2020 Hillsborough County Primary Election Recommendations

On August 18th, 2020 Hillsborough County voters will have three different primary ballots handed to them depending on their party affiliation. We have combed through the best candidates in the primary races and provide our picks below.

It’s important to recognize that The Tampa Bay Young Republicans bylaws as a GOP sanctioned club say the following:

1) We cannot endorse or recommend any Republicans in a Republican Primary race. We provide the candidates and purposefully do not pick sides. For this reason, we’ve also refrained from writing anything about the candidates at this time, and encourage Republican primary voters to do their research and attend TBYR events to hear directly from candidates.

2) We cannot endorse a Democrat running against a Republican. We can however give our recommendations in non-partisan races such as the judicial races, and in Democrat-only or Republican-only elections if they are not a primary race. Any recommendations of Democrats below occurs because there are only other Democrats running in those particular races. We also stuck our trunks in the Democratic primary races as well just because.

 – METHODOLOGY –

The Tampa Bay Young Republican’s executive board is comprised of 15 members who got together, discussed and debated each candidate and their opponents. We came to a majority vote consensus on every race on each ballot, and then presented the slate to our roughly 75 additional members who approved the slate with a majority vote.

 – CRITERIA –

Candidates were judged on the following criteria in order from most important to least important.

1. Candidate is most likely to represent the concerns of 18-40 year old Republicans living in Tampa Bay.
2. Candidate is the most qualified for office and has a track record of honesty and transparency.
3. Candidate has worked with and addressed the Tampa Bay Young Republicans club in the past.

For Democrat-only races:

1. We determined who was LEAST LIKELY to ruin Hillsborough County with awful socialist policies.
2. The Candidate is the least connected to The George Soros-Funded Democratic Party Machine.
3. The Candidate has a history of reaching across the aisle to work with Republicans and/or holds reasonable viewpoints.

 

 – 2020 Hillsborough County TBYR Primary Recommendations –

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Repubican Primary Races (No Recommendations, Just Vote!)

Congressional District 14

Paul Sidney Elliot (R)

Christine T. Quinn (R)

Congressional District 15

Ross Spano (R) – Incumbent

Scott Franklin (R)

State Senate District 21

Jim Boyd (R)

John Manners Houman (R)

Hillsborough County Sheriff

Chad Chronister (R) – Incumbent

Charles Boswell (R)

Board of County Commissioners District 1

Scott Levinson

Tony Morejon

State Representative District 59

Danny Kushmer

Michael Owen

Republican-Only General Races (TBYR Recommendations)

State Committeewoman

April Schiff (R) (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Clarice Henderson (R)

Precinct Committeewoman – Precinct 918

Sally Leete (R) (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Shirley A. Wood (R)

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Non-Partisan Primary Races (TBYR Recommendations)

Circuit Judge, 13th Judicial Circuit Group 9

Kelly Ayers (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

John Schifino

Circuit Judge, 13th Judicial Circuit Group 19

Michael J. Scionti – Incumbent (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Ashley Ivanov

Circuit Judge, 13th Judicial Circuit Group 30

Danny Alvarez (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Helene Daniels

Circuit Judge, 13th Judicial Circuit Group 31

Greg Green (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Gary Dolgin

Scott Bonavita

County Court Judge, Group 7

Bill Yanger  (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Monique Scott

Rickey “Rick” Silverman

Nancy L. Jacobs

School Board District 1

Steve Cona (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Bill Person

Ben Greene

Nadia Combs

School Board District 3

Mitch Thrower (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Alexandra Gilmore

Leo Haggerty

Jennifer Hill

Jessica Vaughn

Rick Warrener

School Board District 5

Henry “Shake” Washington (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Selena Ward

Tammy Shamburger

Elvis Piggott

School Board District 7

Sally A. Harris (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Lynn Gray

Jeffrey Alex James Johnson

Angela Schroden

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Democrat-only Universal Races (TBYR Recommendations – We want to reiterate here that we’re not happy with our options and our party needs to do better to place competitive candidates in these positions)

Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller

Kevin Beckner (D) (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Cindy Stuart (D)

State Representative District 70

Mark Oliver (D) (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Michelle Grimsley (D)

Keisha Bell (D)

Michele K. Rayner (D)

Tax Collector

Nancy C. Milan (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

April Griffin

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Democrat-only Primary Races (TBYR “Recommendations” – Least Likely To Ruin Hillsborough)

Congressional District 15

Jesse Philippe (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Adam Hattersley

Alan Cohn

Board of County Commissioners District 1

Harry Cohen (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Jen McDonald

Board of County Commissioners District 3

Sky U. White (TBYR RECOMMENDS)

Thomas Scott

Frank Reddick

Gwen Myers

Ricardo “Rick” Fernandez

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If you have any questions or comments regarding the TBYR Recommendations please voice your concerns to President@tbyr.com. Get out there and VOTE ON AUGUST 18TH!

Sincerely,

– TBYR Executive Board