An event portrait photograph showing Sen. Brian Nathan at Westshore Grand Hotel in Tampa, Florida on Aug. 8, 2026. Captured in a centered medium shot inside a banquet hall, Florida State Senator Brian Nathan stands smiling directly at the camera. He wears rectangular eyeglass frames, a full beard, a dark navy suit, a white dress shirt, and a plaid tie in shades of blue, red, and silver with a gold lapel pin attached to his suit jacket, set against a hotel ballroom filled with seated event guests under warm overhead chandelier lighting. — Florida State Sen. Brian Nathan at Westshore Grand Hotel in Tampa, Florida on Aug. 8, 2026. Credit: Dave Decker / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay

For insight into the desperate, worn out Republican election playbook, voters just need to turn on the Devil Rays game. In between innings, the folks supporting former Florida Rep. Josie Tomkow are running an ad built around a photo of State Sen. Brian Nathan snapped by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay photographer Dave Decker.

“The date was May 3,” the ad starts before claiming that Nathan—who shocked Republicans and Democrats alike by winning a special election last March—was walking arm in arm with the local chapter of the PSL, or “Party for Socialism and Liberation.”

In the photo, Nathan, 46, is somehow not wearing Fidel Castro-approved military fatigues or combat boots, instead choosing the same Asics your dad has, worn out blue cargo shorts and a beige t-shirt repping Tampa’s IBEW Local 915. There’s also no Che Guevara beret in sight, although his bald head burning up in the Florida sun would have benefitted from one.

To Republicans, every Democrat—even extreme centrist and former Republican David Jolly— is a pawn in the spooky socialist agenda. And it’s beyond laughable that they chose this photo to paint Nathan as some kind of commie.

That May 3, 2025 event Nathan was “caught” in was in celebration of May Day, a rallying day for union activists who’ve fought for workers rights for more than a century. That International Worker’s Day protest in Ybor City did indeed include the PSL, but it was also organized, in part, by the West Central Florida Labor Council. Are labor organizers socialists now, too?

Florida’s Republican party, desperate to distance itself from Donald Trump, is trying to rebrand itself as the party of the working person, but they can’t even get their facts straight. Even worse, over the last half decade, Florida’s GOP lawmakers have pushed back against increasing the minimum wage, made it illegal for local municipalities to make contractors pay a living wage, and rolled back child labor protections.

Florida Senators also passed SB256, a piece of legislation making it illegal for unions to automatically deduct fees from workers’ paychecks, thus reducing membership; that same bill required public sector unions to have 60% of eligible employees paying dues to be recognized as a union that could even bargain on behalf of workers.

Tomkow, 31, represented two districts during nearly eight years in the Florida Legislature. In 2023, she voted in favor of putting restrictions on public sector unions (SB 256). The year after that, she didn’t vote on the final version of the bill preempting local governments from setting local workplace heat rules, predictive scheduling requirements, and contractor wage or benefit mandates (HB 433). This year, she gave a thumbs up and voted yes on a bill that’s now a law that restructures public sector union recertification, making it harder for public employees (except cops and firefighters) to fight for the best wages and working conditions.

Brian Nathan walks arm-in-arm with workers. That’s not a socialist value, it’s one rooted in the belief that if you do an honest day’s work, you should be able to live a dignified life.

State Senate, District 14 (Hillsborough): Brian Nathan

State Senate, District 18 (Pinellas): Karla Kemp

State Senate, District 20 (Hillsborough): Gerald Baldi

State Senate, District 21 (Pinellas, part): Jordan Hensley