how much to regulate these facilities, I want real information on the table: water use, electricity demand, cooling methods, land use, infrastructure costs, and the actual local economic benefit, not the projected one. That's why I support disclosure requirements for major data centers and am open to additional water-pricing tiers for extraordinarily large users, so the cost of extraordinary demand doesn't quietly land on everyone else's water bill. Evidence first, then policy, not the other way around.

Third Spaces And Schools That Serve The Whole Community

I talk about this one from experience: young people and seniors alike need places to spend time that don't require spending money. Community, connection, and simply having somewhere to be matter for mental health and belonging, and District 71 doesn't have enough of that kind of space.

One idea I keep coming back to is using schools as community infrastructure: keeping them accessible beyond the school day for tutoring, clubs, recreation, and programs that give the building a second life for the people around it.

That connects directly to how I think about education generally. I support strong, well-funded traditional public schools, with qualified teachers, counselors, and smaller classes where practical, and continuous access to education from K through college or technical training as infrastructure that heads off social and economic problems before they start. I oppose expanding private-school vouchers with public dollars, while supporting real accountability standards for charter schools, which remain public schools operating under a different structure. I oppose book bans and political censorship in classrooms, oppose arming additional school personnel through the School Marshal Program in favor of counselors and evidence-based safety policy, and believe education should build capable, curious, independent people, not just future employees.

Accountability

Power has to be transparent, restrained, and answerable to the people it affects.

District 71 deserves a representative who is actually there, a government they can actually understand, and a political system where showing up for the job doesn't require outside wealth in the first place.

A Full-Time Job For A Full-Time District

I am running to make representing House District 71 my full-time work, not something I fit around a private practice or business on the side. This isn't a jab at anyone else in the race. It's a statement about access: constituents deserve a legislator whose time and attention are actually available to them, not split with an outside career.

Florida's base legislative salary is $29,697 a year, and it has remained there since 2009. That's what the state pays for a job that increasingly demands year-round attention. Florida built its Legislature around the idea of a part-time citizen legislature, but we have outgrown that model. Florida is now the third-largest state in the country, with a massive economy, rapidly growing communities, complicated infrastructure needs, an insurance crisis, environmental challenges, and a state budget measured in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Governing a state this large should not be treated as a side job. There is also a consequence to keeping legislative pay so low: it limits who can realistically afford to serve. If being an effective legislator requires outside wealth, a flexible career, retirement income, or a spouse who can support the household, then we have built a system that filters out working people before they ever get the chance to run. I want a Legislature where teachers, planners, nurses, small-business owners, service workers, and ordinary Floridians can realistically afford to serve their communities. Legislators should be compensated enough to treat representing the people of Florida as the serious public responsibility that it is.

Getting Personal Wealth Out Of The Way Of Public Service

Ordinary donors face contribution limits. Candidates writing checks to their own campaigns generally don't. I see that gap as a structural problem with political access itself, not a judgment on any one candidate's motives, and I support broader campaign-finance reform that addresses the outsized influence of personal wealth, large donors, and outside spending on Florida elections.

I have also made specific commitments on where my own campaign's money comes from. I have pledged to refuse contributions from large insurance interests, utilities, fossil-fuel interests, Big Sugar, Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Banks, payday lenders, the NRA, organizations that advocate privatizing essential public services, and AIPAC.

A Legislature That Works For Voters, Not Around Them

Government shouldn't require insider knowledge to use. I support making it genuinely easier to run for office, contact your representatives, follow legislation, attend meetings, and understand where public money is going, along with stronger disclosure of the conflicts of interest legislators have around their own investments, employment, and family finances.

I support Fair Districts and oppose partisan gerrymandering, because voters should choose their representatives instead of representatives choosing their voters. I support closing the write-in candidate loophole that can quietly shut voters out of an otherwise open primary, and protecting Floridians' right to bring citizen ballot initiatives without the process becoming so burdensome it stops being usable in practice.

I also believe in home rule as a real principle, not a talking point: Tallahassee should set necessary statewide floors, and then let counties and cities handle the responsibilities that belong to them. Government, at every level, should stay in its lane. And I support repealing legislative term limits, on the theory that voters, not an arbitrary clock, should decide when a representative has stopped earning their vote.

Underneath all of this is a simple belief: political will matters. Elected officials should be willing to do the right thing even when it's uncomfortable. Power isn't the goal. Progress is. But power also has to be restrained: having the legal authority to do something doesn't automatically make it the right call, and the government should be able to show people how their voice actually shaped a decision, even when the final answer isn't the one they wanted.

I support Florida finally ratifying the federal Equal Rights Amendment. I support marriage equality and LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections, including equal adoption rights, medically appropriate transgender healthcare, inclusive schools, anti-bullying protections, and banning conversion therapy. I oppose Florida's six-week abortion restriction and believe decisions about pregnancy belong with patients and their healthcare providers. I support legalizing recreational cannabis alongside medical use, and oppose punishing workers for lawful off-duty cannabis use when their job doesn't involve a genuine safety concern.

