Janet Cruz leads Creative Loafing endorsements for Florida Senate

Janet Cruz, mother to Tampa Mayor Jane Castor’s partner Ana Cruz, has a chokehold on her seat, and for good reason. Raised in West Tampa, Cruz is a reliable, albeit center-left, Democrat with a miles-long track record who’s running against a former Green Beret combat medic relying on the fact that he’s a Republican to try and unseat a vaunted incumbent. Good luck.

Like Cruz, Rouson’s 2019 vote to pass Florida toll road expansion is a major sore spot. Rouson has the added stain of taking money from Duke Energy and Amscot in the past, but his support for expanding affordable housing , increased funding for mental health and addiction counseling services, assault rifle bans and the protection Florida springs still makes him a no-brainer against Republican challenger Christina B. Paylan who Florida Politics reports is a convicted felon once charged with fraudulent use of personal information and obtaining a controlled substance by fraud.

District 11: Brian Patrick Moore
District 12 : Veysel Dokur
District 14 : Janet Cruz
District 16 : Darryl Rouson
District 18 : Eunic Ortiz
District 21 : Amaro Lionheart
District 23 : Mike Harvey

See all of Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s election 2022 endorsements on this handy ballot cheat sheet.

This article appears in Oct 20-26, 2022.