Five Democrats seek a chance to try to flip a crucial state Senate seat

Florida Democrats see District 9 in Seminole County as one of their best chances to pick up a Republican seat in their quest to retake control of the Senate for the first time in decades.

State Sen. David Simmons is term-limited, and former state Rep. Jason Brodeur faces no opposition in his Republican primary.

But Democrats have a field of five candidates in the mix for their nomination, which will be determined in the Aug. 18 primary.

Who they are

Rick Ashby, 53, of Chuluota, an engineer.

Alexis Carter, 35, of Altamonte Springs, an attorney and former public defender.

H. Alexander Duncan, 40, of Geneva, the former vice chair of the Seminole County Soil and Water Conservation District Board.

Guerdy Remy, 50, of Altamonte Springs, an activist and community organizer.

Patricia Sigman, 53, of Longwood, a labor attorney.

Where they stand

Ashby said the biggest concerns in Florida “are the issues that affect people’s lives,” including health care and a higher minimum wage.

“I want to expand Medicaid and move toward a single-payer health care system,” Ashby said. “[And] people making under $15 an hour can’t support their families. … So the way we create growth is by increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour.”

Carter said one of his first initiatives if elected would be to repair Florida’s unemployment system, and to also “do what we need to do from a legislative standpoint and a local standpoint to get our economy back” from the coronavirus pandemic.

He also wants more scrutiny of police brutality and misconduct from a state level. “There’s so much variation, there’s no consistency as a whole,” he said. “You have to have accountability and transparency.”

Duncan said he wants to “return government control to we the people,” including protecting the environment and “honesty and transparency in government.”

He also called for accessibility, accountability and simplicity in governance. “We complicate a lot of stuff in Tallahassee for the average citizen,” he said.

Remy said she wants to increase the Medicaid waiver threshold amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“I want to make sure we are in a position where, if this lasts until November, that we would have access to health care for those that are already exposed, for those that are going to go home critical,” she said.

She also said funding should be increased for nursing homes, the Department of Education and “our public school system.”

Sigman said expanding Medicaid was her top priority “because that insures nearly 850,000 Floridians, brings over $14 billion in new federal tax dollars to Florida over five years, it creates thousands of good paying health care jobs, and it helps stabilize premiums for those of us are fortunate enough to have private insurance.”

She also wants to protect clean water and the environment and fully fund public education, to “stop the siphoning off of the billions of dollars that are going out of our public school system into for-profit corporate schools.”

Where they differ

Ashby said as an engineer, “I have a different viewpoint than any of my colleagues. … Not only do I respect science and want to create public policy that benefits people [by] looking at data and looking at what the experts say.”

Instead of creating public policy “based on a political calculation, it should be based on science,” Ashby said. “I think I have a unique grasp of what that means and how to get the job done.”

Carter cited his work as a public defender and as an attorney with the military.

“I’ve seen what the government looks like at the federal level, and also know what government looks like at the local level,” Carter said. “So having that broad range of experience equips me to be able to think of pragmatic solutions to the problems that face us. Additionally, I’m not backed by any super PACs [political action committees]. I’m beholden to the people.”

Duncan said he was born and raised in Seminole County and is the only Democrat in the primary with any elected experience.

“I was elected in 2012 to the Seminole Soil and Water Conservation District, and at the time, I set the record for the most votes cast for a Democrat in Seminole County history,” he said. “I think I got just over 87,000 votes. … So I have way more experience than these guys.”

He also cited his founding of the Save Rural Seminole County group and Central Florida Constitution Day and stressed he doesn’t accept PAC money.

Remy said she has “a long resume of being an activist in our community, and a resume doesn’t mean anything if you don’t do anything with it. I’m Haitian American and came here to Florida in 2004 [and realized] the same issues were here that we were dealing with up there … Lack of health care. Lack of education resources. The housing crisis. Minimum wage was very, very low.”

What makes her different, she said, “is that I’ve been battling all this with different organizations like Planned Parenthood and the Hispanic Federation, and I’ve been on the ground lobbying in Tallahassee with these organizations. … [And] I’ve managed to get Republicans to come on the other side.”

Sigman said that as an attorney, “I have been advocating for and have been a strong fighter for people in this district … for decades, not only in their employment, but in the unemployment system as well.”

Her clients include those “who’ve been mistreated because of their age or race or sex or disability or national origin.”

“My ability to understand and connect and fight for the people of this district and represent the people of this district in the Florida Senate is an extension of the work I’ve been doing all these years in the district already,” she said, “and I’m uniquely qualified with my skills and background and education to get up there on day one and be an outstanding senator.”

To read more about the candidates and other election issues, go to orlandosentinel.com/2020. slemongello@orlandosentinel.com

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