Ocean supports Florida finally ratifying the federal Equal Rights Amendment. He supports marriage equality and LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections, including equal adoption rights, medically appropriate transgender healthcare, inclusive schools, anti-bullying protections, and banning conversion therapy. He opposes Florida's six-week abortion restriction and believes decisions about pregnancy belong with patients and their healthcare providers. He supports legalizing recreational cannabis alongside medical use, and opposes punishing workers for lawful off-duty cannabis use when their job doesn't involve a genuine safety concern.

I treat privacy as a civil right, supporting stronger protection of medical information and clear limits, authorization, and oversight around government use of surveillance technology, including AI-enabled systems. I support fairer immigration pathways and keeping civil immigration enforcement separate from ordinary public-safety work, so that immigration status never determines whether someone can safely report a crime or ask for help.

On public safety, I support independent civilian oversight of law enforcement, oppose police militarization, and want more situations handled by responders trained for them instead of by default routing everything to an armed officer. I support a full slate of gun-violence prevention measures, including universal background checks, waiting periods, safe-storage requirements, restrictions on large-capacity magazines and assault-style weapons, and repeal of permitless carry and Stand Your Ground. I oppose the death penalty, and support restoring voting and civil rights to people who have completed their sentences.

Affordability

Judge a policy by the total cost of a stable life, not by whether one bill looks smaller in isolation.

Housing, insurance, healthcare, transportation, wages, and taxes don't exist in separate columns. They add up in the same household budget. My affordability agenda treats them that way, because lowering one bill while quietly raising another isn't actually making anyone's life more affordable.

Fixing Florida's Property Insurance Crisis

For a lot of District 71 families, the homeowners insurance bill is the affordability crisis. I support enforceable claim timelines that actually mean something, backed by the staff and consequences to enforce them, and an accessible mediation process so homeowners can resolve legitimate disputes without being forced straight into expensive litigation.

None of that works without a regulator that can do its job, so I support properly funding Florida's insurance oversight agencies. And because prevention should be rewarded, I support free or affordable resilience inspections, need-based home-hardening grants, affordable financing for everyone else, and insurance discounts that actually reflect the risk a homeowner has reduced.

A Full-Time Job Should Be Enough

My starting point on healthcare is simple: someone working full time, or working several part-time jobs that add up to more than full time, shouldn't end up with no coverage and a budget eaten alive by medical bills. I treat healthcare access as inseparable from the affordability conversation, not a side issue.

I believe healthcare is a human right, support expanding Medicaid, and see Florida moving toward universal coverage over time. On the national conversation around Medicare for All, that's a position I'm on record supporting as a long-term direction, while recognizing that the concrete, achievable steps in the meantime happen at the state level. I also support reforming Florida's wrongful-death restriction, often called “Free Kill,” so families don't lose the right to pursue damages simply because of an adult victim's age or family status.

An Economy That Actually Works For Working People

I support wages that reflect what things actually cost, along with stronger protections for the people earning them. That includes the right to organize and collectively bargain, and opposition to state policies designed to weaken unions or make it harder to collect dues. I support paid family, medical, and sick leave, paid vacation, and a stronger overall floor for cost-of-living protections.

I also want Florida's unemployment system to function like it's supposed to: higher benefit amounts, longer benefit periods, less burdensome work-search requirements, real access to representation, and an application system that actually works. And I support protecting public employees' retirement security and expanding access to legal representation for workers pursuing legitimate workers' compensation claims.

Housing People Can Actually Afford

I support building more attainable housing, but not “anything, anywhere.” Where it gets built, what gets built, and whether it's actually affordable all matter. I support mixed-use and infill housing near jobs, transit, and services, which cuts both housing costs and transportation costs at the same time, and stronger affordable and workforce-housing requirements for major developments that receive public support or major approvals.

I'm concerned about bulk corporate ownership of housing crowding out individual buyers, and about large build-to-rent developments turning entire communities into long-term investment portfolios instead of neighborhoods. I support examining limits on corporate home purchases and other tools that keep the door open for people who actually want to own where they live.

On short-term rentals, I draw a real distinction: someone renting out their own home occasionally is not the same thing as an investor running a lodging business across multiple properties. I support restoring local communities' authority to respond to their own housing supply, tourism intensity, and infrastructure limits.

Fair costs, fairly shared

Cheap housing far from jobs and services stops being cheap once you add the commute and a second car payment, so I treat public transit and safe, connected streets as an affordability issue as much as a transportation one. I also support making sure ordinary utility customers aren't quietly subsidizing the extraordinary water, electricity, and infrastructure demands of the largest industrial users, and oppose tax incentives or subsidies handed out without a demonstrated public benefit to show for them.